Over the past year, fan violence has been escalating. In addition to the shootings at Candlestick Park covered in this column back in August, there have been incidents affecting Bay Area fans in Los Angeles in April and a shooting last week in Georgia. That incident was only the second major one this month, as another fan fight occurred after the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers Winter Classic outside Geno's, Philadelphia's famous stop for Cheesesteak sandwiches.
This is the kind of senseless violence that bring attention to the breakdown of society scriptures elude to in the final days. But that does not mean there is nothing we can do about it. Fans Against Violence is one organization in the area working to counter this more violent element in our culture. It should be noted that while the organization's efforts may correspond to Christian values, the organization itself has no religious affiliation.
I asked the following questions about the organization of its founder, Kathy Samoun:
1. When was your organization founded and what prompted it?
We started our organization in Early September 2011. When we originally
heard about the Bryan Stow beating, we were appalled by this act of
violence. Then when the shootings and fighting occurred at the Battle of
the Bay we decided it was time for us as fans to do something about it and
try to bring some awareness to the issue and hopefully effect some change.
2. What is your mission statement and what steps have you taken to achieve
those goals?
Mission Statement:
It is FAVs mission to encourage fan safety at professional sporting events
through education, discussion and partnerships with like-minded
organizations. We believe that attending sporting events is an act of
fellowship and community between fans, and that each person who attends a
professional sporting event should feel safe and be protected by the hosting
facility and franchise.
FAV is a fan based organization. We represent and include all fan bases and
promote friendly rivalries. Stereotypes and misconceptions have played an
adverse role within rivalries, increasing and encouraging hostility between
opposing fans. Through our mission, we hope to provide fans a platform where
this hostility can be diffused. Quite simply, we are all far more alike
than we realize. If we don't work together to improve the climate of our
sporting events, the leagues, venues, and government will impose further
limits and regulations upon us.
As we are a new organization, we are still very limited in our abilities to
effect change. We have however received a tremendous amount of support from
fan bases across the country. We try to get the word out as much as
possible through social media, our website and attending events hosted by
different organizations.
3. How many members do you have and how can readers join?
Between our website and social media we currently have approximately 1000
members who have signed up for updates organization. If someone is
interesting in joining they can go to www.fansagainstviolence.org or like
our facebook page at www.facebook.com/fansagainstviolence. They can also
follow us on twitter @FansAV.
4. What do you see as the primary obstacles to your mission, amongst fans,
athletes and society at large?
This is really a tough one as there are so many contributing factors that it
is hard to pinpoint even a few. We would like to believe that "most" fans
are just that..fans of the sport. They go to events to enjoy the game with
their friends and family. There are however bad elements in every fan base.
It has to starts with the fans being more aware and end with each and every
venue and team doing what they can to ensure the safety of their fans.
Although security, since the recent events, has been looked at and in some
cases improved, there are many things that can be done by the venues to
create a safer environment. Just an example, on 9/11, a Jets fan was able
to bring a taser into a game and ended up using it at a game where President
Bush was in attendance. This should NEVER have happened, regardless of who
was there..but the fact that the President was there and someone was able to
smuggle this into a game is a huge security issue.
Another obstacle to our mission is alcohol and "money". The leagues make a
tremendous amount of money off of sponsorship and sale of alcohol at
sporting events. It is obvious that alcohol plays a big part in many acts
of violence. Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to think they will stop
selling alcohol at sporting events because the loss of income would be too
great.
I could go on and on. Basically it boils down to awareness. For every act
of violence we hear about in the news there are countless that we do not
hear about. The best way for us to affect change is to keep this issue in
the forefront.
5. Tell us about your primary accomplishments and anything else you feel we
need to know about you...=
I believe our primary accomplishment so far is the number of people who have
reached out and volunteered their time and efforts in growing our
organization and bringing awareness to fans nationwide. This started out as
a few fans wanting to make a change and has grown into amazing organization.
If the only thing we do is help ONE person to avoid a situation that could
end in tragedy, it is well worth all the time and effort!
Comments