No tolerance needed to curb fan violence

Taking your family to a professional sporting event should not be dangerous. One should not have to worry about drunks hurling obscenities and fists because someone else is wearing an opposing team’s jersey or they just feel disrespected.
Sure, these fights are not new, but they seem to be occurring more often and are becoming more and more violent. It appears respect for one another has gone out the door.
Just in the past year, Bryan Stow, a Santa Cruz paramedic and San Francisco Giants fan, suffered brain damage after he was beaten by two men outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last March. Several 49ers games this past season, including a preseason matchup against the cross-Bay rival Oakland Raiders and a second-round playoff win against the visiting New Orleans Saints, were the scene of dozens of fan fights and arrests, prompting 49ers officials to adopt stricter security measures and additional personnel for last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.
Now, Manuel Austin, a former U.S. Marine from Los Gatos who lost four teeth and suffered a black eye during a skirmish moments before the 49ers’ Monday night showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers Dec. 19, is fighting back.
“It’s like the Wild West, and it’s out of control,” said Austin who has contacted 49ers President Jed York, Congressman Mike Honda, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the San Francisco Police Department and California Attorney General Kamala Harris in hopes of streamlining ways to prevent fan-on-fan violence in professional stadiums and identify, eject and prosecute rowdy, boozy fans.
And there are things that can be done.
To start, security needs to be more diligent in banning fans from even entering if they are already inebriated.
Second, if you get drunk and start a fight you should not only be charged with public drunkenness but with attempting to incite a riot or any other more serious charge the district attorney can file.
Third, use some of the profits from selling alcohol – at $10 a beer, it’s a tidy sum — to add security, cameras and any other measures that would pinpoint potential trouble makers.
Finally, it’s not so much the drinking in the stadium that’s the problem, it’s the four-hour tailgates leading up to the game. It may sound counter-intuitive, but part of the problem is alcohol is so expensive inside the stadiums and arenas, many people over indulge during tailgates. Maybe, just maybe, lowering the price a bit might keep some people from getting ripped before they even enter.
Whatever measures are taken, there needs to be a “no-tolerance” policy adopted. It should not be frightening to pack up the children and take them to a ball game. 
“People come to see the games, so they shouldn’t be warring in the stands when the game is going on,” Austin said. “Right now, you can’t bring children because everyone is cussing, upset and drunk (at the games).”
Austin is inviting others who feel they’ve been victims of stadium violence to send him their accounts, from which he’ll compile a detailed incident database. He says he has more than 200 signatures from friends and neighbors wanting to assist in his efforts, which he hopes leads all the way to legislation.
“We’re certainly receptive of whatever we can do to make this a better environment for everybody,” said Larry Minasian, 49ers director of stadium operations, Minasian. “Every effort that we make is geared toward eliminating to reducing fan violence.”
It’s just a game. Behave yourselves.