Also, let's get this out of the way: Matthew Clemmens, the accused pictured here, totally looks like an ug fat lady.
The alleged event made for good headlines today, because Philly fans are reviled as loathsome mutant hyenas. People wrote diatribes about the ghouls of Philadelphia, the dark denizens of the city of Brotherly Love.
*Here's a particularly rabid attack.*
It hurts, it hurts, like daylight on Nosferatu.
I'll say this: there is a good chance that this Matthew fella is a bastard jerk whose regurgitation could've really unstrung a poor little girl. I absolutely feel for the girl here. She definitely got hurled on and that is awful. And in the corny way that I view the old ballpark as an almost sacred ground, in my blinding nostalgia, I'd say that a little girl draped in vomit is a sin.
That said, I wish to make two additional points that are being ignored.
First, all of the people railing on a stereotype about Philadelphia fans are being just as thoughtless as the people they portray. Whip up some old print about Santa and boos and you think you know something? I say: make an effort to learn something and you might actually know something.
Philadelphia sporting events are absolutely peppered with drunk assholes as well as just plain assholes. And some really screwed up things have happened inside and out of Philadelphia stadiums: a guy got beaten to death last year outside Citizens Bank Park over spilled beer, for example. Philadelphia as a whole is a pretty angry and violent town; it's a place that almost forces a person to be ready to brawl to maintain self-respect. I hate that about this place. Ah heckfire, I tried to get a guy to pull over and fight me today because of his obnoxious honking. That's sad, huh?
Here's the thing. Show me a stadium in America in which people behave with dignity and love of brotherhood. I saw a man get tossed from one level of the stadium to another during a fight at the Oakland Coliseum, a fall of 20 feet. I saw that same guy in a bloody slump against a concourse wall the next inning- nobody even came to help this dude! I've seen Red Sox fans escorted with busted faces from Yankee Stadium, and the reverse at Fenway. How bout that Pistons-Pacers brawl? These are things I observed with mine own eyeballs. Here are some other incidents in other cities: 132 people were arrested at Dodger Stadium on opening day this year. Also on opening day, fans in Washington, DC booed president Barak Obama. Last year, a fan in Chicago dumped a beer on Shane Victorino when he tried to catch a fly ball. Sports fans and deplorable behavior go steady all over the country. I think that Philadelphia may indeed be one of the more violent cities in the United States. But ugly, violent confrontation is a national pastime. There's a larger issue here, and smug commentators are glossing that over.
Secondly here's something that isn't covered by most of the stories I've read: where did Matthew get the shiner featured in his ugly mugshot? Looks pretty recent- lots of swelling, and the bruising hasn't really set in. Glad you asked about that. One of Philly's demon fans came to the defense of Capt. Micheal Vangelo after Clemmens punched the officer, flooring the serial vomitor. Then a bunch of terror-able Phillies fans restrained the fat bastard til help arrived. Sounds like brotherly love to me.
My wrap-up- Fans are going to get drunk and disorderly at ballgames because their lives suck, because, for example, they largely can't get bonuses for preying on poverty and selling sub-prime mortgages. I don't like it; I don't like that a system of oppression lords over the lower 99%, and also I don't like that a few of the down 99% let go of their dignity and puke on cop's kids. I think we need to try harder, as a people, not to be so hurtful and insensitive. And those who got they crucifixes ready ought to stop gawking and groaning, and be more helpful. Have some brotherly love, you ironic idiots.
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