Tasered At The Game

With all that is going on locally and around the world the most discussed issue yesterday might have been whether or not it was appropriate for a Philadelphia police officer to use a taser on a fan who ran onto the field at Citizens Bank Park Monday night. Ironically another fan ran onto the field during last night’s game but gave himself up without incident.

Back to Monday when 17-year old Steve Consalvi leapt onto the field in the top of the 8th inning during the Phillies games with St. Louis. The high school senior ran around the outfield waving a white towel and dodged two security officers before a police officer used his stun gun on the teenager, who stumbled and slid face-first on the grass. Consalvi was down
for about 30 seconds before standing up and walking off the field. He was charged with defiant trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

While Phillies players on the field had to use there gloves to hide their laughter players from both teams admitted afterwards that fans running on the field is no laughing matter. Part of the problem is you don’t know what the intentions of those fans are as there have been cases of violence in the past. But Tuesday the conversation was all about the use of a taser and whether or not it was excessive force. Police officials are looking into the matter and might not even have officers on the field in the future but rather let stadium security handle incidents with unruly fans that are non-threatening.

Truthfully once a fan runs onto the field they forfeit being treated fairly because you don’t know at that point what they are going to do. Most of the time it’s a case of too much alcohol or them trying to win a bet but what would we be talking about today IF that kid on Monday had a weapon and eventually went after a player? Poor fan behavior has been tolerated and accepted for too long and frankly it’s only a matter of time before there is a tragedy.

By the way, most Phillies fans thought Monday’s incident was comical as their team was losing by three runs at the time. However when a 34-year old man did it again last night they booed and it was made worse by the fact that the delay seemed to impact pitcher Cole Hamels and it nearly cost them a victory. Not quite as funny under those circumstances.