B3-Wednesday, June 18, 1980 - North Shore News"

Violence is spreading
We live
civilization is very thin. Where anger and violence

lurk. barely -below the surface waiting for the
chance to break out.

This was once again
brought home last week by
two incidents, one remote
and the other personal.

In Italy, the English
soccer ‘fans’ went on a riot
against Belgian fans at a
soccer match in Turin and
riot police with tear gas had
to be brought in to quell the
disturbance. The incident
was just another chapter in
the vicious criminal acts
being carried out by far too
many in Britain who seem to
feel that the game is the
rationale for their ugly and
stupid behaviour.

The other incident was of
a much, much smaller scale,
involved me, and happened
Saturday night at the soccer
game.

My 11 year old son and |
go to the games together. I
choose not to sit in the press
box and have seats, in
section F

NOTHING HAPPENING

Nothing out of the or-
dinary happened during the
game among the fans, or on

in an age where the veneer of

the field, until the ridiculous
brawl involving the teams
and Ray Hankin.

But while the incident was

‘in progress, dying down

actually, a Bobby Lenar-
duzzi hater who sits a couple
of rows back started
screaming that Lenarduzzi
was ‘chicken’, plus a few
other choice phrases, mostly
unprintable. This ‘fan’ who
sits far away from the action,
is one of those ‘sit on his
backside experts’ who are so
prevalent at sporting con-
tests.

Perhaps I was in the wrong
in turning and saying the
game was not established for
goons and fights, and
wondering why he always
was hurling his abuse at the
local boy. Because I was
suddenly confronted by tms
below the surface vision of
hatred and pure savagery. |
was verbally abused far past
the point of what often
passes for childish fun, I was
grabbed by the shoulder, my
shirt torn — fortunately just
a seam — anda red mark on
my shoulder which disap-

peared after a few hours.

This ‘person’ called me a
number of names which I
was not impressed with, nor
did I want my son to hear. I
was invited to ‘fight’
because, as I was told,
fighting was the only way to
show I had any ‘guts’. And
on and on.

For the remaining few
minutes, I was jeered and
had abuse spilled on me by
this person and a couple of
his friends — you know, the
yapping jackals theory —
when one starts to get ex-
cited, the others follow
because there's safety in
numbers.

NO NAME

Following the game he
wanted to continue to fight,
and of course when I asked
his name, he couldn't give it

There's no point in
Carrying on with the details.

But these two incidents
scare me They scare me
because we, as a so-called
civilized society, seem to be
helpless in front of this type
of behaviour The players
were left) shaken by this
behaviour in Italy, and my
son and | were shaken by our
incident Saturday aight in
Section F

Think back to incidents in
sport where violence has
occured on the field. In far
too many cases it has spilled
over and there have been
incidents in the stands —
just like Saturday night —
except maybe the other guy
in those ones was forced to
fight back.

There are riots in the
streets against authority in
much of the world and in-
nocent people are vic-
timized. In our own
neighborhoods, there are a
frightening number of
assaults. And remember the
recent incident in West Van
where the ‘barking dogs’
were able to put the boots to

a police officer? In New.

York last week, an old man
was beaten up on the
Subway because his shaking
hands upset a passenger.

, There seems to be too
large a portion of our society
who believe in the super
macho theory that violence
and viciousness are the
answer. That intimidation
and fury will win the day
over logic and common
sense. That putting down
someone with a differing
viewpoint by ridicule and
violent, or threatened
violent acts, isa must.

NO CONTROL

And what becomes
frightening is that when this
type of incident occurs, I too
feel the blood surge, the
anger build up and the desire
to lash out. Perhaps | was
fortunate in being brought
up im an athletic house
where emotional control was
the key to success. It 1s
something that’ this par
ficular ‘fan’ doesn't” un-
derstand. He can never have
participated in anything
where control was a great
requirement.

Perhaps his home life 1s

Snowden on scoring rampage

FROM PAGE B1

Lecker for a 20 win over
Ycllow Falcons

A big four goal per-
formance by Snowden
powered West Van to a 60
win over Vancouver Island
with Lecker and Don Bird
grabbing singles. The other
win, again with Snowden
scoring, was a 2-1 victory
over Hawks with Shawn
Scangroulx picking up the
other marker -

West Van picked up a
silver medal in the 14 and
under age group They won
over Husky 4-0 with
Sace) David Thon,
Milkovich and Brians
Fearncome scoring Gordy
Bird picked up the only goal
ina} 1 loss to Black Falcons
whe ended up downing West
Van for the second me 2 |
in the play off lan Snee
scored the only goal in thal
encounter

The young West
squad) managed to down
White Faicons 3-1 tn a shoot
owt game Bran Fearncome
with a pair and lan Sace with
a single handled all the West
Van scoring

Dave Snowden, Mark
Leckher and Don Bird were
named to the provincial 17
and under team while Bnan
Fearncome and Gordy Bird
were selected for the 14 and
under team representing

BC

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pretty poor, or his job or
both. There is something in
this type of person. which
must be causing terrible
tensions which cause them
to ‘crack’ so easily
especially for a game, or
entertainment, in which
their only involvement is as a
spectator.

For the rest of the game,
fortunately, not very long, I
was concerned. Concerned
that my son had to be a
witness to this type of action,
concerned over my own
inner feelings, and con-
cerned that this person who
feels that violence is so
essential to him would jump
me from behind.

Isn’t it a rather sad sign
that so many of us have to
live in fear of this element in
our society? A gang of goons
on the sidewalk will make us
give them a wide berth.

There are many, many
places where you just don’t

go at night. We live in fear of
the fools.

I have accepted this state
of affairs for a long time, but
when it, strikes so close to
home, it’ throws a totally
different perspective on it.
Am I being over-protective
in saying I don’t want my son
to be exposed to this non-
sense? Am I being overly
simplistic to say that at a
soccer game we should not
have to be worried. about
physical violence because
we have different opinions
from someone else?

Or am I being paranoid in
equating this one, rather
small incident with what I
seem to be seeing in society
and in life around me?

I hope I am, but I fear 'm
not.

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