LA Better be glad im not Mayor

[stebo0728]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/06/18/l-a ... continues/

If I were mayor of LA, I would suspend Lakers basketball for one year, and let the people know that if there is any rioting at all regarding gameplay the year after, it will be a 2 year suspension. This is absolutely ridiculous, we are supposed to be the civilized nation in the world. Yet we look for any reason to riot, even when things go our way!

[AZhitman]

What'd you expect?

Punkass thug players, punkass thug fans.

[stebo0728]

Oh I expected no less to be sure ... but my concern is how to address it and stop it ... Lakers ban for a year in my books

[WDRacing]

Meh...I could give 2 s*** about anything that happens in CA. To bad there wasn't some sort of awful fire that consumed the entire state.

[stebo0728]

A fire would only be an improvement out there

[turbonxsx]

drop a nuke on all of California

[srellim234]

My wife was on riot patrol in East L.A. last night. Problems were almost exclusively attributed to intoxicated people. The sheriff's department actually was prepared and did the job. Incidents of broken windows, people jumping on cars and the beatings that were on the news outside of the Staples Center in L.A. occurred mainly over a 2-3 block area of Flower Ave. that LAPD had blocked off and allowed to get out of control. The mayor and the police chief are still patting themselves on the back despite the damage and injuries. Totally unacceptable, but the press sensationalized it out of proportion and you fell for it.

You guys should check your prejudices and short memories at the door. Riots after championship games:

Montreal
Boston
Philadelphia
Indianapolis after IU won NCAA
etc, etc, etc.

Doesn't justify it, but quit acting as if it's only in California.

[WDRacing]

The prejudices don't just come from riots Steve...lol. I didn't know your wife was an officer?

[stebo0728]

Im not prejudiced, I hate em all the same ... seriously, you are correct that other towns experience the same thing, in Atlanta we used to have Freaknik, a festival of gang raping and vandalizing, we finally got a mayor with balls enough (female) to put a stop to it. I think if I were mayor, or whatever, of any of the places you listed I would have the same reaction to fan riots. Something to consider to though is what percentage of fans attending were actually participating. If it were like 5% or so, and there was a ban, the 95% would most likely make sure the other 5% behaved once the ban was lifted.

[srellim234]

The prejudices don't just come from riots Steve...lol. I didn't know your wife was an officer?

My wife is L.A.Sheriff's deputy, currently vice squad. 19 years.

Like I said, almost all the instigators were drunk. I would guess that less than 1% of them actually attended the game or are really fans. For the most part they were guys who were looking for an excuse to get drunk and act up in a crowd where they could get away with it without being identified.

[AZhitman]

Props to the wife. She has a fan out here in AZ.

I don't care WHERE else it's ever happened. I'll take every opportunity to shine a bright light on the idiocy and subhuman behavior of Californians any chance I get. It's no surprise local LEO's are proud of their "accomplishments" - they're confining the damages to the worst parts of the city (the parts no one cares about anyway).

Yet they critique us for enforcing immigration law. Stay classy, CA.

[turbonxsx]

HA HA stay classy San Diego

[mattblancarte]

You guys should check your prejudices and short memories at the door. Riots after championship games:

Montreal
Boston
Philadelphia
Indianapolis after IU won NCAA
etc, etc, etc.

Doesn't justify it, but quit acting as if it's only in California.

Agreed.

Stebo... would you really want to punish millions of fans and reduce revenue for the city (both public and private), simply because a relative few drunk people got out of hand after the Lakers won? Do you realize you're talking about less than .1% of Lakers fans being involved in this riot?

Im not prejudiced, I hate em all the same ...

I think you've exposed yourself here. This is completely irrational, as was your reaction to the riots. Sorry man.

[stebo0728]

Well i was being facetious regarding hating them all of course ...

And yes at some point something needs to be done to show people that this kind of behavior is not to be tolerated. Overreattion maybe, but ignoring and excusing the problem doesnt help either.

[AZhitman]

Stebo... would you really want to punish millions of residents and reduce revenue for the city (both public and private), simply because a relative few uninformed morons don't like a law that was passed by another state? Do you realize you're talking about less than .1% of CA ersidents being involved in this "boycott"?

FTFY.

Yeah, sorry if I don't have much sympathy for any whining coming from LA.

[mattblancarte]

It's hard to really go farther than sending hordes of police officers and Sheriff's deputies in riot gear. Anything more would be punishing people/organizations that are not at fault. I'm sure that law enforcement was more than happy to clock some overtime, too.

The Lakers' win didn't cause the riot. Drunk morons caused it. Arrests were made, the situation was diffused. Life goes on.

The problem was alcohol, but as history shows, we can't make that illegal without DIRE consequences.

[mattblancarte]

Yeah, sorry if I don't have much sympathy for any whining coming from LA.

Totally agree that CA leadership's stance and public sentiment regarding immigration law in AZ is just plain stupid.

Politics at play normally are, though.

[stebo0728]

Have any siblings? Ever been punished as a group cause 1 stupid brother did something? Same principle, and going out, the people who suffered unnecessarily will be sure to help regulate the stupid few.

[mattblancarte]

Yes, I have three brothers. One older, and two younger. Actually, yes, I did face unreasonable punishment due to their actions on rare occasions.

For example, my parents literally banned having birthday parties when I was in fifth grade because of an incident that occurred at my older brother's birthday party.

My older bro had six or seven buddies sleep over, and all hell erupted when one of the seventh grade guys body slammed another guy while they were playing around. The slammed kid claimed he couldn't move, my parents had to call 911 at 11PM, and all that fun stuff.

In the end, the slammed kid was perfectly fine, but his parents SUED the parents of the kid did the slamming. They also threatened to sue my parents.

I was ridiculously upset and pissed off at my parents when they told me I could have three friends to my party, and that was the limit.

After one year of that, my parents realized how unjust and unfair they were being, and they didn't limit friends (within reason, of course) coming to birthday parties.

Guess how many other incidents at parties we had? Zero.

In cases where a younger brother did something out of line, sure, the older bros. would "regulate." By regulate, I mean beat the crap out of. It's called pecking order.

We send in law enforcement with riot gear to be our "older brothers" in these riot scenarios. I say they did their job.

I highly doubt that the few people that suffered in this scenario would support the cancellation of an entire Lakers NBA season because some drunken fans lost their minds.

[mattblancarte]

Look at this amazing gathering to celebrate their championship. Do you really want to punish this city and the good fans in this video?

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/playo ... ef:nbahpt1

Disclaimer: I'm a Lakers fan and watched pretty much every game of theirs during the playoffs.