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Firing Weapons Is Not The Way To Celebrate Anything

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By JOE O'NEILL Tribune Columnist

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2008

There are questions yet to be answered in that tragic shooting death of 17-year-old Javon Dawson in St. Petersburg. But this much we do know. There was a graduation party chaotic enough for the cops to be called to disperse it. And there were "celebratory" gunshots fired in the air.

A St. Pete police officer said Dawson had a gun, didn't obey a command to drop it and pointed it at the officer. If true, that's a death-wish trifecta. But an inquiry is under way, as it should be.

Given the prevalence of the "stop snitching" culture, witnesses have been hard to come by . But the officer's version is in dispute - notably by the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement. They know a white cop killed a black kid, and that's enough. And when in doubt, call a press conference and plan a demonstration.

Regardless of the inquiry's outcome, the key query is this: Since when do you "celebrate" anything - outside Iraq - by firing a weapon? Bullets, wherever fired, have a way of landing. On occasion they still have enough velocity to kill.

Next week, local TV stations will begin running a public service announcement made by the St. Petersburg Police Department that reminds viewers that "If you shoot a bullet in the air, it can seriously injure someone on the way down."

Who would have thought you would need a PSA to make that point? Somewhere Sir Isaac Newton is shaking his head in bewilderment.
Baseball Diplomacy
They won't come from the baseball hotbed that is Florida, but a bunch of Little Leaguers will travel to Cuba in August and play more than a dozen games. The Americans are from Vermont and New Hampshire.

The task of obtaining a travel license and approval from the U.S. Treasury Department borders on the Sisyphean these days, but the young Americans had considerable help from the Vermont congressional delegation, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie and familiar Florida businessman John Parke Wright IV. Wright had previously organized the sale of Vermont cattle to Cuba.

Plant Pride

According to the Florida High School Athletic Association's ranking of the state's top athletic programs, Tampa's Plant High School was second in Class 5A for the 2007-08 school year.

More importantly, no athletic program in Hillsborough County had a better year academically. Plant's overall, athletic-program grade-point average was 3.369.

Rays And The Media

The Tampa Bay Rays are more than an unexpected feel-good local story. The early season rags-to-riches tale is grist for the national media mill. A recent example - this lead in the Los Angeles Times before an Angels-Rays game in Anaheim:

"Long considered the closest thing to a bye on the Angels' home schedule, Tampa Bay is now a new kind of sure thing: sure to cause problems."

Who would have thought?

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesez@aol.com or www

.opinionstogoonline.com.

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