Randy Blythe Arrested

Wrongly accused or fairly punished?

Something that happened fairly recently, this past summer, was a situation involving a heavy metal singer pushing a fan offstage. Obviously, there is way more to the story than that…

What happened?

For anyone who does not know, Randy Blythe is the singer from the band Lamb of God. During a show in Prague in May 2010, something went terribly wrong. Reporters stated a fan jumped onto the stage and there was physical altercation between the fan and Randy. The fan later died because of his injuries; therefore, Randy was arrested and charged with Manslaughter.

Two things about this situation irk me deeply:

1) It was two years later that Randy was charged and arrested.

He was arrested in June 2012 before a show at the Hard Rock Café in Prague (two years after the occurrence).  He spent about 40 days in prison in the Czech Republic. After he was released he returned to the U.S. and is waiting to hear when his trial date is and whether or not he is going to face jail time.

2) A lot of the information the Czech media stated wasn’t all true.

Apparently, there wasn’t a fight on stage between the fan and Randy. It was also not mentioned that the crazed fan jumped over the barricade, leapt onto stage and went at Randy three times during the show. The third time the fan got onto stage security wasn’t able to hold him back. Randy then pushed the fan back into the audience – ultimately this lead to him falling and hitting his head, and having a brain hemorrhage a few weeks later. This ultimately led to the fan dying.

There is a video that shows Blythe and the band’s publicist were telling the truth about the situation. The video shows Randy push the fan offstage, but the video does not show any physical altercation between the two (which the Czech media claimed). The video also shows security helping Randy push the fan offstage. Randy is mostly concerned with clearing his name in the Czech Republic because he stated that the media came out with tons of lies about the situation and accused him of numerous actions he did not commit.

My opinion

Personally, with knowing that the fan rushed Randy on stage three times, and having seen the video of Randy and a security guard pushing the fan off the stage, I don't feel Randy should be charged with manslaughter. It is obvious the fan was in the wrong by jumping onto the stage in the first place. Plus, the fan didn't jump on stage once, but THREE times. Also, Randy was not the ONLY one who pushed the man off the stage. So if Randy in fact is charged with manslaughter, will the security guard who assisted him in pushing the fan also be charged with manslaughter?

It is unfortunate that the man hit his head, suffered a brain hemorrhage and ultimately died. It's a sad thing to hear. However, I believe it was his own fault for acting so stupid and jumping onto the stage. Concerts are not a safe environment - people are crowd surfing and people are constantly pushing and shoving. People sustain numerous injuries during shows all of the time and at any time you can get seriously hurt. This fan should have known better and should not have jumped onto stage, PERIOD.

My questions to you

• Do you feel Randy was wrongly accused?
• Should Randy be held accountable for the death of the fan?
• Did the Czech media misrepresent Randy?

There are so many different aspects to this case which makes it near impossible to say who is right or wrong in this situation. Randy still does not know what his future will hold and whether or not he will go to jail for manslaughter. I guess we will all have to wait and see what the cards hold for him.