The call for Sean Avery's head was swift and there was no need for a trial as it was decided that since Avery was arrested he was guilty. Avery's past was good enough to warrant a conviction and his reputation made for good headlines so that Sean Avery just had to be guilty as sin.
It was just cause for some to demand that the Rangers remove Avery from their roster even before he had been found guilty of any crime. Some in the hockey media (and yes you know who you are) helped fuel the fire by using "cutesy" headlines to describe the Avery arrest.
Hope Avery wrote down the names of those who in the past were very happy to use Avery for quotes and then stuck the knives nice and deep in his back. Those same folks it is really doubtful will say "yes we were wrong and we jumped to a conclusion."
See that would require people to do something that is becoming a lost cause; accepting responsibility for what they say or do. It is funny but in the rush to hang Sean Avery that people did the very thing they say Avery is typically guilty of which is speaking before thinking.
Never mind that Avery had not been convicted of a crime as that did not seem important. How about waiting for a trial as some of the logic used as reasoning to assume Avery was guilty was weak at best. My favorite was "He was arrested which means he had to have done something to deserve being arrested."
Turns out that Sean Avery did not do anything that deserved being arrested as it was the LAPD not the LA DA who declined to prosecute Avery when they did not file any charges. Like it or not that says Sean Avery is innocent of the crime for which the original arrest said he committed.
That is why they have this saying which is "innocent until proven guilty." It does not always work and sometimes the wrong person gets away with a crime. But it is a much better way of doing things that what some other places try to pass off as justice,
Please do not mistake this for even thinking for a moment that I support anyone who assaults a police officer not with 4 members of my family who wear or have worn badges. In fact 2 of them work in the Los Angeles area with my sister working in the LA court system.
I strongly dislike Sean Avery as a player and as a person but I dislike those who try to hang somebody for something when all the facts were not out there in the open even less. It took all of 12 days and surprise that it turned out that Avery did not even do what he was accused of.
What most people are not getting is that a police officer tripped in Avery's door and turned that trip into an arrest by charging Sean Avery with Battery on a police officer. That became a big story in the national hockey media when it never should have been.
In front of friends and others Avery was searched, handcuffed then taken in for booking again when he never should have been. Avery had to post bail, be subjected to reporter's questions and had to talk to Glen Sather and James Dolan.
Even worse was how many people thought Sean Avery arrested then he had to be guilty but hey that is OK with a lot of people right? It is OK for Avery like him or not to be arrested and accused of something because in the end he was cleared right?
Multiple witness statements said that Avery did not shove the officer but instead the officer who made the arrest tripped. Wonder how many will say "Yes I thought he was guilty" and rushed to judgment?
Odds are really slim because hey it was Sean Avery so he deserved this right? Not if you are a fair minded person who thinks when someone is wronged then someone should be adult enough to admit it.
Nope we want to know if Avery called the police officers "fat little pigs" but if the arresting officer's story did not hold up for the battery then exactly how much credibility should we give the remark?
Here is the truth like it or not; Sean Avery is a self promoter who does things to help Sean Avery stay in the spotlight. Most of the time, the stunts he pulls are poorly thought out like the "Sloppy Seconds" remark that earned him a ticket out of Dallas.
But that does not make Sean Avery a criminal because at last check being a thoughtless dumbass is not a criminal offense. In fact there is nothing that the Rangers can do to Avery because there are no charges so what can they punish him for?
The same has to be said for the NHL itself as because there are no charges then Sean Avery cannot be punished by them. The difference though between how the Rangers handled this and the way some fans and some media is that they waited to see what happened.
In the end what it seems Avery did worse was he ruined the fun that the lynch mob was going to have when he was booted off the Rangers because he held a loud party.
Nope no need to apologize for that after all it is Sean Avery and he deserved it.
No he did not.
(Avery courtesy of the AP)
No comments:
Post a Comment