What in the world was happening at Candlestick Park Saturday? Everyone knows 420 is as symbolic to the city as the Golden Gate Bridge itself but honestly—did ALL the park security have to be high at once? How else can you explain the pitiful response to the countless fan skirmishes during 49ers-Raiders?

I went to last year’s annual preseason game (and wrote about it.) Some arguments did turn physical, but Coliseum security and OPD were on top of ALL of them within seconds. One of them even seemed to swan dive from the roof, all in the name of preserving peace and preventing maiming.  Grade A performance.

That was FAR—tragically far—from the case this time. 

I’m not saying 49er security should have been able to outrun a gunman’s bullet before it hit anyone, or that they should have been undercover in a urinal to end the Stow-level bathroom attack before it began. I AM saying that the lagging security force patrolling the seats should thank its’ lucky stars that no party, innocent or otherwise, got knocked into the cement stairs, or that a child didn’t drift too close to a scrum and take a flailing haymaker to the face. There was certainly ample time for multiple additional tragedies.

Paul Gutierrez, insider for CSN Bay Area, was at the game, and reported that one such fight dragged on for so long without any action by security, that the two combatants simply tired themselves out and dispersed. How sad is that? 

Sure, security sucked, but the brawlers themselves are to blame more than anyone. Not all of these fights had to do with the Bay rivalry, as evidenced by two 49er fans wailing on one another in one instance. Those that did are just as bad—anyone who picks a fight with anyone else over a sports team is an idiot, as is anyone who lets words anger them to the point of public fisticuffs. (And before you blame it all on excess testosterone, note that there was at least one all-girl fight. They couldn’t have all been menstruating. ) 

Starting a fight is bad, but so is having paper-thin skin. Do you know HOW much crap was thrown my way in Oakland last year? ENOUGH TO FILL A PORT-A-POTTY. Yet I didn’t end up in a fight. But I’m not here to talk about the past. 

According to team prez Jed York, the annual OAK/SF preseason game is on hiatus. I can’t blame him. Who needs this kind of pub? 
And to the dear citizens of the Bay Area who feel it appropriate to spend mucho dinero on football tickets just for the privilege of gettin’ smashed and instigating others over a football team that doesn’t know or care you’re alive and whose concern for you goes ONLY as far as the dinero you spend on their product…thanks for ruining the rivalry for the rest of us. Why don’t you just join Al-Qaeda and blow yourselves up?

End rant.