You might, perhaps, possibly, conceivably have a point, except for the fact that Artest attacked the wrong guy.

Wow, you're the only conservative blogger I read who's taken that position.

But yeah Artest did attack the wrong guy. And it's hard to defend Artest - he's such a knucklehead. But those fans that went onto the court - they definitely deserved what they got.

Fans who go onto the field of play deserve to get whatever is coming to them. Jail time should also be added. We should go to greater use of videotape to monitor fan behavior, a security system not unlike that at a Vegas casino could be employed. It would even be easier, because entrance and egress from the stadium is already well monitored. If a fan in seat 3 Row 9 in section 135 throws something on the field, it should be a simple matter for security to have his smiling face on Candid Camera and arrest him as he goes for another beer.

Jail time should be mandatory for people who run onto the field during the game. The idiot who ran on Shea Stadium during a Met game this past season is a frequent customer of the bar where I go to watch football on Sunday. Since the arrest and conviction, he has been treated like a minor celebrity by his peer group, and is completely unrepentant. I think if he spent a few months on Rikers Island roomed with a large Black man convicted of a few violent felonies, his attitude might experience a significant adjustment.

Another option is separating fans from the field with Plexiglass, or even the kind of netting that keeps foul balls from killing people seated behind home plate. Police can observe if anyone tries to climb the netting and summarily arrest them. If someone complains, remind him that in continental Europe the standard means of keeping fans off the field is barbed wire, accompanied by armed police with German Shepherds.

The players should never go into the stands. For one thing, you never know who has a knife or a gun.

Players should NOT go into the stands. The proper response is to point out to security personnel the general area from which the offending and oh-so-dangerous cup came. Let them handle it, it's why they are there in the first place.

If Artest does that, the whole fight doesn't happen, security takes control, a whole bunch of suspensions don't happen, the NBA gets ZERO bad publicity, and as a bonus, we all don't have to listen to over-the-top whining about race/class/money divides, and presuming they were all drunk.

Pundits like to look for harbingers all the time. Sometimes, it really is just a couple of idiots in the same place at the same time, and stuff happens.

Jeff:

And what happens to those wealthy white fans in the criminal justice system?

oj,

If it were up to me, they get jail time in real jails.

And for the most part these are not wealthy people, they are usually a kind of lower middle-class/working class dirtbag who given a choice paying his child support or buying those Piston tickets will do the latter.

Bart:

You know what courtside seats for sporting events cost these days?

Sure do.

And these people weren't courtside. They were in the regular stands, as occurs most of the time when trouble happens. Fights are almost always in the cheap seats.

The only courtside issues occur when some idiot celebrity like Spike Lee or Calvin Klein decides to run on the court like he owns the place, but these are rare.

By contrast, the people who throw stuff at players come from the upper deck or several rows back as was the case in Detroit. The cup thrower was not courtside. And people will go into hock to buy those tickets for a game, in order to behave like a jerk. Do you remember the two trailer park denizens, father and son with matching cheap tattoos, who jumped the first base coach in a Cub game a while back?

Bart:

Very much the point--nothing happened to them:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2003/08/06/ligue_probation_ap/

oj,

It is true that they got a slap on the wrist because of some clown in robes in Chicago. However, it is quite clear that the vast majority of sports fans believe that these people deserve jail time and the laws are changing, as the article you cite shows.

"Why shouldn't someone who throws an object at a player have the stuffing beaten out of him?"

Still haven't answered the question of why someone who didn't, should.

Bart:

They got off.

oj: It doesn't matter that they got off. It doesn't matter that JD Drew had batteries thrown at him in Philly, or that angry fans throw things on many occasions. All that matters in this case is that Artest ATTACKED THE WRONG GUY!

What does that have to do with the point of the post?

Because Mr. Artest thought Mr. Goofy-looking-guy was the one who threw the cup, and therefore richly deserved a beating. Mr. Artest was incorrect. Had Mr. Artest shown an ounce of self-restraint, the correct assailant may have been identified by security and punished with an absurdly light slap on the wrist, though given the fact that this was on national television, one would do well to remember the Jets game in the Meadowlands a few years back where Mr. Idiot-throwing-snowballs was subject to public ridicule as well as losing ticket privileges to future games (the NFL is MUCH more punitive about these things--some stadiums even have courts in open session in the bowels of the stadium). Had nothing been done by security, I guarantee the NBA Players Association could have gotten significant public support by pointing out the intolerable situation, even to the point of threatening to boycott games if their safety is not protected.

All Mr. Artest accomplished is to make Mr. Goofy-looking-guy a very wealthy man as soon as their lawyers have a nice little chat.

They've never gotten any support before. You really think it matters which guy threw the cup in the criticism directed at Artest?

"You really think it matters which guy threw the cup in the criticism directed at Artest?"

Absolutely. Many current and former players have been defending Artest, saying things like "Some puny guy would never throw something at you on the street, because he'd know the consequences, but in the crowd they think they can get away with anything..." The reason this has gotten no traction with the public or the media is that Artest ATTACKED THE WRONG GUY.

When Vernon Maxwell went into the crowd several years ago to attack a heckler who (allegedly) ridiculed him about the death of his infant daughter, he was suspended because he broke the fundamental rule that you cannot go into the stands, but the criticism was nowhere near what Artest is getting. Had he instead attacked the guy next to the heckler he would have been suspended at least as long as Artest.

brian:

Tell it to Kermit Washington.