A few thoughts on the So'oto/Hooks incident

[jay santos]

1. I don't blame the police for arresting them. They were knocking down doors with the intent to assault. I'm not a lawyer and don't know what the options the police had, but I'm not suprised or outraged or crying racism just because the kids were arrested.

2. After discussing this with my wife, she had some good female insight, because I wanted to know what a guy should do in this quandary where someone has (kind of) attacked your woman and you have the duty to protect her. She said, this wasn't about the girl, this was about male rage and aggression. If it was about the girl, he would have taken her away from the scene and attended to her. Made sure she was OK, physically and emotionally, and stayed with her.

3. I'm again thankful for getting banished from CB, because I probably would have wasted my whole day arguing with idiot CB'ers on either why these guys were justified to pound the snot out of the water balloon tossers, and defending myself as I probably would have been labeled a pansy, passive wuss who takes no action. Instead I wasted my day arguing grace and works--much more fulfilling.

4. Though these guys should have some consequences with the law, I don't think it should affect their school (or team) standing. It just wasn't that serious of a thing to kick someone out of school for. I talked to HCO a few years back and they told me every year they have less than 20 suspensions and less than a handful if any expulsions. This just doesn't rate up there with the top 20 offenses the 30,000 BYU students have committed this year.

5. HC action to athletes is directly correlated with publicity. That's a bad sign, and makes it possible for a more serious penalty than I would think it deserves. That would be very sad, if so.

6. Black non-LDS have accounted for a tremendously disproportionate HC incidents at BYU. I did a rough cut analysis a few years back and concluded that black non-LDS football players are suspended from BYU at a rate that is more than 100 times the average student body. Bronco cut back on black, non-LDS recruiting the first couple years, but it appeared he was reversing that trend. I hope this doesn't affect that trend.

7. Everytime I get close to subscribing to TBS, they offer up a free article that is just so ridiculously homeristic and one-sided, that it reinforces my view that it's just a bunch of homer fans hyping each other up about how awesome our players and coaches are.