Why Penn State Students Rioted They Deify Joe Paterno
STATE COLLEGE, Penn.--Last night I witnessed the aftermath of the brief, angry riot at Penn State: an overturned news van being righted by a bulldozer, debris from battered cars and upended trash cans littering the street, college kids in “Joe Knows Football” t-shirts stumbling away from College Avenue with red eyes and tear-stained faces from the police’s pepper spray. The students had reacted violently to the 10 p.m. announcement from the university’s board of trustees that Joe Paterno, their beloved football coach , was fired.As the rioters vented their rage and grief, commentators and bloggers around the world began lambasting the students for defending a man who knew about an allegedly horrific case of child abuse and did very little to try to stop it. But for these students, turning on Paterno may not be a simple matter of recognizing his moral error and reevaluating their reverence for him....