I've been promising a good rant for a while, so here goes...
Last night, Nick Johnson missed a last second shot after a tightly contested Elite Eight basketball game between the Wildcats of the University of Arizona and the Badgers of the University of Wisconsin, leaving his team with a one point deficit and a loss. That was the end of a good game where both teams played their hearts out. It could have gone either way, but Wisconsin ended up winning.
Within the hour, near the University of Arizona campus there were sirens, helicopters, pepper balls, screams, shouts, ambulances. The automated text went out to avoid University Boulevard because of a large "unlawful gathering," but sirens could be heard on 6th Street and Speedway as well. Social media exploded with videos and pictures of people going crazy, and subsequently with ambulance-chaser lawyer requests to send videos for evidence of police brutality. The noise lasted until at least two in the morning.
The age-old question of what happens when you get a bunch of frustrated drunk people together in a small space was answered - pandemonium ensues.
There is something slightly ironic about riots in the United States - when we want something changed, nonviolence is the name of the game, when we are frustrated about laws and things that actually mean something, we go out with our signs and march, pass petitions, call legislators. When there is something there is no way we can change, when there is no impact at all on everyday life - that's when we riot. A quick Wikipedia search shows that a good number of major incidents of civil unrest have come as a result of sports, and it doesn't seem to matter who won or lost.
Don't get me wrong - sports are great. They can bring a community together, they give an excuse to celebrate, they're fun to watch and to play. The problem is when devotion to sport meets energy meets lack of self-control, and the excitement that comes from watching a good games comes to the streets, and all hell breaks loose. People seem to forget that stadiums are not bubbles, and that personal responsibility applies both inside and out.
The thing that bothers me most is that, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Whoever won, won, whoever lost, lost, and whoever sold the tickets gets their money and everyone goes home and life goes on the next day. Overall, as Americans, we're pretty lucky that sports are one of the few things that incite people to riot. We've been looking at Venezuela in my Spanish class, where government corruption and lack of food cause people to take to the streets because that's the only way they can get their government to listen. Despite all the violence and crime, changes are being made, albeit slowly, to improve life for the average person. That is a valid reason to riot - there is no other way to get attention and it forces change. There are probably better ways, but they have more reason than a bunch of dumb college kids whining that their team lost.
Even scarier - there were a good number of people whose reaction to hearing about the riots was not "This is crazy, let's get out of here" but "F*** YEAH! Let's go join!" Facebook and Twitter were awash with selfies of people smiling with police in riot gear in the background. There's something not right about that.
See, we're lucky that we have the right to petition, to assemble, and to have our voices heard. There is something not right about doing going this crazy just on the account of a basketball game which was well played and refereed as fairly as humanly possible. There are much better more constructive ways to deal with frustration. Conclusion: people are crazy and stupid sometimes, but it all blows over in the morning.
Thanks for reading. Rant over. A catch up "what I did over spring break" entry will come soon.
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