California is the poster state for illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. So while some of the locals saw it as novel and humorous when fans wearing President Donald Trump and border wall shirts showed up at a Sacramento Kings NBA game Friday night, it was red meat for media who scrutinized the messages as potentially obscene.
After two men wore shirts stating "Build the wall" and "Trump" at the Kings game, sports writers and a local radio personality went into intolerance overdrive, stooping so low as to inquire if the men had violated team and arena codes for fan behavior.
Daniel Goldsmith wore the “Build the Wall” shirt, and his friend Pete Molinelli wore the “Trump” shirt ... and then had some explaining to do with the overly sensitive media.
Newsweek sports writer Dan Cancian called it a "stunt" that got people talking. People like David Weiglein, the host of Sacramento's KHTK sports talk radio show, "The Drive." “Anyone know who these clowns are?” Weiglein, aka Carmichael Dave, tweeted.
Cancian even checked the code of conduct for the Kings' arena, Golden 1 Center, which states that "fans and guests are prohibited from engaging in disturbances, including 'profanity and/or offensive words, which are likely to provoke a violent reaction from others.'” Who knew that words like "Trump" and "wall" could possibly be construed as profanity?
Then Cancian went to the Kings’ website and found a fan code of conduct that regulates certain aspects of their attire: “There will not be any obscene or indecent messages on signs or clothing." If these two guys had worn "F*** Trump" shirts, or if they had knelt during the playing of the national anthem, would Cancian have been as motivated to look up those codes? Don't answer.
One can only imagine the horror exacted upon the "fan code cop" Cancian if any fans had worn "Rush Limbaugh" or "Mike Pence" shirts to the game!
The two fans insisted they were not trying to make a political statement and simply wanted to have fun, Cancian writes. They may have gone too far, though, according to Cancian and Weiglein, still struggling to make sense of the shocking scene in Sacramento.
Cancian's story mentions that a photo of the two fans was posted on Twitter and went viral before being deleted. The caption read: “Just wait until they find out the owner of the team is an immigrant”, a reference to India-born Kings co-owner Vivek Ranadivé.
Far be it from any open borders advocates in the media to note the distinction between legal immigrants who pass through U.S. customs with the proper immigration status and illegal aliens walking into the country through the desert in the dark of night.
Molinelli defended himself for upsetting the delicate sensitivities of the the media. There was no ulterior motive in play, he insisted. The two "infidels" just wanted to have fun (at the expense of the media, who obviously were much too offended to see any humor in this non-story story).
“I was up for the fun, I guess,” Molinelli said. “Everyone sitting around us at the game thought it was funny." “The wall is about illegal immigration and the border, and I support that. At least we got people talking.”
Rubbing salt in the wound, Goldsmith told The Sacramento Bee, “I just do it to make my friends laugh, and it worked." Cancian and Weiglein were in no laughing mood.
