We have previously discussed how many families, including my own, have abandoned football stadiums to rowdies who have turned games into a contest of obnoxious drinking, swearing, and fighting. Games are now viewed as a license what is becoming the American version of Soccer hooligans. That element was on display this week with the video below of a New York Jets fan punching a woman in a Patriots jersey. According to reports, the man is Kurt Paschke, who was previously found guilty of negligent homicide in a stabbing death outside of a pizzeria in 1992. However, the Patriots fans come off as no better in the video, including the woman, identified as Jaclyn Nugent, 26, who is seen as hitting Paschke before he hits her.
Paschke’s mother, Colleen, insisted that the Patriots fans were harassing them throughout the game and pursued them after the game. She says that the Patriots fans yelled “get them” and were throwing punches. She insists her son was protecting her. The video does show the woman throwing punches before being hit herself.
According to reports, Paschke stabbed a man four times outside of the restaurant, though his lawyers insisted that he only used the knife after being severely beaten. The victim’s family insisted that Paschke got a special deal because his father was a sergeant in the police force.
It is interesting that the police have been seeking Paschke but reportedly not Nugent or the other fans in the melee. As shown by the wonderful photo below, Paschke seems like just the type of guy keeping families away from stadiums. However, the Patriots fans were clearly pursuing at the time of the videotaped attack. When reporters tracked down the woman’s brother, he reportedly responded with the articulate instruction to “Go screw!” From a torts perspective, if he was hit first, Paschke can claim self-defense and defense of others. Unlike his stabbing incident, he is responding in a commensurate fashion though we do not see what happened before the clip below.
Interestingly, the incident has created a debate over the common view that a man can never hit a woman. Many have objected that when a woman hits a man first, he is within his rights — and social standards — to hit back. Do you agree?
I could not view the video here as it was removed.. So, I went on Youtube and watched it.. I read some of the comments and most of them said the same thing over and over: “If you step up like a man you deserve to get hit like a man.” Does not make too much sense to me. A woman cannot be a man therefore she cannot step up like a man. I do not agree with how aggressive women have become in the past 10 years BUT I will never agree with this, ever. When you watch the video you see a fight and you continue to watch and then BAM, jaw dropping punch to a woman. If you did not feel the same thing as I did then you would have to agree with this: A woman is standing at a crosswalk, two men come up and are cursing and laughing about something or another, the woman looks at them and asks them to re-frame from using such language. The two men say some awful things to her and she hits one of them. He hits her back. The police arrest the woman because she initiated the physical confrontation. This is equality? The woman acted like a man and should take it like a man? Or are there exceptions to the rule? Say this woman was your Grandmother… She was raised in a time that men showed respect to woman. Being hit by a man would never dawn on her and will now scar her for the rest of her life (mentally). There is a certain expectation that we all have from other people whether it be man, woman, child, teacher, police officer, priest… etc. There are exceptions to all but this is not one that I agree with… Men just should not hit woman…period. That man will be titled for the rest of his life I am sure… It really takes a certain breed of men to hit women. Did you notice in the video how he punched her also…. not in self-defense but to put her down… to really hurt her… as he knew he could being a man double her size and strength.
People in pads indeed don’t “need to be” playing football and hitting each other. But, they should be allowed to do so w/ whatever safeguards are possible. Banning boxing, football, rugby, soccer, etc.is not the answer.
In my opinion, people don’t need to be hitting people, regardless of gender, and people in pads and helmets are no exception. It contributes to a culture of dominance and aggression. I have a good friend who suffers from brain damage and neurological problems as a result of his professional football career. It’s sad.
Stupidity is amazing….
Caterbo, No thanks needed. Just relating a little history. When I explain this story to my kids it’s hard for them to understand how difficult it was for a woman back then[pre WW1]. Obviously, there are still abusive situations and women still have difficulty getting out of them. But, if it wasn’t for her brother, and some muscle, she would probably have been beaten to death, or worse one of her daughters would have been. You know, there was a time when I would have gotten irate over a few comments here. But, I came to realize my experience is not mainstream. It took some radicalism to stop a family history of violence against women. We live and learn.
Looks as though the Jets management has steped in along with authorities filing charges.
“The Jets released a statement on Tuesday evening saying that the four people involved in the fight would be barred from attending future stadium events.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/nyregion/four-people-charged-in-brawl-at-jets-and-patriots-game.html?hp&_r=0
Also, thanks Nick S.
My mother always said, “It takes two to make a fight.” Thus, ending all arguments when my three siblings and I were declaring who started it.
sorry i must be the voice of dissent even though i taught my son and godsons never to hit a woman first. i also taught them that if hit you have the right to hit back. not with full strength but enough to let her know to back up.. i have 17 brothers 5 from my mother and 12 from my father and they taught us girls how to fight 14 girls. my brothers knew they couldnt and wouldnt always be there to protect us and we would have to do it ourselves.. with that said. they fought us like we fought them. it was those fights with my brothers that eventually saved my life when a ex slit my throat one day b4 my 20th birthday..
i saw this video they first jumped the guy and when he kept trying to walk away they got bolder and bolder. she hit him he got tired and hit her back and i noticed this article doesnt say that the mother also said the girl wiped blood off of her face and flung it at the mother.. that is angered the man.. his past shouldnt count.. he didnt start this. the people are only mad because they now know about his past..
a past we arent privy to and i for one am not going to take the word of the victims family. that their son did nothing wrong. i went and read some of the original stories about that and its said paschke was basically goaded into the fight.. which unfortunately ended up in a death……
hit me and im hitting back.. fortunately for my sons they have sisters and female cousins to handle these types of situations.. but what happens when the ladies arent there…..??????
Central casting is calling for Jackass movie #5
Leaving a game in the 5th inning should be a felony.
The first time my old man ever saw people smoke pot was a double header Roberto Clemente Bat Day @ Yankee Stadium. I just played dumb.
Bat days were actually useful. Our Little League team would go to Bat Days @ the Stadium and all the bats went to the team. This is back when bats were wood and they broke a lot.
Bat Night is about flying bats. The ball bats are issued to hit the flying bats. No, not birds on bats! I am talking those flying rodents with teeth and hair all over them. Only in Cardinal Nation.
What Mike S said too.
OS,
Next time go to a White Sox game!!
The worst stadium experience of my life was when we took both our boys and two neighbor boys to a Cardinals game in St. Louis. It was “Bat Night.” All kids 12 and under were given a free Little League bat. Of course, half the seats in the place were occupied by kids who clearly had not had their Ritalin that day.
Never in my life have I seen such looks of abject terror on the faces of grownups. No one thought to wear helmets that night. I remember absolutely nothing about the game. I am not sure I even took the time to look at the playing field. We left about the fifth inning. Like the dog who peed on the electric fence, I had about as much fun as I could stand.
And no one in my family understands why I like baseball so much better. It’s not that there’s never violence in the stands, but the game itself doesn’t foster it. See: Carlin, George.
Did the scumbag have the right to defend himself? Yes. Did he have the right to resort to violence? NO!
From my perspective, it is a matter of using physical power to victimize someone weaker–not necessarily sex. I grew up in a family of all girls except my pacifist father. We were free to express anger verbally, but no hitting-ever. A single hit would get an immediate period of confinement on the couch or sole responsibility for an otherwise shared chore. Assaultive behavior is just wrong, and everyone has a responsibility to walk away if possible. I think the person who is physically stronger, male or female-parent or child, has a greater responsibility because that person generally has more options to avoid injury without injuring another. However, I see no greater moral obligation for a man to let himself be injured because his attacker is a woman than for a woman to do the same.
randy, Yale games, particularly The Game, have always been drunken debacles. my old man would take me and point out the depravity and idiocy. He loved the games, as did I, and saw it as a teachable moment.
Randy, The only football game I ever attended in Texas was a Oiler’s game during the Earl Campbell era. My brother-in-law was a huge fan and unfortunately followed them to Tennessee[not literally]. It was civilized. It is the worst out east and the most civilized in the Midwest and South.
The Yale Band was always fun to watch when I was a kid. The one I remember most was back in the 60’s, when the birth control pill was new and controversial. They played “Love is a Many Splendored Thing w/ a formation of a sperm chasing an egg. The band got many lectures from administration over the years.
Nick that story about Yale reminds me of the question Micheal Moore asked about W Bush who was arrested for disorderly conduct at a Yale football game. He wondered just HOW one could stand out in a crowd of drunken fools to such an extent that he could get ARRESTED! THAT must be one hell of a story.