Mexican soccer league suspends all Sunday matches after fan riot
Warning, the following article contains video of disturbing and graphic violence.
A Mexican soccer match between Querétaro and Atlas ended in horrifying fashion on Saturday, with a massive fan riot.
The Liga MX match was suspended and not resumed after pausing in the 60th minute. Fans could be seen fighting across Querétaro’s Estadio Corregidora, from the stands to on the field. Some images, which Yahoo Sports is not sharing, showed multiple bodies lying motionless on the ground.
TV Azteca’s David Medrano Felix later reported an initial death toll of 17, which remains unofficial as authorities sort out the aftermath. An official report claimed 44 people had been wounded, with two serious cases and none dead. A different report from the body governing emergency services had the number of wounded at 22, all men.
Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro himself said there had been no deaths Saturday night.
Liga MX president Mikel Arriola tweeted out a statement denouncing the violence, which roughly translated to:
Unacceptable and unfortunate violence in the Estadio Corregidora in Querétaro. Those responsible for the lack of security in the stadium will be punished as an example. The safety of our players and fans is priority! We will continue reporting.
A subsequent statement from Liga MX announced the league had initiated an in-depth investigation into incidents that took place both inside and outside the stadium and asked the disciplinary commission of the Mexican Football Federation to prepare for sanctions. Criminal complaints will also be filed for the acts of violence.
The statement confirmed some people had been hospitalized, but provided no numbers nor indication of any deaths. The match will reportedly be resumed at a later date, as stipulated by league rules.
Querétaro governor Mauricio Kuri also denounced the violence, demanding that the institutions involved answer for what led to the riot, while Querétaro and Atlas released their own statements calling for the authorities to hold the perpetrators responsible.
Hours later, Mexico’s TUDN reported that all Liga MX games scheduled for Sunday had been suspended, which the league’s players union had requested.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/reports-russia-observe-ceasefire-2-070133818.html
Apparent beating of 49ers fan was kept secret for days, raising questions as Super Bowl nears
Officials faced mounting questions Thursday about why they didn’t inform the public about the apparent beating of a San Francisco 49ers fan outside SoFi Stadium on Sunday and whether more security measures are needed before the Super Bowl.
It took three days and an inquiry from The Times before authorities in Inglewood acknowledged the incident, which left 40-year-old restaurant owner Daniel Luna in a medically induced coma.
Luna was found bleeding in a stadium parking lot just after 4 p.m. Sunday, about half an hour into the NFC championship showdown against the Rams, yet it remains unclear who made the 911 call that ultimately resulted in his transport to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
It’s also not been established when law enforcement was informed of the incident. Inglewood police said they launched their investigation around 7 p.m. after emergency room personnel noted assault injuries on Luna and summoned officers. But the L.A. County Fire Department said law enforcement was at the scene of the apparent attack hours earlier when paramedics arrived.
Some experts said the timing of the incident — weeks before the nation’s attention turns to the stadium for the Super Bowl — created a “PR nightmare.” Others said it raises important questions about safety and security protocols during big games, noting that it’s not the first such violent incident in the highly charged Los Angeles-San Francisco sports rivalry.
On Wednesday, hours before The Times revealed the attack, public health officials, local leaders and representatives from the NFL and SoFi Stadium held a news conference to discuss COVID-19 safety protocols for the Super Bowl, but the beating was never mentioned.
Horace Frank, a former assistant Los Angeles police chief who oversaw major game security operations, said it was unconscionable for authorities to delay in revealing the apparent assault.
“You should put out that information to the public because the perpetrator is a public safety hazard and threat to the community,” Frank told The Times. “You want to get the persons responsible for this heinous attack into custody as soon as possible.”
As of Thursday, no information on suspects had been released. Inglewood Police Lt. Geoffrey Meeks denied that there was an attempt to cover up Luna’s beating in the run-up to the Super Bowl, saying, “We don’t have anything to hide.”
He said the department’s public silence was in keeping with standard practice for ongoing investigations.
“We tend to release information when we have exhausted all other investigative leads or are looking for specific information,” he said, adding that publicizing cases can lead to a flood of questionable tips that “forces us to spend time and resources to investigate every bit of information that comes in.”
“Sometimes that information could be someone’s personal hypothesis,” Meeks said. “That is why we don’t tend to come out right away with information.”
Yet the city only weeks ago released information seeking the public’s help hours after a shooting at an Inglewood house party killed four people.
Veteran PR executive Fred Cook, who directs USC’s Center for Public Relations, said he generally counsels large organizations “to get the information out as quickly and accurately as possible,” in part to reassure the public “we are doing everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“The fact that the Super Bowl is being played there in a short period of time does create a different circumstance for what you communicate,” said Cook, who has advised companies including Amazon, Nintendo and McDonald’s.
Eric Rose, a public relations executive and well-known crisis manager in Southern California, said he was giving the Rams and stadium officials the “benefit of the doubt” because they may not have had all the facts, but “what they do going forward is going to decide their reputation in the community.”
So far, the response has not been robust.
In a statement provided to The Times, SoFi Stadium officials said they were “aware and saddened by the incident.”
“Our thoughts are with Mr. Luna’s friends and family during this difficult time. We are working with law enforcement officials in their investigation,” stadium representatives said.
SoFi Stadium spokeswoman Kristi Mexia, when asked for a follow-up interview to that statement, said, “This is the only comment we are able to provide at the moment.”
She did not respond to a list of questions, including when stadium officials first learned of the incident and what they are doing to ensure the safety of fans at the Super Bowl on Feb. 13.
Social media accounts for the city of Inglewood were similarly mum as of Thursday afternoon. Mayor James T. Butts, who also spoke publicly after the house party shooting, had not responded to a request for comment.
The recently completed $5-billion stadium has transformed Inglewood into a sports and entertainment destination even as it has led to gentrification and other challenges for many of the area’s longtime residents.
The Super Bowl — typically a windfall for the cities that host it — is projected to bring in as much as $477 million for the Los Angeles area, with total tax revenue up to $22 million, according to recent reports.
Though the motives for the SoFi incident are unclear, it has parallels to the infamous 2011 beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow outside Dodger Stadium. But in that case, police reported the beating to the media within hours and asked the public for help in finding suspects. And there were multiple witnesses in the Stow case; Luna flew to L.A. and attended the game alone, a friend told The Times.
Still, David Lira, a member of Stow’s legal team, said the incident at SoFi “is not a surprise.”
“It’s foreseeable, and because it’s foreseeable, that’s why you have to have the owners always constantly reviewing their security plan and changing it according to what teams and crowds are coming into the stadium,” Lira said. “It’s common sense.”
Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the stadium said some parts of the lots don’t have full camera coverage. Most of the security is focused inside and immediately around the stadium, and the parking lots are left to people directing traffic, they said.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department said Luna was found on the ground near Lot L, which sits off Stadium Drive across from an artificial lake south of the stadium.
Even inside the stadium, multiple videos have emerged in recent months of violent fan altercations that lasted a considerably long time before security intervention. The total number of altercations was not immediately available.
Sources said the stadium has been encouraged to bring in more L.A. County sheriff’s deputies to supplement security after internal concerns arose that there was not enough law enforcement to police often drunk and angry fans.
L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said last week that he has assigned 380 personnel to the Super Bowl to help ensure the safest game possible.
Rose, the crisis manager, said now is the time for SoFi Stadium and Inglewood to be proactive. He mentioned posting rewards to assist law enforcement with finding the perpetrators of the apparent attack, and also making it clearer what security measures are in place for people attending the games.
“They should be calling for anyone with video or information to contact a particular number,” he said.
Police said they would be scouring video footage, with Meeks on Thursday noting that there was an extensive amount to be reviewed.
He said he did not know whether detectives had spotted Luna on the video or whether surveillance cameras that cover the exterior of the stadium include the parking lot where Luna was found.
Meeks described investigators as aggressively working on the case but offered few details.
He also said that paramedics from the L.A. County Fire Department who were called to help Luna did not summon police.
Otherwise, he said, “we would have been on this thing from the beginning.”
Chad Sourbeer, a fire battalion chief, said the department’s preliminary review of the call indicated Meeks’ account was not completely accurate. Law enforcement officers were at the scene when paramedics arrived, he said — although he could not specify which agency the officers belonged to. There was also a large crowd gathered near Luna, he said.
“L.A. County Fire Department did not need to report this because law enforcement was already there,” he said. “Our mission was to take care of the patient, not law enforcement. Our job was to assess the patient and save their life.”
More than 70,000 people were in attendance at Sunday’s game — including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — but so far no public video footage of the incident has emerged.
Alex Comisar, a spokesman for Garcetti, noted that the incident was outside the mayor’s jurisdiction and that neither he nor the LAPD knew about it until it was reported in the news. Los Angeles Police Department officials immediately reached out to their counterparts in Inglewood to offer assistance, he said.
“Senseless acts of violence like this one have no place in civilized society,” Comisar said. “The mayor’s thoughts are with the victim of this horrific assault and his loved ones, and he hopes that whoever committed this crime is found quickly and brought to justice.”
The 49ers expressed similar condolences in a statement to The Times.
“What happened to Daniel Luna is reprehensible, and we strongly condemn all violence. We know local authorities in Los Angeles are conducting a full investigation and we’re here to support them however we can. Our thoughts and prayers go to Mr. Luna, his family, friends, and the medical team providing him care,” the team said.
As for security at the Super Bowl, Comisar said highly trained law enforcement professionals were leading a “multi-agency effort” to secure the game.
“Local residents and fans traveling in from out of town should know that they are safe, and that all the necessary steps are being taken to protect their well-being,” he said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/apparent-beating-49ers-fan-kept-232219623.html
AFCON: Report into deadly stadium crush will focus on who closed gate that led to loss of lives
By Aleks Klosok, Joel Kouam and Mitchell McCluskey, CNN
January 25, 2022
Douala, Cameroon (CNN)The president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has said a report into a stadium crush in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé will center on who closed the gate at the Olembe Stadium.
CNN’s Joel Kouam reported from Cameroon and Mitchell McCluskey wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Niamh Kennedy, Nimi Princewill and Schams Elwazer contributed to this report.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/africa/cameroon-stadium-collapse-intl-afr/index.html
Stampede at Liberia church gathering kills 29
Reuters 1/20/22
MONROVIA, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A stampede at a church gathering in Liberia’s capital Monrovia killed 29 people overnight, the deputy information minister told state radio on Thursday.
The incident occurred during an all-night Christian worship event at New Kru Town, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the capital, Jalawah Tonpo said.
“The doctors said 29 persons died and some are on the critical list,” Tonpo said, calling into state radio from a nearby hospital. “This is a sad day for the country.”
Exodus Morias, a resident who attended the event, told Reuters the stampede began after a group of armed men rushed the crowd in an attempt to stage a robbery.
People gather outside the hospital after a stampede at a church gathering kills 29 people in Monrovia, Liberia January 20, 2022.
“We saw a group of men with cutlasses and other weapons coming toward the crowd,” Morias said. “While running, some people dropped and others fell on the ground and walked over them.”
Bands of Liberian street gangs known as Zogos commonly commit robberies with machetes and other small weapons.
Police spokesman Moses Carter declined to comment on what caused the incident. He said an investigation is under way.
President George Weah, who is expected to visit the site on Thursday afternoon, declared a three-day period of national mourning and said the Liberian Red Cross and Disaster Management Agency had been called in to assist victims, his office said.
49ers, Cowboys fans stampede into AT&T Stadium
Watch: 49ers, Cowboys fans stampede into AT&T Stadium
Jan 16, 2022
Jon Machota of The Athletic posted the following video of fans stampeding into AT&T Stadium when doors opened for the Wild Card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys two hours before kickoff.
Create a custom 49ers jersey ⇨
Why bother if fans should have assigned seats?
“For a typical game, the Dallas Cowboys’ home at AT&T Stadium can hold around 80,000 people. But for big games, the capacity can expand to 100,000 with its extensive standing room only area,” explained Andrew Joseph of For the Win.
Kickoff between the two teams is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. PT (3:30 p.m. CT). The Cowboys are currently 3.5-point favorites.
With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers currently taking care of business against the Philadelphia Eagles, a 49ers win would set up a matchup against the Green Bay Packers next weekend.
https://www.49erswebzone.com/articles/155021-watch-49ers-cowboys-fans-stampede-into-att-stadium/
Oregon Concert Shooting Leaves Six People Hospitalized, No Suspect in Custody
An event featuring rappers Lil Bean and Zay Bang was being held at Eugene’s WOW Hall at the time.
By AP 1/15/22
Six people were shot during a concert at an event hall in Oregon on Friday night (Jan. 14), and the suspected shooter was not yet in custody, police said.
Officers responded to the WOW Hall in Eugene after reports of a shooting around 9:30 p.m., police said in a statement.
“What law enforcement found when they came on scene is what you would exactly expect when six people just got shot,” Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said at a news conference. “People are just trying to get out of here, their friends are on the ground, they’re trying to help.”
Six people were taken to the hospital, and at least one of them was in critical condition, Skinner said. The extent of the other injuries was not immediately clear.
The shooting happened in a back parking lot outside the venue, police and WOW Hall leaders said.
A concert featuring Lil Bean and Zay Bang, and other artists, was being held at the hall at the time.
Police said no suspect was in custody. Skinner described “chaos” when officers arrived, and said investigators had not received much information from possible witnesses.
WOW Hall released a statement on its website acknowledging the shooting but declining to speculate on any details.
“We at the WOW Hall want to thank all first responders who came so quickly to ensure everyone’s safety and administer first aid,” the message said. “We believe all staff and volunteers are safe and accounted for.”
Investigators have not determined whether the shooting was random or targeted, the police chief said.
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/eugene-oregon-concert-shooting-lil-bean-zay-bang-1235019601/
Eagles fans claim injury, deny that WFT offered medical aid after FedEx Field railing collapse
Eagles fans claim injury, deny that WFT offered medical aid after FedEx Field railing collapse
The Washington Football Team claims that it offered medical assistance to fans who fell over a railing at FedEx Field on Sunday as it collapsed near Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Some of those fans claim otherwise.
In interviews with the Philadelphia Inquirer and ESPN on Monday, multiple Eagles fans said that they were injured during the incident and that the team did not offer onsite medical attention.
“They didn’t ask if anyone was hurt, and they sure as hell didn’t ask if anybody needed medical attention,” 26-year-old Andrew Collins of Brooklawn, New Jersey told ESPN’s Tim McManus. “The only thing the staff said to us was to get the eff off the field.”
Another 26-year-old fan named Mike Naimoli from from Sicklerville, New Jersey told ESPN that he was told by staff: “Everybody get the eff off the field.” He added: “[they] quickly grabbed us away from Jalen and shooed us up into the stands.”
Naimoli and Collins are friends. Both claim injuries to themselves and others. Both told similar stories to the Inquirer.
WFT: Everyone ‘was offered onsite medical evaluation’
The Washington Football Team released a statement Sunday evening addressing the incident:
“To our knowledge, everyone involved was offered onsite medical evaluation and left the stadium of their own accord,” the statement reads. “We’re very glad no one appears to have been seriously injured. The safety of our fans and guests is of the utmost importance and we are looking into what occurred.”
Naimoli told ESPN that statement was “completely incorrect.”
Report: EMS team responded quickly
A source told ESPN that “Prince George’s County EMS personnel were on the scene within five minutes and began treating those who needed medical attention,” according to McManus. That source added that staff weren’t aware of anyone else needing medical attention in the aftermath of the collapse.
In case you missed it, here’s video of the incident:
Here’s another angle from the stands:
Fans’ medical claims
According to ESPN, Naimoli is the fan wearing the green No. 1 Hurts jersey getting a selfie with the Eagles quarterback. Naimoli told the Inquirer that his initial instinct was to get up and take the selfie. He said that he felt numbness at the time of the collapse.
“Obviously, there was a bunch of people on the barricades,” Naimoli told the Inquirer. “That was applying pressure and made my fingers go numb for a second and turn purple instantly.”
He claims he later experienced pain in his hand and neck on the drive home and that he spent the night at New Jersey’s Inspira Medical Center. He told the Inquirer he didn’t suffer broken bones and was advised to get an MRI if the pain persists. He told ESPN he was diagnosed with a cervical strain, a head injury and elbow and knee contusions.
Collins told ESPN that he experienced lower back pain and a pulled groin on Monday. Naimoli’s 24-year-old fiancée Morgan French and Collins’ 22-year-old girlfriend Marissa Santarlasci claim “substantial leg bruising,” according to ESPN.
Was area restricted, properly designated?
A Washington Football Team spokesperson told the Inquirer and ESPN that the section that collapsed was designated for wheelchair access under the Americans with Disabilities Act — that the railing was attached to a wheelchair ramp instead of anchored in concrete and not intended to be load-bearing.
Naimoli told ESPN there was no signage indicating that access was restricted and that they were granted access by a security staffer.
“The security guard at the bottom, we [asked] him, ‘Can we go over there?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah,’” Naimoli said. “If Washington Football Team wants to come out and say that the area is restricted, there was no documentation of that at all.
“The one security guard that was right in front of that area swept us in there and was like, ‘OK, go ahead over to the tunnel.’”
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy addressed the incident in a statement to ESPN:
“We are reviewing the matter with the club to understand what happened and to ensure it does not happen again.”
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/eagles-fans-claim-injury-deny-that-wft-offered-medical-aid-after-fed-ex-field-railing-collapse-024643467.html
Astroworld deaths: Victims were as young as 14 in ‘mass casualty incident’ at Travis Scott festival
Crowd surging at Travis Scott‘s Astroworld music festival led to eight deaths and “scores” of injuries, according to authorities.
Officials declared the Houston concert a “mass casualty incident” after getting a call Friday evening to the festival that took place at NRG Park. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance at what the festival’s website considered a sold-out show.
The surge began around the time that Scott, a festival headliner and founder, took the stage.
“The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said at an overnight media briefing. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.”
Here’s everything we know about the music festival that turned fatal.
How many Astroworld deaths, injuries?
According to Houston authorities, eight attendees died after what they describe as a crowd surge at the Astroworld festival Friday night shortly after 9 p.m.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a Saturday afternoon news conference there were 25 people transported to the hospital, and 13 are still hospitalized. A 10-year-old is in critical condition, officials said. There were scores of other injuries, Peña said. At least 11 suffered cardiac arrest, he added.
The victims who died ranged in age from 14 to 27, Turner said. One person’s age was unknown. Autopsies will be performed before the victims are released to their families, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said.
Six of the eight victims’ names have been released, among them: Danish Baig, 27; Rodolfo Angel Peña, 23; Axel Acosta, 21; Franco Patino, 21; Brianna Rodriguez, 16; and John Hilgert, 14.
More:Astroworld Festival victims were teens, college students and at least one aspiring model
Officials who spoke during Saturday’s news conference did not confirm causes of death for the eight victims. Rodolfo Peña’s brother, Guadalupe Peña, told USA TODAY authorities said his brother died of cardiac arrest while at the show.
Many others were treated at the scene, where a field hospital had been set up. About 300 people were examined at that site throughout the day Friday.
Astroworld promoters had medical personnel and an emergency transport component at the festival that “were quickly overwhelmed” as the injury count mounted at what the fire chief described as a “really a chaotic event.”
What are Astroworld witnesses saying?
Astroworld festivalgoers said they witnessed dozens trampled by the massive crowd, teenagers giving each other CPR and fans screaming out for help that was slow to come Friday night.
“People were trying to get closer to Travis and ignored the pile of people they were stepping on. Some were crying, others were bleeding from their faces and I was the only one helping while the crowd just danced away,” professional DJ Billy Nasser told USA TODAY.
Nasser has worked and attended festivals such as Rolling Loud and said nothing compared to the “madness” he experienced at Astroworld. He noted there was a barricade around the crowd for Scott’s set that made it “nearly impossible” to get out.
‘They were not breathing’: Astroworld survivors recount bodies trampled, overwhelmed security
Rene Perez and Charles Alford also attended the festival and were shocked by the number of people passing out or being crushed by the crowd. As people in need were screaming, Perez said paramedics struggled to get through the crowd.
“It was insane and dangerous, it was dark and you saw people reaching their hands out from the ground, and me and my friend tried to help them,” Perez told USA TODAY. “It just felt like staffing was low, and it felt like we were the only ones helping.”
More witnesses react:Astroworld attendees call Travis Scott’s festival ‘dangerous,’ say help was slow to arrive
What is a crowd surge?
A crowd surge can occur at festivals, concerts and large events when attendees collectively push forward which can lead to large groups of people falling, shoving or being pressured to move past barricades.
Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite was near the front of the crowd and said it seemed the surge at Friday’s concert ”happened all at once.”
“Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” Satterwhite said. “And so we immediately started doing CPR, and moving people right then, and that’s when I went and met with the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.”
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner called for calm and urged people not to “speculate” about what caused the surge.
“I think it’s very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight,” Finner said. “We’re going to do an investigation and find out because it’s not fair to the producers, to anybody else involved, until we determine what happened, what caused the surge,” he said.
How do crowd surges cause deaths?
It’s usually not because victims are trampled: They’re squeezed so hard they can’t get any oxygen.
When a crowd surges, the force can be strong enough to bend steel. It can also hit people from two directions: one from the rear of the crowd pushing forward and another from the front of the crowd trying to escape. If people have fallen, causing a pileup, pressure can even come from above. Victims’ lungs are caught in the middle.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/11/06/travis-scott-astroworld-what-we-know-mass-casualty-event/6317049001/
Texas drag race driver slams into spectators, killing 2 kids
Texas drag race driver slams into spectators, killing 2 kids
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — A driver lost control during a Texas drag racing event on an airport runway and slammed into a crowd of spectators, killing two children and injuring eight other people, authorities said.
A 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy were killed in the crash Saturday afternoon at an event called “Airport Race Wars 2″ at the Kerrville-Kerr County Airport, police said in a news release. The organized event was attended by thousands and involved drivers speeding down a runway as they competed for cash.
The driver “lost control and left the runway, crashing into parked vehicles and striking spectators who were observing the races,” Kerrville police said.
The injured victims were taken to various hospitals, including a 46-year-old woman who was listed in critical condition. The majority of the other injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, although the condition of a 26-year-old man was unknown, authorities said. A 4-year-old boy and a 3-month-old girl were taken to a hospital for precautionary evaluations.
Authorities have not released the identities of the two children who were killed at the event about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio.
The Kerrville Convention and Visitors Bureau’s website promoted the event as an “action packed, family-friendly day” in which fans could watch the “fastest drag cars compete for over $8000 in total prizes.”
Upward of 3,500 people were in attendance, according to Louis Amestoy, a freelance journalist who was at the event.
The race was an eighth of a mile (0.2 kilometers) long, and water-filled plastic barriers lined the course. But Amestoy said they didn’t extend past the finish line, leaving no protection between spectators and cars as they were slowing down at the end of the race.
Spectators could get within about 15 feet (4.6 meters) of the track, and many watched the race from lawn chairs in the absence of stands. Organizers reminded people to stay in the grass and off the asphalt, Amestoy told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
The driver was nearing the end of the strip when the car veered off course, Amestoy said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-drag-race-driver-slams-152900035.html
Nets briefly put Barclays Center on lockdown after protest for Kyrie Irving turns ugly
Nets briefly put Barclays Center on lockdown after protest for Kyrie Irving turns ugly
Kyrie Irving was neither seen nor heard at the Brooklyn Nets‘ home opener on Sunday, but the effects of his decision to refuse to get vaccinated were on full display.
Ahead of the game, a large group of vaccine mandate protesters appeared outside the Barclays Center, demanding Irving be allowed to play NBA games again. Even though he is barred from only Nets home games due to New York protocols, the Nets have announced Irving will not play until the situation is resolved.
Wearing shirts reading slogans such as “Stand with Kyrie” and chanting “Let Kyrie play,” the crowd soon turned aggressive and stormed past the barricades outside the arena.
Newsday’s Barbara Barker reported the group included supporters of President Donald Trump and people with Black Lives Matter signs, while another source claimed to hear a reference to the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
The situation was ugly enough that the Nets shut down admission into the Barclays Center while trying to keep protesters out of the building, per Barker. The lockdown was ultimately brief, with Newsday’s Greg Logan reporting minutes later that arena personnel and police got the situation under control and fans with tickets were being admitted again.
The Barclays Center later released a short statement confirming the lockdown:
“Barclays Center briefly closed its doors today in order to clear protestors from the main doors on the plaza and ensure guests could safely enter the arena. Only ticketed guests were able to enter the building and the game proceeded according to schedule.”
The effects of Kyrie Irving’s vaccine refusal
As the situation of his vaccine refusal has escalated, Irving has become a figure around which anti-vaccine mandate voices have rallied, garnering shows of support from several conservative figureheads, including Senator U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr.
Current New York vaccine statutes require home players to be vaccinated to get on the court, which led to Irving missing the Nets’ media day and preseason games. The Nets found a loophole so he could practice, but the team eventually decided it didn’t want Irving playing if he was limited to only road games. It has also held off on any talks regarding a potential $186 million extension for the star point guard.
The repercussions of Irving’s refusal to get vaccinated as his team begins its season have led to a predictable uproar even as the player himself has remained relatively quiet, limiting his statements to cryptic tweets and a single Instagram Live session in which he insisted he has no plans to retire.
Irving has tried to stress that he is not anti-vaccine and merely trying to be a “voice for the voiceless,” as a member of his camp put it, but it seems the people behind him have plenty of voice if Sunday’s events are any judge.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nets-barclays-center-lockdown-kyrie-irving-protest-nba-220143596.html