Sitting in a quiet corner before the Winter Hawks game last night, I watched two of the Rose Quarter’s finest relieve a grade schooler of his toy Star Wars gun. It was costume night at the Coliseum and the kid was dressed as a Storm Trooper.
His dad protested mightily. Mascot Night was just a week ago and they had adults dressed as Storm Troopers walking around with all manner of armament. Not once were they hassled. A week later, it’s an 8-year-old who poses a threat.
I shared the story with a couple of folks near me. We all laughed and shrugged it off. That was until Winter Hawk mascot Tom-A-Hawk came out about halfway through the first period dressed as a cowboy villain. As he worked his way around the crowd, he came upon the Storm Trooper kid and…wait for it…pulled a toy revolver on him! My neighbors and I were shocked to say the least. Apparently the rules didn’t apply to the team mascot.
This isn’t a Winter Hawks issue. It’s a facilities management issue. Shame on them for not allowing an 8-year-old to be a kid for a night. I wonder how the issue would have been resolved had it been a Blazer game and not a second-rate tenant.
That’s utterly horrifying.
What on earth could be the rationale for that series of events/actions/inactions?
Inexplicable.
Another reason why the Hawks are drawing cozy little crowds of less than 3,000…