Blaming the Victim

October 22, 2004 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Current Affairs, Sports 

In Boston, 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove was killed by police firing “pepper balls” into a crowd of revelers celebrating the Red Sox victory over the Yankees in the American League Championship series. (AP Article via Yahoo)

The mayor blamed the revelers for her death. Apparently, someone standing near her threw a bottle at a mounted police officer, and another officer fired the plastic balls filled with pepper spray into the crowd. One of the balls pierced her eye and she later died of head injuries.

As a result, the mayor is storming about banning alcohol in Boston during the World Series, and asking colleges to expel any students involved in criminal activity.

I think we have two problems here:
1. The fans rioted some.
2. The police overreacted. According to the story, the police are supposed to avoid shooting the pepper balls at people’s faces – something that clearly didn’t happen.

I think that the rowdy fans take responsibility for the riots, but that the police have ultimate responsibility for Victoria’s death. Training was clearly broken in the use of pepper balls anywhere near someone’s head.

(Disclaimer – my brother is a police officer. He probably wouldn’t be too happy about what I’ve written here.)

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The Gangs of Boston

March 26, 2004 by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Current Affairs 

Tyler, another blogger, posts his harrowing tale of being pummeled by union anti-Bush protesters at Bush’s speech in Boston last night. Read it and come back here – it’s a wild story but not unexpected.

I’m not much of a Bush supporter. In fact, this election is going to be a really tough choice for me. However, I hate unions even more. Only in a union can you be praised for not exceeding the average ability/work ethic/productivity. Only in a union can you make more money than your manager through overtime pay.

And clearly, Boston is no longer the seat of intellectual discourse that it was in the late 1700’s. The slogans used by the unionists seem to have come from the wall of the local junior high school Boy’s bathroom.

The price of democracy and freedom of speech …..

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