What were they thinking?

I really hope she's not trying to play the "y'all used bad language" card, since she called me a bitch in front of her daughter.

 

Fire gets rid of the evidence of the beating, plus we will get burned.

 

Sure she was talking to you and not her husband?

 

Excellent point.

 

Did anyone else witness the JayRockers incident in 138? FFS

 

no what happened?

 

Wait wait wait... you're telling me... that there was a child... wearing the jersey of a player for the other team... in MY general vicinity... and I wasn't notified so that I might douse said child in beer?

What the hell?

 

That's more of a road trip tradition, right?

 

We were thinking of a few things we might say, but then someone said that one of them was related to Jaime, so we backed off . . .

 

This is Kevin Payne. I dont spend a lot of time on Big Soccer and have very rarely posted something but this incident which many of you seem -- somehow -- to find amusing, is anything but to us.

The fans who were subject to the abuse and invective from a few thugs in the stands are loyal D.C. United supporters. A little good natured stick for wearing a Sweden shirt -- the woman is from Sweden, by the way -- would have been fine, and probably expected.

But calling a woman a "fcking Swedish whore" in front of her children is the act of cowards. This apparently didn't happen just once. It happened over and over, and even ended up being directed at the woman's 3 year old daughter, who was wearing a Ljunberg shirt, reducing their 11 year old son to tears. Very, very brave indeed. That's not even a little bit funny.

This kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated. We will have DCU staff stationed in that area for the rest of the season, and will meet with Metro PD to let them know that we will be ejecting any fans who act in that manner toward other fans. Anyone seen throwing a smoke-bomb -- or any other projectile -- towards the field will also be ejected, and could be subject to arrest. We are not going to fool around with this, and we are not going to let a few idiots ruin the fun for everyone.

I've discussed this with Oscar at length and he understands our concerns and supports our position. If the people in this discussion, or the people who acted in this manner, don't like it, tough. Stay home. Come see me and if you have season tickets we'll give you the balance of your money back. But if you can't support us without acting like a cowardly punk then we don't want you in the Stadium.

By the way, you don't have any "rights" to act in this manner. When you buy a ticket to the match you agree to abide by the rules we have set, and those rules expressly forbid this type of behavior.

I will be over in front of the Barra area before the match on Saturday if any of you want to discuss this.

Kevin

 

Glad to see the complaints of a rich woman who chooses to support a player from the opposing team during an important match, merit more direct intervention from our Front Office than our horrible performance on the field, lack of progress on a stadium, and incompetent coaching staff.

 

I would prefer not to use this medium to convey my thoughts, but I will not be at the match on Saturday and therefore unable to talk with you.

I did interact with this blonde woman during the USOC final. I said to her, quote: "Probably not best to wear a Sweden jersey when we are playing Seattle in a cup final".

With her small daughter by her side, she came up towards where I stood in 135 and said to me, quote "Shut up, bitch."

I did not curse at her, and did nothing to provoke this reaction. Officer Corrigan witnessed this reaction from her, and I am sure he would be happy to relate this to you if you so wish.

While I understand that you take all complaints seriously, I believe there is another side to this complaint that you are quite unaware of. Thugs may have yelled horrible things at her, but she freely used coarse and crude language in front of her own children to people who said nothing of the sort to her.

 

Can we close this thread and move on????

 

...

 

I read this thread last night and I was extremely agitated by some of the statements. Rather than reacting immediately in anger, I decided to respond this morning with a cooler response.

I don't believe that this situation is being handled correctly. Because I have neither first hand knowledge nor have I received witness statements / explanations, I would withhold judgment on the facts until I have a more complete picture of the incident. Then, and only then, would I attempt to resolve this matter for all interested parties. I don't believe that this is being done.

Second, IF there is some sort of communication to the interested parties, the communication should be via the leader not through a message board.

The inflammatory pejoratives (thugs, idiots, punks) is unacceptable from the president of DCU to some of his most passionate supporters. He may be trying to single out individuals, but his shot gun approach at the Barra is impacting others not related to this incident. For example, to threaten these same passionate fans - i.e., "the people in this discussion" to stop being customers is, again, unacceptable. I've been here since day 1 and I'll continue to be a DCU supporter long after the current DCU president has left.

I do acknowledge and appreciate the support that the DCU president has provided in the past, such as resolving the CSC problems by stationing MPD in the Barra a few years ago. Lastly, I fully concur with his statement of the elimination of containers (cans, cups, bottles, etc.) being thrown.

 

Joe, well-said, and and my initial reaction was the same as yours. I thought about it again and I came up with a different theory, though:

First, Kevin's always been fair to us. He's not in the tank for us, of course -- he's gotta balance both Barra and non-Barra interests -- but it'd be unfair to say that KP and the rest of the front office haven't looked out for the Barra in the past.

Second, I think Kevin's tackling two separate issues here. Issue one is what happened in front of the Barra last Weds. I wasn't down front, so I have no first-hand knowledge and won't comment on it. I expect that's getting handled separately. The second issue though, and the one that I suspect was Kevin's purpose in posting here, is that he wants to deal with this thread, which seems to be celebrating the incident. There's an awful lot of back-slapping and self-congratulation going on in this thread. I think his point in posting here (although I think it could have been done with a little more tact) is to say that the incident is a serious thing and should NOT be glorified or encoraged. If this thread, intentionally or unintentionally, is sowing a seed that would lead to this kind of abuse becoming part of the Barra culture, I think Kevin wants to nip that in the bud.

 

Wow, this just got real...
So obviously both parties here are in the wrong, but lets face it, its much easier to point a finger at the Barras. So unless we want to be sanctioned all to hell by DCU, and potentially the MPD, we all have a responsibility to keep things from escalating to this point. So have fun and do what we all come to RFK to do, Support United and enjoy the company of our Barra Brava Family!