Let's clear up some misconceived notions from the video that went viral from Wrigley Field Monday night, when a fan was recorded yelling racial slurs in the bleachers after the Cubs game.
First, everyone keeps asking who started the fight? The guy's girlfriend in the black shirt who says, "don't record me," after yelling racial slurs reached out to me yesterday, obviously pissed that I wrote about how he was racist. Anyway,
she claims her boyfriend didn't start the fight.
Julian Green, who's Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs for the Cubs, spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times and said the following about what happened after the cameras were off.
Via the
Sun-Times.
While “there was some bantering back and forth during the game, no one was forthcoming about who started it,” Green said, and no one wanted to press charges. No one suffered any serious injuries.
“We don’t know the nature of what caused the fight, but both parties were escorted out,” Green said.
So, the people involved in the fight didn't want to say who started it. I think we can all agree and say that both groups were most likely at fault for the eventual fight occurring.
The second part of that quote is also another important detail.
The second video that was posted on Twitter, showing the Hispanic fans being escorted out as they're getting racial slurs yelled at them really got under people's skin.
However, the thing people watching the video need to understand is that this happened after the game was over. It's not like only one group of fans were kicked out. They all were.
Security (we'll get to them in a bit) was just trying to clear the area. Separate the two groups and get them out of the stadium at different times, so that they wouldn't again engage in a fight while all being kicked out at the same exact time.
He denied a claim made by a woman in the video in which she accused security of taking the “white people’s side,” saying everyone involved was removed.
With all that being said, let's get to security.
Besides only one group of the fans being escorted out that was shown in the second video, the other point of contention was one of the security guards telling Danny (
he recorded and tweeted the videos) to stop recording because it was private property.
Of course, everyone knows that was complete bullshit because fans record things all the time at Wrigley Field and every other public event known to man.
Green confirmed that there is no rule at Wrigley Field that you can't record because it's private property.
Green did say the security guard was “incorrect” about fans filming — there’s no policy against recording video at Wrigley.
“People film every time they come to games,” he said. “We will brief our staff about that.”
Again, the game was over and I understand that some of the security staff heads out to the exits, but still the security guards who were still in the bleachers were woefully incompetent during their job and that's aside from the whole put your phone away. They were trying to avoid another fight once the guy who was caught yelling the slurs noticed he was being recorded, but hey how about actually focussing on that guy and not the person with the phone.
If you've ever been to a game at Wrigley Field you'll notice that several people working there are older people. Now, I'm not saying the Cubs need to hire bouncers who'll just start cracking heads in the stands, but something needs to change because that fight lasted too long and was handled extremely poorly.
Another thing. There are people who are saying the Hispanic fans are the ones who began hurling racial slurs way before the fight happened and that they were the root of the problem. OK, if that was indeed the case, then why didn't security do anything about it?
And this isn't to say those fans did or didn't say racist things, but if they did, then security once again failed at doing their jobs properly.
Green said the following about the team's policy on insensitive language during games.
He said the Cubs “have zero tolerance against fighting and insensitive language and behavior. … Both parties were informed by police and security that they are not welcomed back to the stadium for 2018.”
If this was a problem way before the fight, then security failed to do anything about it, or no one said anything to security. However, apparently one witness says that a security guard even told him to keep an eye on the fans.
He also says that he notified security about what was happening during the game. So, security did know what was going on and didn't do anything about it until the scene escalated.
Hey security, how about doing your job.
Finally, this point seems pretty obvious, but for whatever reason some people just can't seem to understand. Other people being racist isn't an excuse for you to turn around and be racist yourself.
I don't know why people are trying to justify the actions of the guy in the black shirt, as if he's then OK to say whatever he wants because other people were being racist too.
And here's the thing about the entire situation, it sounds like everyone involved were being assholes and sometimes you get caught. And guess what, it's 2018, people have cameras in their phone. You're responsible for whatever comes out of your mouth. No one made the guy in the black shirt say those things. He was caught and now he's dealing with the consequences.
And don't worry, if those other people were also being racist, their day will come too when they're caught on camera.
So, in summary:
- the fight happened after the game
- all the people involved were kicked out
- there is no rule about not recording because "it's private property"
- security needs to be better at Wrigley Field
- security failed to defuse situation way before the fight
- the Cubs have a have zero tolerance against fighting, insensitive language and behavior
- police showed up, no arrests were made
- everyone has been banned from Wrigley Field
- other people being racist isn't an excuse to also be racist
To finish this off, Danny spoke with the Cubs and they're all onboard with him recording and sharing the videos.
Overall point? Racism is bad.
Loading comments...