I know this is another long post, but I just had to write it. I was stunned when I heard that Tony Stewarts case is going before a grand jury. Wow. Once again, somebody got it wrong, very wrong. It should never have been a case in the first place. The dizzying decision to call for the grand jury was made by Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo. I am just one of a multitude who suspect his decision is simply one of ignorance... not ignorance of the law, but ignorance of auto racing, a fallacy of believing that it makes sense to legally examine the possibility of a crime they THINK they witnessed during a sporting competition. I would never argue that being in a competition setting gives someone the right to purposefully cause the death of another, but ANYone who believes Negligent Homicide could ever be provable in a race environment simply has no understanding of racings biggest purpose, to win. Even the least of the drivers on any track has the same goal. Having winning as your stated goal creates danger for everyone inside the racing area, and and sometimes beyond the catch fences. If you skip all the rest, please know this: virtually everything that occurs inside a race car during a race would be deserving of a reckless driving ticket and jail time on public roads. ALL of it. And virtually everything inside a car (some of which are the drivers responsibility to monitor) is there for a purpose. Everything unnecessary is removed or never added, including needless speedometers. For the best drivers, everything that occurs inside that car is intentional, including every slight turn of the wheel and every press of the brake pedal... AND including scanning with the eyes of both the outside and the INside of the car. The relatively slower caution period just offers a little more time for closer inspection or maybe just opening the helmet visor to wipe away some sweat. Are any of those moves criminal? Mr. Tantillo was elected to his position, so he is only being human if he made his decision based on the law and what what he believes the people want. I make no judgments on that either. I am assuming the best in this DA because that is just a part of my nature, just as I might tend to assume innocence in the Tony Stewart incident no matter which driver had been behind the wheel. I may feel as though I know Tony, but I dont, and I doubt that New York DA does either. But I DO know Tonys demeanor, his personality, and his sport. This ludicrous decision to call a grand jury is, by itself, proof that those making the legal decisions know virtually nothing about the sport at all. I wish I could sit with Tony and give him comfort that it will be alright, but it feels like an illogical nightmare, so I would not be able to promise him that reason will win in his case. This decision should strike fear into all who compete in racing at any level or compete in any other sport that just might involve physical contact with another. For those who cannot already see that, I will explain, but first, let remind you of something that is part of human nature. We all know what it means to be an armchair quarterback. Even though I never had the skills or genes to play pro football, I am still capable of yelling with genuine anger when my quarterback throws into coverage that, in my mind, was always going to lead to an interception. It can be so bad at times that I wonder for a moment if he is playing for the other team, because I SAW him throw that ball directly to the opposing receiver. I SAW him do it! What I need for a dose of reality is commentary from another NFL quarterback, who can assess the situation in a way I admittedly will never be able to do. Thats because HE has been there on the field with those other giant men. He KNOWS the pressure of a blitz and the split-second decision to release that ball, along with the immediate regret of his error, because his vision was partially blocked by those same giant men. As a spectator, we can see it all from a different perspective, one that makes the poor throw appear intentional. It takes an assessment by one who has been there to explain how easily it can happen, but for some people that explanation is not enough for us sometimes, and we go on wishing the coach would bench that quarterback, instead of recognizing great defensive play from the other team. Even if I study the game with passion, I can never be able to assess a situation as well as someone who has been on the field at that level. Many were relieved when we were told that the investigation of the tragedy with Tony was going to involve experienced racers, too. We were convinced that rationality would win out over uneducated emotion that comes after viewing what was reported to be a second enhanced video of the incident. I am convinced that Tony is now a victim of the very same human nature that makes a stadium full of football fans boo louder with every new camera angle of the errant throw, or especially a mistakenly bad call by a referee. An investigation that finds he was betting in Vegas for the other team changes everything, but one hundred new video angles will never add to proof of intent one way or another. It is called a mistake. Ill skip to part two and why this issue potentially impacts nearly ALL of us. Can you think of a sport that involves physical human contact?... or better yet, a sport that involves hitting balls with bats or clubs? Does someone under the roof of your home do any of those activities, or did they, or might they ever? Well, this case is for all of those people, too. Imagine you are teeing off one evening with your driver at a busy driving range. Just as you swing, a young man dressed in black runs in front of you, is struck by your ball and is killed? Dont stop reading just yet. People are killed by golf balls every year. In your case, there were witnesses, including the young mans parents, who SAW YOU hit that ball directly at his head. They SAW it happen! They even yelled out, Hey! He hit that guy! You cant change it. Maybe someone happened to catch your killer shot on video, too. It gets replayed showing YOU hit the ball that killed a guy running right in front of you. It also happened to catch what appeared to be the two of you arguing after possibly spilled his bucket of balls just minutes earlier. Were you inflicting revenge after his response to your spilling the poor kids ball bucket? Why did you not miss him by changing the angle on your club head? Why didnt you just stop your swing? He was right there! All the other people saw him, why not YOU? How could you be so heartless? Your life is changed forever by what you know just happened, but now you are being questioned and viewed by many as a criminal. The simple fact is, you just didnt see him, at least not in time to stop it. This is exactly what has happened to Tony Stewart. It is unconscionable that the possibility of criminal charges did not stop at or before reaching the DAs desk. But to make things worse in your pretend story, now the prosecutor has called a grand jury to decide if you should be charged with negligent homicide, or maybe even murder, since witnesses saw you hitting your ball harder than everyone else, and it just LOOKED as though you wanted the guy dead. To make matters worse, since there are relatively few golf pros in the area, your fate will be in the hands of some people who played mini-golf a few times or watched a little golf on occasion. Of course you didnt do it on purpose! But those deciding your fate have absolutely no clue of the years you spent developing your golf swing until you were able to tune out distractions and focus on watching that ball as if nothing else existed. Those people can try to understand, but they cant understand why you would hit the ball so hard when it will go plenty far if you just hit it softer. It has nothing to do with their intelligence, but everything to do with their experience. Those who know racing know this to be true, because without the blatant lack of understanding of racing, there would be no further moves to charge Tony. Anything short of an admission of guilt or evidence of a team-wide conspiracy should equal a complete lack of criminal suspicion. The presence of a new video angle should not change a thing, because Tony was in a RACE. Let me be clear. I am not talking about ensuring due process; I am talking about the lack of a need for any process past the initial investigation of the incident. There is a point where similarities between auto racing and most other sports stop. Even in its most dangerous early years, auto racing has always had a built-in need to self-govern dangerous drivers. It goes from the basic desire to protect human life all the way to protecting their own self interests by preserving their stars and those who support them. There is simply never a time when a racing series would turn a blind eye to a driver considered a danger to others, even when it involves their its most shining stars. There is a BIG reason that experienced racers are hired to make these judgment calls at professional races. A non-racer has no place trying to rule legally over racing incidents. They are simply incapable of doing it, regardless of their good intentions. While this may seem like the first time something like this has happened on such a large scale, but its not. One tragedy was even more legally infamous on a worldwide basis when Ayrton Senna died after hitting a wall while leading a race in Italy in 1994. You may recall that Frank Williams, Patrick Head, Adrian Newey (men who owned, designed and built the car) and some others were charged with manslaughter by an Italian judge when it was discovered that his steering might have failed. Murder charges were considered, too. And in this case, there were no claims of ill will within the group. Frank Williams was Sennas employer, but Senna was his Michael Jordan. They protected Ayrton Senna like their child. They didnt even want him riding a bicycle out of fear that he could be injured. Even with a total lack of motive, even the logical opposite of motive, it still took years before they were acquitted. There were Formula 1 teams having serious discussions of never racing in Italy again. It was a perfectly terrible example of a prosecutor reaching beyond his scope of understanding of the sport of motor racing. It also exposed to the world the Italian law that requires a search to find someone at fault if a death occurs for any reason. Scary, right? Even after F1 star, Michael Schumachers 2013 skiing accident, it took months for Italian prosecutors to decide they would not press charges against the helmet manufacturer or the owners of the ski area. It made many, including me, say once again how thankful we are to live in the USA and not Italy. But now we have have this issue with Tony. I use the word we because it opens yet a new door to prosecute innocent people. This is NOT the same as seeing a soccer player head-butt a ref into unconsciousness after getting a red card. This is NOT the same as a boxer using his stool to club his opponent between rounds. There is only one true time-out in racing, and that involves a RED flag, when everyone stops. During a yellow flag, after the situation that caused it has ended, there is almost no time that a driver expects to have to make a sudden stop or even be ready to do so. Heavy, race-ending collisions are common when other cars make sudden speed changes during caution periods, so drivers become conditioned to maintaining a generally consistent pace with the other cars while passing the incident, just as Tony did. There is still another possible scenario that should not be ignored. I will skip all the details, but it is possible that Tony DID know he was at fault in Kevins crash on the previous lap, or at least realized after the fact that he could have given Kevin more room, and that he also knew Kevin would be mad. In a case like that, it is common for a racer to drive by and offer a wave of apology, even if the two cars never touched. If that was Tonys intent, it could help explain why Tony did not immediately move away from Kevin, if he even saw him on the track. While other cars missed Kevin, they were also very close, but just before Tonys arrival, Kevin took about four quick stutter steps right, nearly being hit by the car just ahead, and placed himself into line with Tonys right side tires. By that time, it was too late. In a lightweight car like that, a large object like a person, connecting with the right side tires, will cause that car to swerve to the right, just as it happened. The claim that Tony swerved AT Kevin is simply false. Even that scenario, one where Tony was fully aware of everything, does not make him a criminal, or even negligent. To claim that you know his intent or can know that he recklessly endangered someone who should never have been there is to wrongfully accuse Tony Stewart of a terrible crime. We should all be angered when we see our laws being stretched to fit situations for which they were never intended to be applied. One thing we all know. Any newer video that may surface will still show that Tonys car hit Kevin Ward, Jr. For now, I can hope that the grand jury will see this for the farce that it is. I can also hope that Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo is never reelected and that all other DAs know exactly why not. If Kevin had just stayed in his car to wait for the safety crew, he would still be alive. We cant blame Kevin for being mad, but we cant blame Tony because Kevin was mad. It makes no sense at all. The only thing Tony Stewart did wrong was to not have the ability to foresee the future. Are we going to start holding professionals to THAT standard now? If so, we should be prepared for a barrage of early retirements from racing. It was Kevins decision to run into harms way. Im sure he wanted to see Tony punished for making him crash, but I will never believe that this is what Kevin would have had in mind. ~ Jeff Gaddy - September 18, 2014 NOTE: In looking for a full version of the video just moments ago, I found this very insightful video breakdown and commentary by Kerry Smyth. Here is the link: youtu.be/d6rhvZyihVU
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 05:17:47 +0000
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