Posted on 01/27/2002 8:48:53 AM PST by moodyskeptic
I'm sorry, but someone has to voice it: the little guy had it coming. Sucker punching a man 110 pounds your better is unwise, and the little antagonist Micheal Costin was in the wrong in the heated exchange that claimed his life.
At first, I was going along with the dominant media, insisting that this Sports Rage is out of hand and that the killer was a bully who should get the electric chair. But, being a Freeper, I have learned to check my emotional response to "big stories" and get more information before I choose sides. I wanted to hate the Big Bully Thomas Junta, he was reportedly a huge man. Then I realized that he's about my size, I'm 6'1", 255. I'm no giant. And I've spent an adulthood targeted by stupid little hot headed roosters who like to pick fights they can't win. Any big guy will tell you: you learn to be the cooler head and attempt to walk away. Expect no sympathy in ANY altercation.Little guys with an agenda are everywhere, perhaps they were traumatized, they didn't get chosen for teams or were ignored by daddy, whatever.Genetics made us big, not weightlifting. We are what our ancestors were, fat or big or strong or smart or devious or small or kind or mean. There are few truly mean big guys.
It turns out that the little guy Costin was allowing high sticking and rough contact during stick practice, and when the Big Dumb Guy showed up to protest, Costen shot back that hockey is a tough game, get over it. Costin was in the wrong. He should've relented and shut up. But he was the hot head of the two and wouldn't drop it. In the dressing room, he sucker punched the bigger man and kicked at him with his skates as they continued arguing. This chicken spit tactic should've gotten him clobbered right then.True to Big Guy form, Junta went out to his truck to simmer down, only to return when he realized that his son was still in a locker room with a crazy father and his roughneck kids. Let's honestly add to that the humiliation of being sucker punched and walking away from it.
I don't know how many of you freepers have been in an inadvertant serious fight with guys who play dirty. Apparently very few. Surely the pixie woman prosecutor was in unfamiliar waters, judging by her questions. " So, this meant you had to resort to violence, Mr. Junta?" Huh? She ever experienced anything beyond her suburan car pool existance?
Wise fathers tell their boys: don't smart off to cops, don't hit women, don't pick fights you can't possibly win. Attacking a man 110 pounds bigger than you, when you are IN THE WRONG morally, is unwise. While I'm very sad that Costin died. Really. However, putting the Big Dumb father in jail for six to ten years send the message: Open Season on big guys, a jury packed with people who got overlooked when choosing sides for dodgeball will exact revenge on the Big Bully, and you can be as mean and smart alecky as you want at that next sporting event.
If size doesn't matter, why are there weight divisions in boxing and wrestling?
As the saying goes, the race is not always to the swift, but that is the way to bet. Given equal ability, a bigger man will routinely win the fight.
Why do you think Sam Colt is remembered as the man who made men equal? Before firearms, the larger man almost always won the fight.
The key point was that Junta had essentially left the building before he turned and went back in.
Big or small, the man was in a flaming rage. He would have had a better chance of escaping prison time if he had pleaded temporary insanity or something like that, since he was clearly out of control. The fatal fight was not inadvertent. Junta went and sought the final confrontation. I believe this is what decided the case against him. True, Costin was a little so-and-so who needed to be called down, but I believe it was his apparent early victory that cost him his life. He "won" when Junta conceded the field, not realizing that the humiliation of the larger man would fuel his anger to murderous proportions.
But, big or small, a man who seeks a fight and kills his adversary can not claim self-defense. Costin would not have attacked him if Junta had taken his son, skates and all, and left like he seemed about to do.
Anyone should be able to tell the difference between fighting to win, and fighting to the death--and if you can't tell the difference, you deserve all the crap you get into.
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