Published: May 18, 2008 12:41 am            

DUVALL: Tragedy: a new spectator sport

“Honey, there’s an armed man outside arguing with the police — and he won’t give himself up! Quick, grab the kids!”

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“And get them out here on the front lawn so they can watch!”

Seriously? That was your reaction, Riverside? I realize most of the people who reacted this way probably won’t be reading our paper. They live in Buffalo and we don’t circulate that far.

That doesn’t change my disgust in the reaction of the local yokels to Monday’s armed standoff on the I-190.

Since when did an armed standoff turn into a family event? The only thing missing from the scene on Niagara Street in Buffalo was a guy yelling “Cold beer here!” like at a Bisons game.

When it comes to spectator sports, I’d much rather be at the ballpark.

Of course, like many, I was glued to the television in our newsroom, while communicating with our reporter and photographer in the field working to cover the event. The story they came back with was a dramatic one, with a single exception — the ludicrous reaction of local residents. Nearly 1,000 of them milled around on Niagara Street overlooking the 190. They heckled the guy at the center of it; they heckled police. It was more sporting event than human drama. They snuck in and out of the live TV shots hollering nonsense and making asses of themselves.

Who are we kidding? They had a party.

Have we become so detached from reality that when a video-game scenario presents itself in the flesh, we react as if the people involved aren’t really in danger?

Had that man pulled the trigger on the gun he held to his head, a life would have ended. Had he turned it on police, a cop would have been shot. Had he shot into the crowd, a bystander could have been killed.

All the while, hundreds of morons — yes, you were acting like morons — stood blithely by, cheering for the gore. Egging on the man and the police like a group of high-schoolers standing in a circle chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Parents, distinguishable from their children only by their height, put on a display that should alarm and dismay any well-thinking human being. Not only were they a few hundred yards away from an armed standoff between a distressed man and the SWAT team, they actually brought their kids to watch.

“Hey, Johnny, you thought Grand Theft Auto was somethin’ — just wait ‘til the cops blow this guy’s head off with a sniper rifle!”

Solid parenting, huh?

It’s a little too easy to blame this sick phenomenon solely on video games or the media, but to say we are without blame would be disingenuous. All three local TV stations carried the entire standoff live for the three hours it lasted. All had extended segments about it on their 11 p.m. broadcasts. Everyone in town is talking about it. Stories like these become more dramatic because of the way they’re broadcast. The idea of watching an incident like this live makes it more dramatic than a next-day rendering of events ever could.

Still, there’s a difference between the detached curiosity of a television set in your living room and the morbid fascination — excitement, even — of wanting to be there in person.

If this is what passes for reasonable behavior or parenting, we’ve wandered far off course. We’re failed on a basic level, that of common sense and decency. Of keeping our children safe. Of showing a basic respect for a person at life’s lowest point, operating outside societal norms. Of respect for the men and women whose job requires them to bring people back into the fold unharmed — without getting shot themselves.

The potential for real-life tragedy isn’t cool. It’s tragic. And it isn’t a spectator sport.

Thankfully, this incident ended well. Though if it hadn’t, I can’t help wondering whether those classless gawkers would have cheered just the same.

And if they had, what would that say for the rest of us?

Eric DuVall is managing editor of the Tonawanda News. Contact him at 693-1000, ext. 112, or by e-mail to duvalle@gnnewspaper.com.

        

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