One of the many hats I wear is that I work in my spare time for Milwaukee Public School (MPS) High School Athletics. Since the mid-60’s when I started helping my father take tickets at football games at South Stadium, I’ve been very involved: public address announcing at what I now affectionately call “historic” South Stadium, announcing for basketball, scoring and timing for basketball and soccer.
That’s why I was totally disgusted at the brawl that ensued after what was a fabulous basketball game last night at Bradley Tech between Bay View and Bradley Tech. If you click on
the video of what happened, you’ll see how ugly it was.
After Bradley Tech escaped with a thrilling one-point overtime victory, hundreds of fans spilled onto the court, fights broke out, police intervened, and young fans were arrested and handcuffed. The brawlers impeded officers who were attempting to assist a woman believed to be having a seizure.
It reminded me of a game two seasons ago at a jam-packed Vincent High School. I was the timer for the game between Rufus King, at that time the #1-ranked team in the state, and Vincent. King won the game on a three-point shot at the buzzer. As I ran for the locker room, fans poured onto the court. But unlike last night, fortunately there were no fights, there were no altercations, there were no arrests.
MPS has very few positive elements going for their system. Athletics is one of those positives. It is sad that some punks can ruin what obviously was an outstanding night of athletic competition.
Fans attending just about any MPS athletic contest must pass through metal detectors. The policy was implemented after too many close calls, one of them in the 80’s when a gun went off during a basketball game at Custer High School. Go to an MPS basketball game and you may see a lot of security (unarmed) and some police officers. As heated as the Franklin-Oak Creek and Greendale-Greenfield rivalries are, an atmosphere of heightened security just to get to your seat is unthinkable in the suburbs. It’s the norm at MPS.
To be fair, there were many games played at various MPS gyms last night with zero problems. That’s been the case for most of this basketball season. But also to be fair, what took place at Bradley Tech last night shouldn’t happen at
any game.
We’re bound to hear all kinds of excuses. I don’t want to hear them. I don’t want to hear that these kids are just kids, they’re poor kids to boot, they were just letting off steam, security officials should have prevented the brawl, the police overreacted, the police used excessive force, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
There were 1,100 tickets sold, more than the cap of 75% of capacity MPS policy calls for. It doesn’t matter. That brawl would have taken place if there were 5-, 6-, 7-, 800 fans in the stands. And if hundreds spill out onto the court, how are 20-25 unarmed security officials, some of them women, supposed to maintain order?
It’s time for strict measures. These punks cannot be allowed to turn a great game into a violent free for all. Find out who the culprits are, and refuse to allow them to attend any athletic contest or extra-curricular activity for the rest of their high school years. Give fair warning that if anyone gets out of line in any way at any game, they’ll never be able to see another game. We remove disruptive students from a classroom. The same should hold true for sporting events.
Some cities in the past have resorted to playing games inside empty gymnasiums because of gang threats. I’d hate to see good coaches, good teams, and good spectators suffer. That’s why we need to keep unruly fans from attending, or toss them out for good if they can’t behave properly.
