Crime and (Typical) Punishment

I'm shocked.

I'm shocked, and outraged.

I'm shocked, outraged and so vengeful for justice, that I am taking the rest of the week off, and protesting outside of the Lancaster County Jail, and DEMAND that they re-consider the slap-on-the-wrist that Husker wide receiver Mo Purify received Thursday, as reported in the Omaha World Herald.

OK, maybe not.

The fact remains, this was as predictable as the outcome of Speed 2. There was a better chance of Barry Bonds dropping a drag bunt during last night's Giants game than there was the Lincoln authorities taking ANY sort of action toward Purify for the events of last month.

For those of you outside the area, let me paraphrase the situation:

- Husker gets drunk on O' Street
- Husker gets drunk and attacks a bouncer and a woman.
- Husker punches man and woman.
- Husker gets wrestled to the ground by 4 LPD officers
- Husker is arrested for assault
- Husker spends night in jail
- Husker is released
- 1 month goes by
- Husker charges are dropped if said Husker attends drivers-ed type class prior to trial.

Some of you may see a double standard here. Surely a common UNL student who goes apeshit at a bar on O and jacks a woman in the face is going to have a bit more punishment from the police than attending a "class"*? (* assuming the class isn't "virtual' or takes place at a bowling alley). I would think if that was me getting wrestled to the ground in front of 500 drunken college students, I would not only be tasered by the cops, but I would certainly see a judge at some point or at the VERY least have a misdemeanor on my record.

But you see, this isn't you or me, and this isn't some sort of fantasy world. This is Lincoln, Nebraska and the player in question is not some 3rd string muffin-ass d-lineman from Ord. Rest assured the police in Lincoln, Nebraska are certainly aware of who they were dealing with, just as they are aware that their fellow officers, attorneys and judges are ALL Husker fans. It will never be said, but do you HONESTLY think the Lincoln powers that be will risk hearing sh*t from their co-workers and family members for pressing forward charges against a guy who is a key figure in making their sports life better next fall?

Not only is this not shocking, but it also carries about 4 tons of precedent. Hell, it's not even the first time something like this happened in THIS off-season. (JC Keller and his flying dixie-cup incident was handled in the same manner..only in this case, the woman didn't get her face smacked). Lincoln attorney's and law-enforcement officials (I'm sure with NO intervention from UNL officials WHATSOEVER) have been handling cases involving Husker criminals in the same manner since the beginning of time. Darren Delome, Josh Brown, even LP himself was given FAR more leniency than the average Lincoln student. In each case, a Husker player gets arrested/detained/stopped, and in each case, the evidence is suddenly lacking or the witnesses suddenly get a case of amnesia. Rwanda has less corruption than the Lincoln judicial system. To think otherwise is living in denial.

Speaking of which, the BEST part of this story is not preferential treatment given a guy who is tall and can catch a football. (Sometimes. Other times, he likes to drop it) No, the best part of the story is two pronged. Not only are the legions of Husker fans willing to "Give Mo the benefit of the doubt", but also the Omaha media members who tend to shy away from stories like this as if they were kryptonite because they know their game day media lounge pass at Memorial Stadium will be revoked in two seconds.

I've been living here for years, and I'll never understand the whole, The media/the cops/the man is out to get the Huskers and/or their fans. Truth be told, NOBODY outside the Missouri and the Sand hills gives a rats fat ass about Nebraska. Why is this so difficult to understand? You are the answer to one of those trivia questions you see at BW3 when the multiple choice questions start disappearing. (Who won the 1995 National Title?). Nobody sees you as a "great former champion." Nobody sees you as "returning to glory". People see you either as a thug program for stories like this, or they simply don't see you at all. Why you don't get it, I'll never ever understand.

So in the end, what have we learned from all of this?
Well, for one we learned that Husker football players can get away with attacking people in public, and can avoid any sort of repercussion if they attend an autograph session...uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..I mean "diversion" course. Second, we are re-enforced with the correct notion that Husker fans will never ever openly admit there is a double standard. They will defend Lawrence Phillips, Mo Purify, Josh Davis to the death, and that's fine. But don't go by some bullshit code of ethics if you're no better than anybody else. That's what this story is all about. You would think the "greatest fans in college football" would understand when their players are getting free-passes from local authorities. If anything, you should just shut your pie-holes about the whole thing, and not bitch and bitch about how the "media and cops" are out to get NU players, when EVERYBODY knows nothing will happen to them anyway.

The next step is for Callahan to suspend him for 1 game (or less) for being drunk in public, and the whole thing will be forgotten. Rest assured, some other player in the future (or hell, maybe even this week) will be detained for a crime before anybody has a chance to recognize him, and realize that being the cop or prosecutor responsible for killing the Husker's chance of winning Big 12 isn't a person they want to be.

I'm shocked I tell ya.

Shocked.