San Francisco Cops Going Undercover For Today's Game

They'll be dressed as New York Giants fans. Pretty clever.

Undercover police will be dressed in Giants’ garb and on the lookout for nasty fans. Giants ticketholders will be handed a card as they enter Candlestick Park with details on how to contact police if they feel threatened. And more security cameras and undercover police officers will be in place to identify abusive fans.

Season ticketholders have also been warned to follow the NFL Fan Code of Conduct: no foul or abusive language or obscene gestures and no verbal or physical abuse of opposing team fans.

Apparently, 49ers fans have become increasingly violent and abusive this season. From last Sunday's divisional playoff game against the Saints:

Those fans were so excited that they ruined the day for a shaken Don Moses and his two teenage daughters. Moses, a longtime Bay Area resident who is from New Orleans, said they were wearing the Saints colors and prepared for some good-natured ribbing.

Instead, he tells a horror story of fear and humiliation when his daughters asked him why he didn’t do anything to stop the hulking 49ers fans who yelled vulgarities and threw footballs at them, screamed in their faces and called their mother a whore.

Classy. And more:

San Francisco police are beefing up security by 25% in the wake of an outbreak of violent incidents at aging Candlestick Park over the past year, said police department spokesman Carlos Manfredi. The crimes range from restroom assaults to parking-lot shootings between rival fans.

Restroom assaults and parking lot shootings? That violent beating of an opposing fan (I'm leaving out the team name to avoid confusion) in the Los Angeles Dodgers' parking lot was national news this year. I know 49ers-Raiders games are usually a pretty rough scene (which was the case again this year), but it has continued at Candlestick all season. Why hasn't this gotten more attention? Maybe I just missed it?

posted by JohnE. at 03:04 PM

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