Michael Kinney
NORMAN — Last week, Washington Wizard’s guard Gilbert Arenas was suspended indefinitely by Commissioner David Stern. More than likely, that will be increased to the rest of the season. Once again, we have a man in charge who is more worried about making an example than being fair.
For those who have not heard, Arenas was accused of pulling a gun on a Wizard teammate after an argument over a gambling debt. The accusation then changed that Arenas brought three unloaded pistols into the locker room as a joke. But Arenas said he never threatened or even pointed a firearm at anyone.
While no one outside the Washington players knows exactly what took place in the locker room, Stern has decided after hearing Arenas’ comment on the incident that it was time for him to step in. That included seeing Tuesday’s pre-game introductions in Philadelphia, where Arenas’ teammates circled him and he put his thumbs up, index fingers out and pretended to shoot them.
While that may have been a little much, it’s no reason to suspend someone for an entire season. If the law wants to take the case on, that is their decision. But Stern has once again decided that the league’s image is more important than due process.
However, like in most cases, people like to get on their high horse or soap box and condemn people for making a mistake. That includes members of the media, civic leaders and politicians. If we could ever get them out of the way, then maybe we can handle situations without turning it into a three-ring circus that forces people like Stern to overreact.
I am not saying Arenas’ actions were not incredibly stupid. But being stupid is not a crime.
What is a crime is who we choose to be angry with and turn our venom on when incidents like this happen. Is Arenas at fault? Yes. If he hadn’t made the terrible choice of bring a weapon into his work place, none of this would have taken place.
When I see people act as if Arenas was the only person involved, I laugh. Where is the anger and outrage toward the people who put the guns in Arenas and other people’s hands. It’s amazing how gunmakers never get their name in the paper or are featured in the evening news, but their products account for thousands of deaths each year.
But when multi-million dollar athletes such as Arenas and Plaxico Burress are caught making huge mistakes, now all of a sudden we want to set an example and get all righteous. Where was the same indignation when in 1991 NYC had 2,240 murders and a large disproportion of them were by guns.
Here is my suggestion. Every time a crime involving a firearm is committed in this country, every gunmakers should have to pay a $1,000 fine. Regardless of who made the weapon or what it was used for, the penalty would apply for all of them and media outlets would put the mugshots of the company CEO and major stockholders next to the death totals every day. That way they can experience the type of public outcry and criticism Arenas has dealt with.
Yet, since none of them can dunk or glide through the air, they may not be considered dangerous enough for anyone to care.
