RYAN BRAUN: HOW THE GUILTY SHOUT ANTI-SEMITISM AND RACISM

            I do not follow baseball but residing in Milwaukee, it is impossible to watch the local news without absorbing some items about the Milwaukee Brewers, the local major-league team.  In Wisconsin, Green Bay has the Packers, the football team, and Madison has the U. of Wisconsin Badgers football team.

            About a year ago, the most famous and popular Brewer player, Ryan Braun, was alleged to have taken performance-enhancing drugs.  His tests came back positive, so it appeared that Braun was, in effect, cheating.  Braun denied it.  He blamed the man who had to take the specimens to the lab.  I do not recall all the details, but the low-level courier was basically accused of placing the specimen in his car too long, or some other mistake, and his inefficiency caused Braun to test positive for taking the banned drugs.  After disputing the findings, Braun was found innocent, and the low-level guy had his reputation smeared as an incompetent.

            Now, it is clear that Braun DID use the banned drugs.  BRAUN WAS GUILTY.  He is now forbidden to play for 60 games.  Now it is told that when the charges were first made when Braun failed the drug test, Braun accused the man, Dino Laurenzi, of seeking to destroy him because Laurenzi is a Chicago Cubs fan AND AN ANTI-SEMITE.

            Laurenzi was simply doing his job.  He did his job well.  He was honest.  Laurenzi was taking specimens to the laboratory where it could be determined if any baseball players were cheating.  He did his job so well, that Braun’s cheating was discovered.  Braun initially weaseled out be claiming Laurenzi was either incompetent or purposely tampering with the samples.  Why?  It did not make news at the time, but Braun maintained that Laurenzi favored an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, and he was anti-Semitic.  I do not know if Di Lorenzo was fired, but he was smeared.  And the initial decision was in Braun’s favor.  Braun continued to play.

            Now, Braun is shown to have taken the drugs.  Now, he is suspended from play for 60 games.  What will happen to the low-level employee who was doing his job so well he caught the cheat?

            I do not state that all tests are accurate, or that there is no tampering with results – just look at the student scores on national exams where school administrators are so determined to have a good image of their schools, and especially, how their have improved since this or that individual became superintendent, that those in power may require cheating.

            Another important point – in the debate over stop-and-frisk laws, some Blacks and Hispanics claim racism when they are stopped.  The judge who invalidated the laws, also declares that such laws are racist.

            When Braun is caught taking banned drugs, what does he do?  It is the fault of the authorities checking me.  It is ANTI-SEMITISM.  And when a Black or Hispanic is stopped and frisked and drugs are found, what does he say?  It is the fault of the police.  The police are RACISTS.

            To those guilty of cheating, fraud, drug-usage, it is never their fault.  They are innocent.  It is the fault of RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM.  And smash the low-level police or couriers who expose the law-breaking of the guilty.

            We should have more respect for those who even carry urine samples, or who, as police, must walk through many urine-smelling areas.  We should believe them more, even when the mighty smear them.  And we should be very wary when the accused answer with charges of “racism” and “anti-semitism.”  Those are the words likely to be shouted by the guilty. 

    HUGH MURRAY