Just over a week ago, I wrote a column on an organization created in the wake of the Brian Stow beating to counteract violence among sports fans. A few days later, we saw the need for those organizations increase.
The San Francisco Forty-Niners hosted the NFC Championship. The city let it be known there would be police officers undercover as fans of the opposing New York Giants to prevent more of the threatening and unwelcoming posture that New Orleans Saints fans complained about, but there were a score arrests and over 100 people ejected from the game.
Perhaps some of this is because the game did not go well. But in the days that followed, we found out the kind of lows that fans would sink to. Kyle Williams received more than just hateful comments, but outright threats via Twitter.
Threats like these are from those who lack courage and hide behind the anonymity of the internet and hate on others for doing what they cannot. I have been dealing with them in some variety for almost four years as a blogger, and they are rampant (often with homophobic, misogynistic or even racist overtones) in the sports arena. Most people choose to ignore these desperate attempts at attention by pathetic losers, but that only makes them go further to get what they want.
This is a message I began to preach to Oakland Raiders fans—especially those I know from my own church—as early as Thanksgiving, when most of them revelled in the loss of the rival Niners. I find the attitude of enjoying the suffering of another despicable, and very un-Christian.
I criticized them in a Packers-Raiders preview game for engendering true hatred among more extreme fans, like those who said they did not care about the shootings in the rivalry preseason game because "they were just Niners fans." Just as we in the faith must bear responsibility for not confronting those who misrepresent God like the Westboro Baptist Church, fans should confront extremists within their midst. Many people do not see it that way, but the culture of violence is escalating a I pointed out last week.
This has led to many such incidents nationwide. But there have been more of these incidents involving Bay Area fans than anywhere in the country. Perhaps these recent incidents in sports are a signal that it is time to question whether some of this is from the culture of the area, even though it has a perceived history of hippy love and peace. One of the more alarming statistics is the proliferation of crime in the region: Oakland is sixth nationally in violent crime and Richmond second in murder per capita. Both are top six in overall crime rates.
I come from the oldest rivalry in football, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. I have been at games between the teams and fans were respected. I even went to a Dallas Stars game as a fan of the Minnesota Wild (before moving here and adopting the San Jose Sharks) and was offered someone's free parking pass and congratulated for my team's overtime win.
That has not been my experience in the Bay Area. In one visit in which I proposed to my wife on the scoreboard at the 'Stick, I had a beer thrown on me when the Packers won. In another, I witnessed two Raiders fans harassed not only verbally but with pushing involved just for wearing their jerseys. In my one visit to the Oakland Coliseum, I was threatened for merely wearing my Packers jersey while watching my former hero (before the weight of multiple disgraces) play for the New York Jets.
This attitude can no longer be tolerated even in sports. It permeates into broader and more dangerous areas of society when not confronted. For instance, there is a remarkable amount of hatred within the political realm.
It has hijacked the Occupy Movement that at one time represented a legitimate need to counter an economy in which the top one percent of this society possess more than the bottom 90 percent, a wealth disparity not seen since The Great Depression. (Interesting that we are now in the worst recession since...) At this point, the vandalism and violence of that movement do nothing but harm the original cause.
The same violent spirit has attracted a remarkable number of extremists to the Tea Party movement, diverting it away from a central message of less government and to one of violent action or racism. The misinformation that is accepted as fact by the extremists within is most disturbing. Falsely accusing a president of being a socialist, nazi, Muslim, foreigner or for having made up the killing of Osama bin ladin would never have happened in another time. And much of this is coming from a sect claiming to be Christian that is more focused on their political agenda than how their actions bear witness to a loving God.
People showed up to Sarah Palin speeches with stuffed animal monkeys bearing an "Obama" name tag. California Republican Party cartoons depicting him as a primate. A California politician called for assassination of Obama and his "monkey children" on Twitter. Pointing it out does not constitute playing the "race card" any more than its lack of coverage by mainstream media is indicative of that institutions ficticious "liberal" bent.
Is it any wonder our disenfranchised youth seek to settle disputes violently? Thus, I began working last week on behalf of an organization working to decrease crime and violence in at-risk youth in the Bay Area. If we do not stand against it, we are complicit in its existence.
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