Defending your wife or girlfriend's honour after being insulted is chivalrous indeed and a lot of men would be hard pressed not to blast some jerk for hurling insults at their women. However, insults aren't enough to justify physical action in the eyes of the law....ever.
There's a right way and a wrong way to deal with every situation. The Pistons' fans were completely out of line for being on the court, throwing popcorn and drinks and tossing a cup at Artest in the first place. These folks are in a heap of trouble and from what I understand the prosecutor's office and Auburn Hills police have identified a lot of violators. They've got a good photo of the dope who threw the chair but don't have his name YET. They'll get him too and he'll face the most serious charge. Our prosecutor cares not who you are, how much $ you make or your political connections. I expect to see upwards of 40 warrants issued from this melee...and most will be against Detroit fans.
Last night on a news program I saw an interview with a sports journalist and she was complaining how the players have been disciplined but no fans have. She thought it was inexcusable that 5 days have passed and no one has been arrested or charged with a crime. What she fails to understand is there isn't a rush on this and it's a huge investigation. There is no need to make this a hasty investigation to make it "look good" in the eyes of the press. There'll be hundreds of pages of police/security reports to review not to mention the volumes of video tape from many different perspectives. Then there's the task of getting names from the faces on the video. Obviously we know exactly who the players involved were and I didn't see any fan with a name tag on. We all know people move from their assigned seating near the end of a game. It's not easy to be 100% accurate in putting a name to an anonymous face on a video and the police must be 100% accurate. They'll get the responsible people and they WILL answer for their poor behaviour.
