During the NBA playoffs, Boston Celtic superstar Paul Pierce was hit with a $25,000 dollar fine for "making menacing gestures" towards the Atlanta Hawks bench during a game.
What were the "menacing gestures" in question? Well, apparently, they were gang signs.
Of course, Pierce denied the allegations and made fast amends, issuing a statement that said "I one hundred percent do not in any way promote gang violence or anything close to it. I am sorry if it was misinterpreted that way."
But that's not how the NFL sees it. In fact, the National Football League has once again gone that extra mile-a mile towards the absolutely ridiculous perhaps-when earlier this week it was announced they've hired "experts" to review game film and determine if players are flashing street gang signs during on-field celebrations.
All of this raises a number of questions.
First off, what are these signs exactly?
As Jacksonville Jaguar receiver told the LA Times, "Guys come from all over the country and who knows what they're really doing? People have signs for their kids, signs for their fraternities. How do you differentiate who's really throwing up gang signs?"
Secondly, who are these experts? If the NFL is trying to decrease gang activity and its relationship to their league, then who you might wonder are they hiring to tell what from what?
The Okay sign for example, both means, well, everything's okay and also is used to distinguish the dreaded Crips.
In fact, the three extended fingers found in an upside down ‘okay' sign is used to denote Watts, while the right side up sign means Crips, thrown together by someone who understands such things this means ‘Watts Crips and thrown by someone who doesn't quite get it, this sign means ‘yeah, I just got crushed by the defensive back, and even though I'm having a tough time distinguishing top from bottom but really, I can stay in coach.'
See the problem.
Anyone with any common sense will realize that the only people you can really hire to tell what from what would be gang members and giving the bad guys jobs to help stop more bad guys is the kind of logic one would normally associate with, well, US foreign policy.
Not that the NFL thinks this way, in their opinion they're just being proactive. Then again, this a league where players routinely try to main each other and the league enforces a 15 yard penalty for taunting.
So really, go figure.
Gang Signs
I am not in a gang, and I have never been in one, wanted to be in one, or had anything to do with any gangs. I didn't grow up around them. When I was younger I knew some teens who thought gangs were cool, and would take gang pics. Now, my nephew thinks the same think. I don't know what the draw to gangs is. I am guessing it's because something he may have seen, on the net, school or with some friends. My nephew does not fit what anyone would call someone joining a gang, he lives with his dad, my brother, he sees his mom often, and I personally take him places, and involve him in all sort of activity. I've seen his profiles on pages on the net, with gang things on them. He knows the signs and isn't a gang member. I personally think it has something to do with my brother marring again, and the whole step mom thing, she isn't very nice, and before she came along my brother and my nephew were really close. But anyway my point is, you don't need to employ gang members to enforce anything. It might be more precise, like when casinos hire thieves who once robbed them. Th e difference with the two that I see is people in gangs talk, and it's easier to find out what they are doing. People who are stealing may also talk but not nearly as much, and they all aren't giving away secrets, until they stop what they are doing, because there is money involved. Well that's just my two cents as they say.