Riley Crabtree is a Columbus Dispatch OpinionN to writeR and student at the University of Miami.
An epic somersault on the field at Great American Ballpark made Reds fan William Hendon an instant legend last week.
The epic shock the 19-year-old Ohio State sophomore received when a Cincinnati police officer used a Taser on him after the tap is unfortunately legendary for what it says about violence in this country.
The tap and shock went viral. Hendon sparked memes, T-shirts and even admiration from Municipal Court Judge William Mallory, who said, “Everyone thinks you did that backflip.”
Hendon did indeed land the backflip, along with a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor, and another misdemeanor charge of obstruction.
While I can only somewhat imagine the mentality of a 19-year-old “kid,” I was stunned to see the look on his face when Hendon’s face crumpled in pain after being shocked by a Taser during the Reds-Guardians game. I wouldn’t say guys my age don’t make stupid decisions, but shocking Hendon with a Taser was going too far.
A nice mistake with not so nice consequences
Hendon made a decision, which he was sure would have consequences. As Judge Mallory said, he got his 15 minutes of fame, but at what cost?
The boy – and I emphasize the boy because Hendon is a 19-year-old teenager and his brain is not yet fully developed like a man’s – made what I would consider a funny mistake.
When thinking about the “why” of Hendon’s decision to sprint across the ball field – even if he decided to chat with a player – he probably wanted to feel the rush of the stadium, maybe even do something risky when he was young.
Is it necessary to be shocked with a Taser, arrested, held in jail, wrongly accused of a crime, several criminal charges, and banned from the ballpark for life? Absolutely not. I can understand the crimes, but the misdemeanor charges and the fact that I was shocked with a Taser is questionable.
Why is violence high on our minds?
Why do we always resort to violence when faced with quote-on-quote “criminals”?
What the police should have done, something they have not done in the past in similar situations, such as the “Don’t bag me bro” man, is trying to handle the situation – a truly non-threatening situation – without resorting to violence.
The situation was funny.
Research is being conducted into the use of violence in the arrest of a fan who crashed the Reds game, police say
Perhaps a handful of fans or players were a little upset by the unwanted interruption, but overall I’d bet the majority of fans found the situation comical. What damage did Hendon really cause?
Stopping him was understandable, but not in the way the police did.
Police have opened an investigation into the use of the Taser to arrest Hendon.
Why is violence so often the answer?
The situation raises another question: Are those working to protect people acting too harshly when confronted with a threat?
The number of people shot by police continues to rise every year. Even in prison systems we see appalling treatment of prisoners. Between 2020 and 2023, more than 219 people died in Ohio prisons alone, and 75.3% of them went unconvicted.
All these statistics, these situations stem from a lack of genuine concern for the safety of everyone. Where is the promised safety for a non-violent offender? Although his example is smaller in scale, Hendon is part of a deeper trend of guards overextending their duties.
I don’t condone anyone running around a professional baseball field during a game, especially considering the price is usually a criminal charge and a large fee. However, I think the police have been too harsh on Hendon.
Eventually, an officer, whether it was someone on the other side of the field or the one chasing him, would have caught him.
Places like the Great American Ball Park are filled with security personnel in almost every corner during games. Hendon would have been caught eventually, and he could have been arrested without a violent shock from a Taser or a tackle.
Hendon being targeted with a Taser in midfield is just one example of how guards choose to incite violence when it is not necessary.
We must change our methods of interacting with criminals, especially unarmed, non-violent or non-threatening criminals.
Riley Crabtree is a Columbus Dispatch OpinionN to writeR and student at the University of Miami.
This article originally appeared in The Columbus Dispatch: Cincinnati police overreacted to a backflipping Reds fan
