Hold Your Wallet and Watch Your Back

Disgusting. Despicable. Heinous. All are words that have been used to describe the recent atrocity that took place in section three of the parking lot after the Dodgers opening night victory over the rival Giants.

Bryan Stow, a 40-year-old Santa Cruz paramedic and Giants fan, who had traveled South to root his team on, according to reports, was attacked from behind by two assailants dressed in Dodgers attire. The result of the altercation ended up with Stow in a medically-induced coma at USC Medical Center.

It is apparent that due to the cataclysm, the Dodgers are going to step up their security measures. Many argue McCourt and Co. should have been ahead of the curve in this department of fan safety – but then again, McCourt is an out-of-town slime-ball that is sucking the money and life out of the franchise, while currently being engulfed in a bitter divorce that disputes millions. How would he have enough leadership and gumption to be on top of something like this, right? Wrong.

At a Thursday press conference, L.A.P.D. police chief Charlie Beck said, “there’s a home-stand next week. If you go to that home-stand, there’s going to be a sea of blue – and its not going to be Dodger blue, its going to be L.A.P.D. blue.”

Mayor Antonio Villariagosa then followed, “we are encouraging the Dodgers organization to create and enforce a strict fan code of responsibility.”

Due to the lack of being proactive, the Dodgers have been prudently reactive in hiring former L.A.P.D. Police Chief William Bratton to head up their security team for the remainder of the season.

This tragic crime has certainly resulted in a shiner on Dodger fans in the eyes of fans everywhere. However, it should be realized that hundreds of thousands of Dodger fans grace Chavez Ravine every year, and this instance is the result of the belligerency of only a couple.

Just because a two inebriated thugs engaged in something flagrant and utterly disgraceful doesn’t mean the other 99.999% of Dodger fans are fine, upstanding, non-violent supporters. Let’s not overreact and start to generalize. This is a ‘fraction of a fraction of a fraction’ thing, not necessarily a Dodger fan thing.

In saying this, I am careful not to downplay the severity of the situation and the cowardice of the abomination that took place. It seems though, that sympathy for the gambit has erratically skewed what are being roundly speculated as the facts.

Every report is making Stow out to be a completely innocent victim, when no one credible has come forward to reveal what actually instigated the altercation. What is being reported should be filed and documented as nothing but hearsay.

If we knew every intimate detail of the situation and there were solid witnesses that could describe the debacle, wouldn’t the aggressors conceivably be in custody, and wouldn’t the bounty, that has now risen to $150,000, already be collected?

What I am attempting to get at is the other side of the story, the reputedly taboo version of logical possibility.

There is nothing factual that indisputably backs up the concept that Stow was an ‘100% innocent fan,’ simply walking back to his car and was somehow randomly beaten. That idea is pure speculation.

It is hard for me to believe that the felons in question, beat Stow within an inch of his life simply out of the blue.

It is more reasonable to assume that there was an exchange between the parties that lead to the mauling. Chances are extremely low that the attack was unprovoked.

Let it be understood that I don’t condone the batter that took place for one second, but at the same time, I don’t alone blame the unfortunate incident on the lack of awareness by the one who was marked as the sucker by these degenerates.

If words were traded, the “visitor” needs to know that he should have had his radar of potential terrorism at a level beyond fire-red.

You need to know where you are, and most importantly when and why you are.

If you say something in someone else’s house when you happen to be at the ‘tippy-top,’ and at the same time, your bitter rival is feeling lower than low, more times than not, there is going to be some kind of attempt at consequences.

And even if Stow wasn’t the one to say something first, any experienced fan knows when you are in a Dodger-bear’s cave wearing a meat jacket of black and orange, you need take your verbal beating with a smile and chalk it up as a wild trek into uncharted waters.

Even Columbus didn’t question or try to challenge the strange nature of what he saw on the high-seas of the Atlantic, he simply wrote it down in his journal as a curious visitor.

This is part of being a fan. Being on the road is obviously more of a dangerous proposition than being in your black and orange snuggie in the friendly confines of the bay at the corner of King and 3rd.

I equate it to looming too close to an angry pit bull and his entrapping pen. If you are idiotic enough to have the nerve to fall into the game of antagonizing, and in-turn, further leave yourself open to a dreadful situation, chances are that angry animal will topple the fence right over.

I see the calamity as not only an unforgivable act that deserves decades of prison sentences from its supposed provokers, but I also see it as a lack of recognition of time and place from the victim.

This is the big, big city.

When you walk in a crowded area, it is a good idea to take your wallet out of your back pocket and hold it with your hand in your front compartment.  When you reveal money, it is a good idea to hold it close to the vest and take a look around.  And most especially, if you happen to somehow engage in a verbal dispute, you need to have your head on a swivel and your eyes in the back of it for the remainder of the your time around the presence of the potential enemy.  Yes, this includes the parking lot as you overlook downtown. Don’t be memorized by the gleam of the high-rises in the distance for a second.

I don’t condone the catastrophe at any level, but the sad fact remains – this is the unforgiving world we live in. There are foul and repulsive monsters out there, regardless of what color they wear – blue, white, orange or black.

Let this woebegone episode serve as a lesson to fans everywhere – sometimes the distance between the oblivious ideal and the actual brass tacks is a vast space that demands an extended amount of encompassing perception and recognition.

Hold your wallet and watch your back.