We need to stop demanding that people do more than they are supposed to do in these situations. People like Kapler are faced with making decisions on incomplete evidence and they are just as likely to put the person who is victimized in a bad position as they are to help that person out if they "shoot from the hip". We all see quite well in hindsight, after the press and/or police investigate, and know exactly what should have been done, and, of course, we would have done exactly that. I call BS on that stuff. A lot of these decisions are not as clear-cut as we make them out to be.
Kapler isn't a bad guy based on the facts of this case--he obtained information, reported up the chain, and actually pushed for harsher punishment for the player involved. That's a measured, intelligent response, and what I would hope most people would do.
By the way, what do you think the penalty should be for a foreign teenager who, if he did what was reported in the article, and if he's like most LA players, is pretty social awkward, and certainly is not well-versed in US customs for treatment of women? Lifetime ban from baseball and deportation? I don't think what he did is at all justified, but I think the way the Dodgers handled it is pretty close to correct.
What do you think is the proportionate penalty for a DUI (like Miguel Cabrera and many others)? Or for a firearms violation (like Juan Samuel is alleged to have done)? Or for injuring someone in a bar fight (like Cole Hamels did in his teenage years)?
Are we really comfortable putting private organizations in the role of judges and juries? I hate that we do that so much in the 21st Century, it seems like a recipe for increased injustice.
