Sometimes we expect our political leaders to be something more than human. Like public-relations cyborgs, we want them to do everything in an idealized fashion to be good examples for our children.
So far, this has been exactly what we've expected from State Senator Mark Grisanti.
He and his wife were attending a black-tie gala at the Seneca Niagara Casino. Their daughter was singing at the event for the Seneca Diabetes Foundation. Once the event was over, a little before midnight, an argument broke out between two Seneca cigarette merchants, Eric White and Seth Snyder.
Grisanti tried to break up the fight between the two. Everything afterwards is somewhat unclear, but a fight erupted with Grisanti at the receiving end of some heavy blows. His wife tried to pull the men apart, but two other women then attacked her from behind.
Maria Grisanti, his wife, ended up with a concussion and bruises on her face from having her head slammed into the floor. State Sen. Grisanti ended up with a few cracked ribs.
Now comes the spin-factor that the Senecas are trying to put on the altercation. A camera-phone video was released of the events after the initial fight where security guards were holding Grisanti back. He is apparently furious.
Then a prominent Seneca businessman, Ross L. John Sr., said that Grisanti shouted racial slurs at one of the security guards.
Gerald Walsh, the attorney for Eric White and his wife, went on to say that neither White nor his wife hit Grisanti or his wife. They claim that Grisanti was the sole aggressor.
Of course, because everyone comes out of a fight with a concussion and a bruised face and back when nobody at all hit them, right?
The Senecas should be ashamed of themselves for how they've handled this situation. Instead of admitting that some of their people acted improperly, they're continually backtracking to justify their actions.
Grisanti never made any racial remarks, even the security guard holding him, who was supposed to be the guy Grisanti was insulting, didn't hear him say anything racist. John is a bold faced liar who is only trying to bolster a negative image of Grisanti to the public.
Maybe Grisanti shouldn't have been involved in the first place, but these people were disturbing a family function by having a loud argument. If some troublemakers were screaming when your family was trying to eat a nice dinner at a restaurant, going up and telling them to stop wouldn't be unreasonable.
Somewhere in the middle is probably the truth, so here's what probably happened: Grisanti told the two guys to can it and take it outside, they told him to leave, he didn't back down, and then they got into a fight.
As far as the video afterwards goes: of course he's going to be pissed. A group of people just slammed his wife's face into the ground, and she has a concussion. He has a right to be mad. Any human on earth that just witnessed his or her husband or wife get beaten to a pulp would be completely inconsolable.
Let Grisanti be a human.
