Maybe San Franciscans just don't care about drunk driving or violence towards women? Or is it just the local media that doesn't care? Well, somebody better 'fess up for the reason why 49er after 49er is arrested, yet no headlines are made.

In case you didn't hear, Tim Harris became the third person related to the 49ers to be arrested for drunk driving in a year, and the second in recent history to confront police after a violent incident towards a woman.

On Monday, October 20, Tim Harris allegedly punched a woman who was trying to keep him from driving drunk. When the 26-year-old woman attempted to grab the car keys thru the sunroof of Harris' BMW, he reportedly struck her in the face then pushed her to the ground, resulting in a bloody nose and various scrapes. After police responded to the scene, Harris returned and tested at 1.1 blood-alcohol level, above California's legal limit of 0.8.

Harris' latest arrest follows his previous arrest just 20 days prior for -- guess what? -- drunken driving. The intent here is not to make light of the situation. Rest assured, we understand the seriousness. Asking "guess what?" is not a joke, but actually bitter outrage that there are those out there that probably couldn't hazard a guess because, like all things 49er, the bad side of Harris has been carefully concealed since he joined the team many moons ago.

Trend grows

The arrest of Harris follows that of William Floyd and Dana Stubblefield, yet Harris' past drunk driving arrests during his playing days with the team set the precedent. Floyd then followed suit. If you recall, after Floyd's arrest, Floyd took the case all the way to trial, where incontrovertible evidence showed he had been drinking before taking the wheel -- the police found an empty bottle and Floyd tested over the legal limit. Notwithstanding, the jury let Floyd off, and Floyd went gallivanting around proclaiming his "innocence." He never once indicated remorse for drinking before getting behind the wheel. Nobody from the 49ers' organization commented that they would not condone such behavior, which is no surprise, considering what Harris got away with in his day.

That precedent and air of acceptance by the organization undoubtedly has contributed to the latest two incidents, especially Stubblefield's arrest. Even after drinking and driving has proliferated into a 49er trend, the organization has yet to take any action whatsoever. A truly classy organization would reinforce a message of no-tolerance, like Dallas has done in response to its similar problems. That the organization hasn't taken any action on Harris' alleged violence towards a woman bears no surprise considering 49ers' owner Eddie DeBartolo bought his way out of admitting he ever sexually assaulted a cocktail waitress.

Don't ask, don't tell

Squinty-eyed 49er fans will quickly protest to our including Harris among the 49er problems since he isn't on the team anymore. Yet that fact is what makes Harris' arrest even more damning. That Harris continues to this day to engage in the same destructive behavior shows that the 49er organization did nothing to change his ways despite all their talk about being one big happy family. And the fact that these stories continue to be buried really has to make one wonder what else is going on within the family that we don't know?

All we know is we have a media that, based on their love, would never ask or dig for dirt on the 49ers. We have a team that is bent on portraying an image of class, so they certainly would never voluntarily tell. The result is that we only hear about illicit behavior of 49ers when they finally get arrested (and we barely hear about that on page 8D four days later, in the case of Stubblefield). The gist: just because the 49ers aren't getting caught on a more regular basis doesn't mean there isn't anything going on -- a more likely explanation is that there's nobody looking and nobody telling. This latest string of drinking incidents has to at least raise an eyebrow.

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