EclectEcon

He should be charged with assault. He should be found guilty. He should be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.

If John Palmer stomped on my face in the U.S. for writing yet one more outrageous comment on his blog, I'm sure he'd be charged in nothing flat, so why hasn't Haynesworth been charged?

Canadians, of course, asked the same questions after the Bertuzzi-Moore incident.

Our host links above to Ken Schram who writes:

"How the hell does that get excused simply because it took place on a football field?"

What I wrote on Pollard's blog (linked above) in answer to a question about violence in sports:

"Why should people be able to get away with saying things on the internet that they'd be locked up for in real life?

For one reason or another the soccer pitch and the internet have become sacred ground, a place where the authorities fear to tread.

Rock stars are for the most part similarly protected against any kind of public sanction for their behaviour. Thus, Mick Jagger shtups 20-year-old girl and the reaction is: "Wow, those rockers, ain't that the life?" Any other man in his mid-sixties shtups 20-year-old girl and the reaction on the front page of every tabloid is: "Dirty old man! There should be laws against this!" And why wasn't the odious Ozzy Osbourne locked up for possession of illegal substances years ago? (Sharon should be behind bars simply for existing.)"

Lord Denning, the famous English judge, once make the following remark: "Be you ever so high, the law is always above you." Law perhaps, but justice is invariably a different matter, most especially if the individual in question is a citizen of the United States and a highly-paid football player. Indeed, in the same way that the bureaucrat Eichmann was far more guilty than the individuals who actually manned the gas chambers, those responsible for upholding justice in the Haynesworth incident are even more culpable than the despicable bastard who carried out the attack in the first place and has now got off scot-free as a result of their criminally negligent indifference.

Looks like we should all have read the article properly before jumping in with comments. From the NFL article:

"Nashville police and the district attorney contacted the Cowboys' general counsel, offering their assistance to Gurode in prosecuting Haynesworth. The Cowboys declined to comment on the suspension."

Why should Gurode be forced to bring the prosecution though? And that's certainly what that passage above appears to be suggesting.