13 May 2008

Wow...Good News At Last...
The Fort Wayne Komets won the IHL's Turner Cup in TRIPLE OVERTIME (that's over FIVE hours of hockey...fans in attendance sure got their money for THOSE tickets last night) in the 7th and deciding game against Port Huron. Justin Hodgman scored the tie-breaker in front of a sellout crowd of 10,462.
Like to see the future Harrison Square ballpark boast any number even CLOSE to that!
Kinda reminds me of the days when the Philadelphia FLYERS won the Stanley Cup (mid-1970s). Ahh, the old BROAD STREET BULLY days. How I miss those.
The Komets also won the Huber Trophy by 32 points, and as the paper stated, was the final brushstroke in a masterful season. I know Greg Shoup (WANE weatherman) is happier than a clam today...lol!
It's always great to see something happen NICE in this town for a change, isn't it?
But...on the "flip" side, however...
And to every YIN there is a YANG.
James Hardy, former IU wide receiver, recently drafted by the Buffalo Bills, reportedly pulled a gun on his father during an argument, according to a police report filed Sunday night (with the football player's named "edited" out).
Officers were called to the 2900 block of Weisser Park Avenue just before 0130 hrs Sunday by a woman who told dispatch that a man was fighting with his father in her backyard. The father was IDed as James W. Hardy, II. The son, listed as a suspect with his name redacted from the report, was listed in police dispatch logs as 21 year-old James Hardy.
Chief York confirmed the younger Hardy was involved, but said that because the father showed no signs of injury, there was no reason to pursue the matter further.
The younger Hardy has a gun permit issued in 2007 and that expires in 2011.
OK, so this guy is BARELY 21, and he just HAS to get a gun permit??? Does this football player fear for his life THAT much? Gee, I didn't think OUR part of town was all THAT bad, according to what the FWPD has said about crime DROPPING the past several years. Could THEY be wrong?
And Chief York is not pursuing the report JUST BECAUSE this is some "star athlete", that is apparently supposed to get the obligatory "slap on the wrist" (as they all seem to do)???
WTF is wrong with this picture?
Do we HAVE to have a CORPSE to make any kind of case here? Maybe Jimmy needs some "anger management" classes. Tony Stewart sure as hell had to take them, and he NEVER pulled ANY gun on ANYONE. Good thing we won't belabor the point that about 60% of the current crop of BASKETBALL players have had serious run-ins with the law. Wonder what the percentage of felonious football players is? Wonder what the ethnic division of such numbers would tell us?
What is it with our society that basically shrugs off behavior such as this?
By doing NOTHING, Chief York is telling everyone that what James did with his father is perfectly OK. Sure, go ahead...pull a gun on good old Dad...just for $hits and grins. No worries, people. Not in Ft. Wayne.
At least it sure SEEMS that way. Maybe revoking the PERMIT for the gun (for several years) would be a nice reminder? I fully understand that no "real" crime was committed, but do we always HAVE TO HAVE a crime (with perhaps a dead body) to make any kind of point these days? Bad behavior has to be chided in some way, or we will reap the consequences on INACTION. Do we have to allow situations like this to remain unresolved until someone gets hurt, and hurt badly?
Well, Rusty, you do what you feel you have to, but don't come around wondering WHY the city is getting the way it is, which is more like Gary and Detroit...kapesh?
In a related story, Megan Stembol of WANE (my favorite although engaged newsbabe) has an interesting 2 part story on the Burden of Proof. The story said it would "surprise" me, but after 10 years down in THIS ghetto-esque part of Fort Wayne, nothing surprises me any longer.
When the police have a suspect and KNOW he's the guilty party, there always has to be PROOF of guilt...that's a given. Read your J. Shame Creamer to figure that one out.
Didn't always used to be that way, and maybe that's why "way back when", a lot more criminals never got off AS EASILY as they seem to today.
Personally, I'm all for the "Punisher" method of settling situations like this, or just call me a graduate of the Judge Roy Bean School of Justice!
And I know for a fact that back in Philadelphia, officers were not above finding a KNOWN KILLER (after all other avenues were exhausted), and planting evidence on him to make a open and shut case to get him off the streets. That is, if he didn't mysteriously turn up dead himself (which would happen from time to time).
It's relatively easy to do something like this, even with the modern technological advancements we have in DNA and forensics. And back then, there was little of that (if any).
Is this morally or ethically right?
Hell no, but there ARE those certain times when justice becomes blinder than usual, and needs a "leg up", as it were.
Hey, if it serves the GREATER GOOD OF A COMMUNITY, perhaps sometimes you have to just "look the other way".
But that's a philosophical issue for another day.
Then there is the D.A.'s office.
Too many times, they look for the slam dunk, the airtight case. It's as though the prosecutors really don't WANT to do the Atticus Finch two-step in any court.
Hell, many of them can't even go toe-to-toe with a first year defense attorney. We have cases tossed because of an "improper search warrant"? Who the hell is issuing this crap, and WHY aren't they learned in what is NEEDED before a warrant is prepped and issued?
Grow some balls, and have at it.
Just because the defense can LIE better than you, doesn't mean you can't LEARN to do likewise.
If that all sounds a bit cynical regarding our judicial system, well, that's the way it pretty much works these days.
You have to be a more convincing LIAR than the other guy...screw the truth (in too many instances). It's still all about "entertainment", instead of justice.
The courtroom IS a (legal) battlefield where war (of the law) IS waged.
And we ALL know that the FIRST casualty in ANY war is always the TRUTH.
And that IS the truth, people.
Learn it, Live it, Love it!

2 comments:

Gloria said...

Just another reason why I hate professional athletes. The only thing they can do is throw a ball farther, or run faster or beat the #$%^ out of someone better than millions of people, and suddenly, they are a law onto themselves. Take away the sports, and they’re thugs. And these idiots get free rides to college, while the rest of us go part-time and pay for each class, or go whole hog and attend classes full-time while digging a giant debt hole we may never get out of.
That being said, I’m glad the Komets won. I’m not saying hockey players are saints, but overall, I think they are the best behaved off the ice, relatively speaking.

Bob G. said...

I've always been a hockey fan...same for race drivers.
Agreed that they are some of the BEST behaved of the bunch.

Then again...there IS Jai Alai, Curling, Bobsledding, Bowling, Professional Pool, Horse racing, and even Golf.
Never seen any of THOSE players get into a fracass...

Wonder why THAT is???

;)

B.G.