Admittedly, I’m a Giants fan, and it used to be a good time bantering back and forth with the Dodger blue. About 5-6 years ago things started to change, though I’m not sure why. What was friendly banter became food and drink pelting the back of my head, and if I turned around I would be greeted with “wanna do something about it?” Calling security to deal with the thugs only aggravated the thugs that weren’t escorted out. After being followed to my car by three idiots looking for a fight a few years ago I’m done. I had to lock my family in the car while these thugs rocked the vehicle and harassed us while we waited for the entire hour long process of exiting the parking lot (and no security in the parking lot anywhere).

I’ve been to parks all over this country, lots of great fans. Wish I could say the same for my local park. I’d rather drive to Anaheim.

http://garlicfriesandbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/a-dodger-fan/

Geez. Sorry about the parking situation. Just one crisis after another…..

Anyway, the only solution to this problem is to stop selling beer at the games. The riff raff will stay away and get their buzz on somewhere else.

Well, then show us the people who are getting beaten within an inch of their lives, or stabbed, in other stadiums.

All of that is subjective, though, and readily dismissible.

However, the current debate over Dodgers Stadium safety begs attention to the intersection of Dodgers and L.A. gang culture. The interlocking L.A. insignia is a now-well-established trope in gang parlance. It’s flashed as a gang sign; it’s among the most common prison and gang tattoos. The gangs it’s most-readily affiliated with change upon occasion, but creeps have been co-opting the otherwise-benign branding for decades. I know this happens to some extent in most major cities, but the problem is especially pronounced in Los Angeles.

It’s easy to see–even on television broadcasts, but especially in person–that large numbers in attendance at Dodgers game have little or no interest in the game itself, and quite a lot more investment in their memberships in groups that promote violence and other garbage that doesn’t belong at ballgames.

Hopefully, Los Angeles will once again have a football team soon, and it will siphon off some of that cultural detritus. Of course, I’d prefer if these social trends would simply reverse, as opposed to shifting elsewhere, but what I’ve read and heard from friends who work with these sorts of things is that gang affiliation has been on the rise in Los Angeles for about ten years, and gang violence has risen sharply since the expiration of the Brady bill. So, I suspect things will get worse before they get better.

My biggest problem is with the way the Dodgers run the place. I am not the type to send complaint letters, but I’ve done that with the Dodgers. Two examples:

1) I went to the same-day ticket sales booth 20 minutes before the first pitch and had to wait 30 minutes to get to the front of the line (only two windows out of ~five were open), and when I got to the front I said, “Give me your cheapest available ticket.” The ticket guy gave me two options, one for $45 and one for $60. I said, “Those are your cheapest tickets?” and he said “Yeah.” After a minute of vigorous discussion, I finally was able to buy an upper-deck ticket for less than $15. I found it disgusting that I had to haggle to get a ticket.
2) At another game I had field-level tickets and was getting ready to watch the first pitch of the game when a Dodgers photographer walked down the aisle and started taking pictures of people (and then he let them know where they could purchase the pictures later). The photographer had the family in the row in front of me stand up for the picture. All this was going on through the first 3-5 pitches of the game. I’m actually not sure how many pitches I missed because I couldn’t see anything with people standing in front of me at the request of the Dodgers employee.

FYI, I never got a response from the Dodgers after I complained via email.

So, let’s keep up the good work you’re saying?