The Shame of Dodger Stadium

The Los Angeles community has been torn in recent days by the brutal beating of a man in the Dodger Stadium parking lot after a Dodgers-Giants by two thugs. The reason for the assault? The man was wearing Giants garb. The victim is still in a Los Angeles hospital in a coma. The problem is that this is not an isolated event. In recent years, Dodger Stadium, unlike Anaheim Stadium to the south, has become a rowdy place. In 2003, a man in Giants garb was shot to death in the same Dodger Stadium parking lot. Now the Dodgers management has called in the city's former police chief, William Bratton as a security consultant.

There has been an outpouring of sympathy in Los Angeles for the victim, 42-year-old Bryan Stow, and his family. The family is from northern California and is now by the victim's bedside. Police officers have provided personal assistance to the family by taking care of their laundry and other needs. Much soul-searching is going on in the "City of the Angels".

I was born and raised in LA and used to go to Dodger Stadium frequently back in the 60s and 70s. In those days, these problems did not exist at the ballpark. I especially enjoyed going to the LA Angel games when they played in LA because there were very small crowds, there was no traffic, and you could get better seats than Dodger games, which were always sold out or nearly sold out.

I have not been back to Dodger Stadium since the 1980s, partly because I was living away from LA for many years and since returning find Angel-or even Padre games in San Diego to be an easier venture. I have noted the change, however, that has taken over Dodger Stadium. I suspect that Chief Bratton may not be the answer to the problem since he didn't address the problem when he was chief in LA. The problem, which most officials and commentators are afraid to say out loud is that the miscreants are gang-members-in this case, Latino gang members with origins in Mexico and El Salvador.

Gang members like baseball too, and they seem to especially like the Dodgers and (the basketball)  Lakers as evidenced by the regular riot scenes we see around the Staples Center when the Lakers win an NBA championship (Actually, those are multi-cultural celebrations where everybody joins in.) The talk radio team of John and Ken (KFI 640 am) have openly stated the obvious and have been criticized for "blaming the Mexicans" for the problem at Dodger Stadium. (John and Ken are open critics of illegal immigration and regularly condemn the city for allowing it to flourish in LA.)

Now before you readers start calling me anti-Latino, let me once again remind you that I am married to a Mexican and pretty much the only family I have left in life are my in-laws-some of whom hold Dodger season tickets. They are not the problem and they don't appreciate the rowdiness anymore than anyone else since they take their children to the games. They are looking for a family outing-not mayhem. The Mexican population is hardly new to LA. I grew up with them, and they have always attended Dodger games as everyone else. However, it is clear that a new and different  element has entered the sporting scene of LA in recent years.

So why do I think Bratton is the wrong choice to bring order to Dodger Stadium? Bratton, by most accounts, was a fine chief of New York City. By most accounts, he was not in LA. Maybe it was the cultural difference between the two cities. The fact is that Bratton, under the politically-correct mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, presided over a sanctuary city and had a policy of not bothering to identify illegal aliens with whom they came into contact. Under his (and his predecessors') tenure, LA grew into a city where gangs ran wild. They still do.

And when they are not dealing drugs and looking for someone to shoot, they take some time off to go to the ballpark, show off their tattoos, root for the Dodgers, drink beer, and get into fights. They are not so hard to spot.

This is not to say that LA doesn't have its share of thugs who happen to be white or black. It does. However, in this case, we are talking about Latino gang-bangers, some of whom are not even in the country legally. When I lived in Milan, Italy in the 1980s, I spent a couple of those years living directly across the street from the San Siro soccer stadium. It was a good place not to be on a Sunday afternoon. I saw the occasional riot when the home team lost. On one occasion, a young fan was stabbed to death because he was wearing the visiting team's jersey. It was all totally insane. Who was doing all this? Well, Italians.

But I digress.

You see, what is happening at Dodger Stadium is a microcosm of what is happening in the city. This is what being a sanctuary city gets you. The City of Los Angeles has millions of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans and to blame them all for this problem would be obviously wrong. However, it is just as wrong to ignore the problem right in front of you when everyone knows what it is.

I don't know what Bratton is going to do at Dodger Stadium or what Villaraigosa will do or not do. Something needs to be done, and I don't have the solution. I do know one thing, however. If I should decide to attend a Dodger game with my wife and family in the near future, I would not be surprised if Bratton's security does a secondary pat-down on all of us as we enter.

Can't do profiling you know.

* On second thought, except for me, they are all Mexican-American.