Here is video of the recent basketball brawl which took place at Madison Square Garden between Brooklyn rivals Lincoln High School and Boys and Girls High School.

The fight took place between fans in the stands of MSG after a hard foul took place during the game.

Gun shots were heard as fans exited the stadium, although no serious injuries were reported. The melee then spilled quickly into the streets and nearby subways.

NYC police quickly dispatched officers, some on horseback and some riot police were also called in.

21 people in all were arrested and according to police will be charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and one was actually charged with a riot charge.

WCBS-TV from New York caught parts of the brawl with it’s cameras. Police have said they will review the video which does show someone being pulled over a hand rail by police and then beaten with batons, but also added that they currently have no comment.

So what causes incidents like this? Is it lack of security? The fans themselves or what?

I truly believe this would have happened no matter how much security there is in place. It really comes down to the fans themselves and their upbringing. If there’s violence in their neighborhoods there will be violence wherever they go.

You don’t see brawls like this at most athletic events and typically they tend to be between schools in poorer income neighborhoods, not between wealthier public or private schools.

Now some of you may try to say I’m being racist or whatever, but that’s simply not the case. I don’t have an ounce of that in my body. I’m simply pointing out the fact that most brawls at high school games happen between schools from poorer areas. It’s just a fact. Look at the recent brawl in Milwaukee where school officials had to ban all fans from games except parents and there are numerous other examples too. I really think it comes from their upbringing.

I also completely understand why this is the case. I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor and hung out with many people from both groups throughout my life and I can definitely say that people are obviously much more angry and potentially aggressive when their unhappy with their current situation. Now, obviously there are plenty of rich people that are angry and agressive too, but when there are whole groups that are together the potential for aggressive behavior is heightened.

It’s a tough situation too because you can’t protect both sides by simply adding security. It goes beyond that as it’s more about what can be done in these communities to remove the idea that this behaviour is ok in the first place.

Not sure what exactly could be done, but I’d love to hear some ideas on how this could be stopped.

Note: I’m also publishing the video as a test for my buddy Mark Cuban who has been all over GooTube’s ass lately about copyrighted video on YouTube and Google Video. Plenty of news has recently been made about Viacom’s (CBS) inability to reach an agreement with YouTube and Google about it’s video content being shown on them. Although you will find some content from Viacom’s Companies hosted on GooTube, most has been taken down in Viacom’s fight against GooTube.

Google Video and YouTube have publicly stated they are protected under DMCA Safe Harbors and that they’re not obligated to censor content based on copyright infringement since they don’t actually review the videos and that it’s simply up to uploaders to abide by their terms of service, yet we all know that the majority of both Googe Video and YouTube are filled with TV shows, music videos and even full length featured films.

I for one am for protecting copyrighted materials, but will test this to see if GooTube actually reviews the upload and will report back to Mark what if anything happens to the video.

I also have no problem taking down the video if I’m contacted by anyone from Viacom or GooTube regarding it’s posting.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Here’s the video of the brawl…

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.