Why is that L.A. fans can’t control themselves when at a sporting event. It seems like every time something big happens with our local teams violence breaks out.
Take for example the Lakers. Last year when they won the NBA title at home, fans after the game went nuts. As they left Staples Center fans started started to hurl rocks and bottles at officers, setting fires and jumping on cars. Television news footage showed several people jumping on a taxi as it attempted to leave the area near the arena. Someone opened a rear door of the vehicle, while others rocked it back and forth. The taxi eventually made its way through the crowd and out of the area. Los Angeles city firefighters responded to 37 incidents within a half-mile radius of Staples Center in a three-hour period following the game, spokesman Brian Humphrey said. There were 15 rubbish fires, one vegetation fire, three vehicle fires and 18 medical aid requests for people ill or injured, Humphrey said. Eight people were transported by ambulance to hospitals. Humphrey didn’t know the nature or extent of the injuries, but said some were “quite serious.” One police officer suffered a broken nose after someone threw an object at him, Police Chief Charlie Beck said.
Now at the start of the MLB season a Giants fan attending a game at Dodger Stadium gets beat as he’s leaving to the point that he’s still in a medically induced coma. Thursday April 21 will be the 3 week mark since he’s been in a coma. Still nobody has been caught for the attacks. This guy is 42 with two kids one 12 the other 8. If you were the fan that put him in a coma how could you live with yourself knowing that he may not come out of the coma. On top of all the bad things surrounding this story is the fact that Dodgers GM Frank McCourt wasn’t the first person to offer any money to the family or for the reward. In fact he was the last. The San Francisco Giants put money up before he did.
Lastly the UCLA vs. USC rivalry has also had some violence. Last Year dozens of fans brawled in a Rose Bowl parking lot before the Southern California-UCLA football game Saturday, leaving two men stabbed, two police officers with minor injuries and three men arrested. Police say about 40 fans of both schools fought. The melee began with a pickup football game in the parking lot that turned violent when someone complained they were getting too close to a car. Vimal Patel, a 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton student, was in intensive care at Huntington Memorial Hospital and Joshua Dirling, 27, was stabbed in the cheek, with a knife tip embedded in his cheekbone. Arturo Cisneros, 44, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, police said. Steven Radu, 27, and Joshua Elder, 23, were arrested for investigation of assault on a police officer. The last time the annual rivalry game was held at the Rose Bowl in 2008, there were about 50 arrests, but does not believe any of them were for assault.
