IBGerm

 

I am not one to cry chicken little that the sky is falling but people need to stop and take warning about what they post on the social networking sites like   MySpace(people still use that one?) as well as Tweeter and Facebook. At the very least limit correctly those that can see your post, tweets etc… I have read two funny articles in the past few weeks about a gut that tweeted he was going on vacation and didn’t secure all his personal information. Guess what!, he got robbed while he was away. Read here.  Now I just read that the newly appointed head of Britain’s Secret Service (MI6) had to step down because his wife posted vacation pictures of them as well as didn’t limited who could see the posts and who her friends were. Everyone in the world knew this guys friends and some higher level stuff. Big security breach. Read here. People wise up! Take heed now! Just my two and a half cents!!.

 

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I wanted to follow up on the first e-mail about the situation that occurred in Dallas (FC Dallas versus the Houston Dynamo on Saturday, June 13 ). First off I apologize about the format and spelling mistakes in the previous e-mail. I’m rewriting this in order to make it a little more readable and clarify a few points. Also I know for the most part that this is a minute group within the traveling Houston Dynamo supporter section and not a reflection of the group as a whole.

Before I get into the details of how they unfolded that night, I want to mention that not only were all three flags either missing and stolen or destroyed but the flag poles themselves were crushed, destroyed and are virtually unusable now. I did retrieve one flag however the grommets on that flag were ripped out. I eventually recovered the two poles that night but as I stated previously the top two sections of these polls were crushed and mangled. The flags themselves are easy to replace, but the flagpole kits were a special purchase and will run us retail of $100 to replace each flagpole. http://www.sportsauthority.com/sm-bsi-race-day-flag-pole-kit–pi-1826404.html. The flags we had, one was a red and white checkered flag, the other was a red and white stripped flag, with a snake (don’t tread on me, 1^st navy flag basically) and a black and white pirate flag.

For this game we decided to park in east parking lot across from the east side gate. We set up under a tree three or four rows back from me east side entrance a little to the right of center. We had three cars parked around the grass – tree medium. We decided to start about 4:14pm that afternoon. At this point we had several small Houston Dynamo fans around us with no issues, in fact were having a good time and enjoying a beverage with a few of the Dynamo supporters.

We decided to go into the stadium about 5:15 PM that evening to see the alumni game and stayed for the main event game that evening. Andy and Jenna left were we were seated, section 126, about 90:00 on the game clock, about one minute into the stoppage time. From what I understand, they left at this time, as to not be around when the supporter section came marching out. They felt it was an issue of safety. If they had stayed and saw what was happening and tried to stop it, they might have had an issue since there were more of them.  If the solution was to take down the flags earlier then what is the point. Are we saying other fans from other teams are ok to vandalize FCD fans property?  Where does it stop?

Paul ,Jennifer and myself waited until the end of the game and walked out the stadium and back to our cars. After talking with Andy and Jenna after the event they stated that when they got to the cars both flagpoles and all the flags were still there. We were maybe 5 to 10 minutes behind them. As soon as we left the stadium I looked up and noticed the poles being pulled down. I honestly didn’t think anything of it since Andy and Jenna had left before us and I assumed that they were taking them down to store them to take home. When we got to the cars this is when I noticed one of the poles with no flags attached on the road and the other on the grass median next to a small Houston Dynamo supporter bus. At this point I looked up and noticed Paul was talking to a security officer next to a larger Houston Dynamo supporter bus and yelling at me that he saw a gentleman come off the bus throw one of the flags down. At this point he picked the flag up and noticed another gentleman walk off the bus chanting and taunting that he had this other flag. As soon as he looked up he saw Paul and ran back up onto the bus. Now I am in the middle and surrounded by Houston Dynamo supporters and a few security officers. I decided that I would not take further action by myself and walked back to the east gate to get Frisco PD involved. I walked back to where Paul was situated now with 10 to 15 various Frisco officers and a few security officers from Pizza Hut Park. After trying to sort the situation out Jim from the FC Dallas organization was there trying to help as well as Paul Byrne from the Houston Dynamo organization. Unfortunately it didn’t seem as if anything was getting, and was told by Paul Byrne that this would be dealt with when they arrived back in Houston or in the following next couple of days. I have not heard anything back at this point.

We also tried to either press charges or get Frisco PD to enter the bus and at least retrieve the flag but they were unable to. I was basically told that I need to call the police and report this, which I thought was kind of strange since as I thought the Frisco police were already there along with several sheriffs and constables. It was then decided by Frisco police that they would like to just see the bus leaves for any more issues and/or trouble occurred. So the bus was forced to leave. Unfortunately the only description I have a gentleman that had the flags on the bus was that he was a 5 foot 7 Hispanic gentleman in his early 20s. Honestly I know that does not narrow it down one bit.

I want to know what if anything is going to be done about this. Like I said earlier I know it’s a small group of the supporter section that did this. It is not a reflection of the Houston supporter section as a whole, but nevertheless it is pure vandalism and stealing. What was taken were three flags in total one of which was retrieved but the grommets on that flag were torn off rendering the flag useless. Also both polls, one section of each were crushed. These are fiberglass poles and crushing the tubes reduces the structural integrity of the poll which basically makes them useless.

I look forward to hearing your responses on this issue.

FC Dallas season-ticket holder