Those Brooklyn cops wouldn't have used Tasers

Do you think any goofball fan will ever run on to the field in Philadelphia again?

The photos and video of the kid getting himself Tasered out in short left field Monday night during the Phillies’ game with the Cardinals are all around the Internet now.

The 17-year-old knucklehead went down like a bag of groceries falling off the counter when he got zapped.

There’s all kinds of hand-wringing now about “excessive use of force’’ and so on, but there’s zero sympathy here for the kid. You sometimes need to learn the hard way and he presumably has learned his lesson. Anybody who sees the video might be persuaded that staying in the stands makes more sense. Less painful, too.

There’s a rich history of fannus interruptus in pro sports games and the culprits, usually but not always drunk, usually end up with a good beating at some point. They say they would get rubber hoses across the ribs in old Yankee Stadium, under the stands.

There was a famous NFL case in 1971 concerning a Baltimore Colts linebacker named Mike Curtis, whose nickname was Mad Dog. Curtis was a great linebacker who should be in the Hall of Fame, but had a nutty side. On day in old Memorial Stadium a drunk ran on to the field, picked up the football and started to run. Curtis coiled and absolutely levelled him. He said he, as a taxpaying citizen of Baltimore, was merely helping enforce city ordinances.

There are milder responses to invading fans, of course. One time David Beckham kicked the soccer ball at a streaker who came calling. Another time two war protesters ran on to the field at Dodgers Stadium and tried to light a U.S. flag on fire. Rick Monday, playing centre field for the Cubs, ran over and scooped up the flag while they fumbled with the matches, thus earning himself a lifetime of ovations – and a trade to the Dodgers that off-season. (Ask Expo fans how that all turned out.)

One fan-on-field case merits special interest. It involved the Brooklyn Dodgers and a very much despised umpire named George Magerkurth, whose run-ins with Dodgers manager Leo Durocher were legendary. So hated was Magerkurth in Brooklyn that when the Dodgers won the 1941 pennant and held a victory parade, one of the “floats’’ was a coffin supplied by a local funeral home with a sign on it that simply said “Magerkurth.”

Late in that ’41 season, a call by Magerkurth went against the Dodgers and a crazed fan named Frank Gernano leapt from the stands, blindsided the ump, knocked him down and proceeded to sit on him and punch the hell out of him. The fans went crazy, of course.

It turned out Gernano was working for a pickpocket ring to create a diversion and while he wailed away at the hated ump, his confederates were lifting wallets all around the ballpark.

Seeing who the victim was, the Brooklyn cops probably wouldn’t have Tasered him, even if they’d known what one was.

Comments

[tasered]

I agree! Zero tolerance! I hope the kid is charged and convicted. Fans are paying to watch a baseball game. Looks like a Phillie fan. Perhaps MLB & players should force the teams to put in better ways to stop fans from interrupting the game.

[Goran]

Well done, officer. Stay off the field punks!

[donald]

I think that is horrible and there was no need for that, i do have sympathy for the kid, it was not the situation for a taser there were other ways to stop the kid.

[Ian G.]

I see what you mean, but it is excessive force no matter how you look at it. They could as an alternative hire snipers to shoot at streaking fans.

I think a better remedy would be to increase fines to those who run onto the field or do some type of community service.

[JT]

No sympathy from me either. Dumb kid needs to learn his lesson.

[Easy Writer]

Then there's wrestling fans.

At a night of the then-WWF in Vancouver, the best fight was saved for the end. Right after the main card ran its course, a drunk fan ran out of the crowd and took center stage in the middle of the ring. He jumped, he hollered, he whooped it up and stood on the turnbuckles, flexing his finest Hulk Hogan. The crowd went wild. They went wilder when security descended. The first guard went in alone and charged at the fan in an attempt to tackle him. Not missing a beat, the fan locked-up the head of the security guards in an immaculate DDT and dropped him like a sack of sack of wet concrete. The crowd went wilder. The security guard was out like a light. And somewhere Jake the Snake shed a tear. Then about 10 security guards went after the guy simultaneously and beat the living shit out of him in front of 15,000 fans.

Everyone went home satisfied.

[Wayne]

The kid is an moron stay off the field you don't get tasered, another fool seeking 15 minutes of fame got his just desserts.

[ts]

How can you possibly, after the murder of several innocent people with tasers, be so flippant about its flagrant and unnecessary use? Would you be so smug about Robert Dziekanski's ordeal if he hadn't died? Would you chuckle about how this was a lesson for all those people who would act "inappropriately" at an airport?

Tasers are weapons. They are *ONLY* to be used in circumstances that should replace guns (ie. to prevent harm). Not crowd control. Thanks for making me dislike humanity a little more.

[Pat Ribble]

Dave, nice anecdotes (especially the R-Monday and '41 Dodgers ones) but you make absolutely zero case for the use of a Taser here. What is wrong with an old-fashioned tackling of the kid? I guess the teenager really would've "learned" if the incompetent, corpulent hack who Tazed him had accidentally offed him, eh. I mean, c'mon . . . must everything be a national-security or anti-terrorist measure? The world has gone to hell in a hand basket, I say.

[J M]

If the kid was dumb enough to hop the fence and do what he did, he deserved what he got. MLB and it's teams make it very clear that you are not allowed on the field, so..... There have been several other instances where fans have entered the field of play and been met with more force than they bargained for. If they are dumb enough to put themselves in a position where this might happen, too bad for them!!!!!!

[Mr. Monster]

Tasers aren't harmless toys, and to see one used against as innocuous a suspect as a 17 year old running around on a baseball field is disgusting. To see it justified by a Star writer who claims the kid "learned his lesson" is even more disturbing. Perhaps if Mr. Perkins had been taught a lesson or two in his life, he wouldn't think police brutality was such a light-hearted matter.

[Brian T]

This may actually encourage fans to run onto the field. Young males like nothing more than to prove how macho they are and imagine...all the world gets to view it on YouTube.

Why if I was forty years younger.

[neil fowler]

I don't feel sorry for people who break laws and get tasered, shot, beaten, etc. They bring it on themselves. It's about time we stopped "crying" about the actions needed to stop law breakers, and started speaking out for greater actions to stop the law breaking idiots before they get a chance to break the law. And if that means they have to witness a few criminals get tasered or caned, or shot.. to deter them... then so be it.

[HumanRights]

You are right Perkins...why not just shoot these people then?!?!?! No one would ever run on the field if we just murdered everyone who did it right then and there!

[Malay Dave]

Given below is a video to a similar incident where an Australian cricketer - Andrew Symonds - absolutely nails a streaker who had invaded the field during a match. Worth a look!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=706552WGY5M

[Tony]

On the 40th anniversary of the Kent State massacre, the kid should thank his lucky stars that he was only shot with an electric shock and that security experts have learned so much about ensuring safety and security, since that terrible day in 1970.

[Conn Smythe]

You're right, Perkins - but instead of tasering this kid, they should have shot him - that would have really taught him a lesson. The fact that you have no sympathy for a 17 year who was tasered (tasered?!) for running on to a baseball field is a tad bit unsettling.

[Stanley]

While I generally have no problem with using force to take down people storming the field like this, you do realize that tasers have killed people, right? Remember the Polish guy at the Vancouver airport? What if they had shot him in the leg? Would that be too much?

[Simon]

No offense, but are you nuts? A taser is not a simple solution. It's a weapon, designed to be used one-step below engaging with live ammunition. It's for criminals. The fact it was treated as such a casual option by the security guard (and by you) speaks volumes about the lack of education about the device.

This is a 17-year old kid, possibly drunk, making a silly mistake. To condone this type of force is frankly, irresponsible. If your 17-year old kid got drunk and drove the family car through your kitchen, would you shoot him with a tazer? Would you let someone else do that to their kid?

[J.]

So a kid is tazered, people have died from being Tazered, but you make light of an ump getting beat in front of an adoring crowd?

Kid was 17, did he really need to be tazed? Maybe we haven't learned but Tazers and their use is out of control. If the kid died, would you still be signing the grumpy old man song still? What if it was your kid?

This is what your generation is leaving behind, over zealous security, while making light about a much worse incident years ago.

[T.D.]

Hey Dave, what if it was your 17 yr old? Still think it wouldn't be excessive? Idiot.

[Hikaru]

This is a baseball game. No one deserves this, specially for running into the field. After all, we fans pay the salaries of these grown man playing a game. get some context into your next column. Or perhaps next time you'll be suggesting a waterboarding scenario

[Alister]

to Stanley @ 4:28

Are you nuts? I agree with your stance about this incident regarding the use of a taser, but if my teenage son got drunk and drove my car through the wall of our house, there would be hell to pay. Never mind the fact that he'd have been drinking (underage, though that is something most teens do at some point) AND driving, but there would be all sorts of ramifications, and I would expect him to be charged and criminally liable for his actions. I fail to see how your example adds anything to the issue at hand, and detracts from the argument against using Tasers in this setting.

[MarkfromTO]

Disgusting that you think using a taser on someone running on the field in a baseball game is using justified force. There was absolutely no need to use a taser in that situation.

[Mark]

The taser was overkill and I have to believe that Dave Perkins is nothing more than a complete grouch for his stance on the matter.

In recent years I haven't seen any massive upswing in the amount of drunken goofs that have taken to the field so I hardly feel that any lessons "need to be taught" on the subject.

In fact, if you have ever been in the stands when one of these incidents takes place (and as you can hear from the audio in nearly every video of this event) the fans always take the side of the person on the field and enjoy the miniature show. With every zig the runner takes away from security the crowd roars with approval. It is all just a bit of innocent fun and the paying customers love it. With baseball in dire streits in Toronto and the Jays rebuilding program nearly completing it's second decade, perhaps we should get a few more of these runners at our games. Maybe then we can draw more than 10,000 people to a game.

With regards to use of the taser, it seems pretty clear the police officer in the video, aka Bob the Belly was tired of being embarrassed that a teenager was outrunning him and took the lazy way out with his taser. If he spent less time packing the donuts in, and more time working out (maybe a jaunt sprint across the outfield from time to time would suit him) he may have actually caught him without the need to send tens of thousands of volts through his body.

Police are given tasers to use as a non lethal means to difuse a potentially lethal situation. A taser should only be drawn in a situation where a gun could also be a reasonable substitute. That begs the question of whether this police officer would actually consider putting a couple shots in this kids knees had he not been equipped with his taser. The kid has nowhere to go, and can't possibly escape without being arrested, so it is all senseless to me.

Dave Perkins, I don't know who poured sugar in your gas tank this morning, but lighten up and please come back to reality.