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Number twenty-seven

UH . . . YOU’RE WELCOME? Denver Bronco Tyrone Braxton called his drug and prostitution arrest a “favor,” before realizing he was really in trouble. Maybe he was tired of being under Bronco owner Homer Simpson's thumb.

Braxton was busted December 2 in suburban Aurora, Colorado, in a bizarre private-residence incident in which a woman and two other men were arrested and rung up on drug and prostitution charges. Braxton was caught in possession of small amounts of both cocaine and marijuana and called his arrest a “favor” and a “wake-up call,” although he later learned in court that it was an actual arrest. He was charged with patronizing a prostitute and possession of marijuana and freed on a $6000 bond. Braxton denied any involvement with prostitution. The whole case sounds suspiciously like one of those deals where the suburban police chief didn’t get enough signed–John Elway jerseys from his ex-Bronco resident. In any case, Braxton, who played on both Bronco Super Bowl teams, is due back in court on January 24.

 
Weary of abuse
Well, it had to happen sometime. This year’s deluge of Tasering incidents involving high-profile athletes has apparently spun so far out of control that it’s become a matter for general-public protest. At least that’s what happened in Houston last week, when a local chapter of the new and improved Black Panthers (Black Panthers Mark IV) held an anti-police rally in the wake of the last sports Tasering, which took place on November 14 and concerned Houston Texans offensive lineman Fred Weary.

The Weary case seems the most obvious instance of a Driving While Black arrest to hit the pro-sports scene since Dee Brown got popped by Wellesley cops back in the flat-top days of the early ’90s. Weary was pulled over by Houston police for “acting suspicious” in a “high-crime area” of Houston; when asked what they meant by “suspicious,” police claimed that Weary had kept looking at the police car. They then claimed he had been pulled over for an illegal lane change and the absence of a front license plate. In any case, Weary, who is massive and dark skinned à la Wesley Snipes, was pulled out of his car and Tasered after he “resisted arrest,” whatever that means. He later claimed that the Taser shot hurt worse than anything he’d ever experienced on the football field. It’s worth noting that he made this remark prior to the thrashing the Patriots gave the Texans last weekend.

“If that brother was not a Texans football player, if that brother didn’t have the resources that he has, he would have been another big brother that was Tasered, and that’s it,” said New Black Panther Nation’s Quanell X. X organized a community meeting with police, who apparently assured the Panthers they would not be Tasering any more Texans offensive linemen in the immediate future.

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