Last week was a tough one off the field for Marquette athletics.
Monday, a student-athlete suffered multiple injuries after being struck by a car while she crossed Wisconsin Avenue. Friday evening, Marquette president the Rev. Scott Pilarz announced his resignation in an email to students. Pilarz, who oversees Director of Athletics Larry Williams, played an important role in the Big East Conference realignment process last fall.
However, the most trying incident to trouble Marquette athletics lately came Sept. 14, when men’s lacrosse player Charley Gargano allegedly assaulted a female Department of Public Safety officer near Cobeen Hall. While the story circulated rapidly around campus and found its way into local news outlets, it didn’t receive much national attention.
That was until this weekend. Friday evening, Gargano’s story showed up on Deadspin.com, under this headline: “Marquette Lacrosse Player Accused Of Dropping Acid, Punching Cop.” BarstoolSports.com soon followed Deadspin’s lead, but their headline was a little more crass: “Does this look like the face of a Marquette Lax Bro Who Punched A Chick Cop In The Face Twice While Tripping On Acid?” Both stories included Gargano’s mug shot, which can kindly be described as grizzly. His story also landed in more mainstream outlets like FoxSports.com and the Baltimore Sun.
At this point, it is fair to say that one night of binge partying has effectively ruined Gargano’s future. The most debatable part of the ordeal is whether Gargano deserves the ridicule and negative attention he’s receiving nationally and locally for an incident he claims he doesn’t remember.
Gargano fully earned everything that comes to him from a legal and embarrassment standpoint. His alleged actions that weekend were monstrous. Forget the fact that he was an utter nuisance and had no control over himself, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s report. He punched a female DPS officer in the face twice, breaking her orbital bone and fracturing her nose. She needed eight stitches at the hospital.
Allow me to reiterate: Gargano punched a female DPS officer in the face. He also did it in a maliciously planned manner too, according to the Journal Sentinel.
“Although Gargano initially followed the officers’ orders to get to the ground, he then jumped to his feet and punched one of the officers twice in the face, knocking her into a concrete planter,” the article states.
Reading that makes me sick. One of the first things I learned as a kid was that it’s never OK to hit a girl. This started out as a way of getting me to remember to use my words when settling kindergarten conflicts, however, ask any parent who teaches this important lesson to their children, and they will probably tell you they do it so their sons don’t grow up thinking violence is an acceptable way of dealing with disagreements, especially with women.
Charley Gargano got really high and punched a cop. He deserves to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in that regard. In his addled state of mind, he also broke one of the crucial rules of our society. Violence against a woman, especially one dedicated to protecting the members of the community, is simply intolerable.
Gargano’s national ridicule will most likely linger as the criminal process wears on. He warrants zero pity for his immoral actions and has earned all of the mockery that will continue to come his way.
