kickball turns violent
A small group of neighborhood girls go to the city park to enjoy the fresh air and play a game or two of kickball. The following week, another neighborhood puts a team of girls together to compete with the first. After a few weeks, there are seven neighborhood kickball teams. They all play against each other, and come up with a schedule to determine which neighborhood has the best kickball team.
What an awesome display of community - combining beautiful days and competitive spirit into a weekly gathering of like-minded folks at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park - a gorgeous park across the Hillsborough River from the Performing Arts Center.
The girls brought friends and family to watch. Those friends brought more friends, and more people began coming to the city park to watch the games and hang out. But then, the idiots came in.
Hundreds of people began showing up at the parks during the kickball games. The police department heard complaints about trash, parking, drinking, drugs and fights. In mid-April, Tampa cops made nine drug arrests around the kickball games.
The city parks & Rec department went to the kickball organizers and told them that events with more than 200 people attending require a permit, and they’ll have to pay $1,400 to form an official league (sports programs are required to carry liability insurance).
Of course, the girls just want to play kickball - they may not care about attracting a crowd, and they simply don’t need the hassle. I mean, we should all be allowed to just go play some kickball at the city parks.
Community activist Michelle Williams thought the same thing, organized a protest at the park, and made a formal complaint with the NAACP.
So I guess the city worked out a deal, and there was another game Wednesday night, back at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park. It turned into a brawl involving about 100 people. The argument may have been ignited by a YouTube video.
Michelle Williams now says she is “extremely disappointed. I stuck my neck out for them.”
No one was arrested, because the troublemakers stole into the crowd, and that crowed refused to cooperate or point anyone out.
Yeah - this happened before when “Chunky Sunday” was the hip thing at city parks.
Until Michelle Williams and her kickball players give up the “no snitching” credo, they can expect cops and the city to give them a hard time at the parks. Everyone is responsible for helping rid ourselves of troublemakers.
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May 28th, 2008 at 10:51 am
This is why it’s so hard to eliminate negative stereotypes. It’s really sad and embarassing.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
This park is right across from the projects but I’ve never had problems. If these kids weren’t playing kickball then I wonder if the park would actually be utilized at all. Besides the massive crowds, relative to the average kickball crowd, the park is usually pretty empty after 5pm.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:23 am
It shouldn’t be that hard to find contributors to come up with $1400 to form an official league to give these children positive outlets. However, informal games shouldn’t necessarily be classified as a league. Seems it is an excuse to put a financial hardship on the supporters of the games to stop them. And that is plain rascist and sad.
This brawl of 100 people which hadn’t occurred before could have been instigated deliberately. Michelle Williams shouldn’t succumb to the slavery way of thinking that blacks are at fault just because an incident occurred. A set up is EZ to come by.
The park should continue to allow these children to use the park. That’s what our tax dollars pay for. Blacks should not be punished because they are an imperfect people. I don’t see other races punished for their imperfections.
June 14th, 2008 at 5:33 am
Anonymous #1 IT IS NOT SAD AND EMBARRASSING that black people are not perfect Gods. Stop the slavery time thinking that all blacks MUST BE PERFECT OR WE MUST ALL BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR MISDEEDS. You accepted that idealogy because you have accepted the generational curse passed on from slaves.
The massah hoodwinked the slaves into believing that when they became “BETTER” they would ALL be free, but UNTIL THAT DAY COMES, EVERYONE HAD TO STAY ENSLAVED.
THE “FREEDOM CARROT” WAS A STRONG INCENTIVE TO DANGLE IN FRONT OF THE OPPRESSED SLAVES. When all the time the massah knew their would NEVER come a day that ALL black people are perfect. It is an impossible goal.
Stop wasting valuable energy self policing and condemning your own black brothers and sisters. Even if we all became perfect tomorrow, discrimination and social injustice would still exist. This rascist society is all about money - not your black skin, and not your intelligence or worthiness.
So be “who you be” flaws and all and demand the same respect that other flawed people of other races receive.