Violence and Sport

Violence and Sports

The lone man to be charged with a felony in the incident was Bryant Jackson. He was the man Oakland County Police (OCPD) say threw a chair into the crowd during the fight. He was charged with felonious batter, according to the OCPD and various wire reports. No, this is not just some random fight that occurred, this was an arrest at a recent National Basketball Association game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. This violence is something that is starting to occur more and more. It seems to be a common theme, and one that does not even obtain a double-take, sports and violence the two seem to go hand-in-hand. Professional athletes such as Latrell Sprewell, Todd Bertuzzi, and Ron Artest have made common names for themselves with the violence they have endured in their respective sports.

Some sports are violent by nature. Boxing is the obvious example, where physical attack is the point of the exercise. There has been much debate over the sport with many calling for its abolition. Other sports, such as wrestling and the martial arts, also involve one-on-one unarmed combat. These forms of "violence" are within the rules of the sport and the possibility of injury is well known by participants.

Then there is a range of contact sports, particularly the football codes, where there is punishing body contact within the rules but also the scope for borderline or unintentional "violence" such as late tackles, high tackles and tackles on players without the ball. These tactics can be, and are also, used intentionally. However, the use of video replays over recent years has made these tactics more risky for the perpetrators, especially in professional sports where suspension can lead to a significant loss of income.

As we enter the year the beginning stages of 2005, one has to wonder if this violence is going to continue or if the leagues, sports and the people themselves will start to gain some kind of control and realize this is sprot and such violence cannot continue. The fans are even getting themselves invovled. One factor in the increase in violence among fans is an emotional disconnection from their own lives. They have difficulty empathizing with others' pain. Some of this is caused by watching violence on television and computer screens. If you watch the reaction of the first base umpire and the second baseman of the Chicago White Sox in the incident you mentioned, you can see that they watch the violent event and don't get involved.