The apparently racially charged assault early Friday morning at a downtown hot spot couldn't have been more emotionally, culturally or sexually charged if it had been written for a movie of the week.

Coming as it does less than a month after three teens were arrested in the beating death of a homeless man, it leaves us wondering if the local rage level indicator is now somehow stuck on "Orange: elevated."

We don't know yet. The facts are still coming in. Police and witnesses say the incident began about 2 a.m. Friday when several Oregon State University football players approached Staff Sgt. Gabriel Sapp as he danced with his wife at a downtown night spot. It was Sapp's last night of leave before he was to rejoin his Army National Guard unit in Iraq. Sapp is white. His wife - and those who approached her and her husband - are black.

Joseph Rudulph, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman defensive end on the Beavers reportedly expressed an opinion about Mrs. Sapp being in the company of a white man. Harsh words escalated into action; Rudulph and his friends and the Sapps went outside. A crowd gathered. Rudulph admitted he threw a punch, and knocked out Sgt. Sapp, who fell to the ground. Pushed off-balance by her husband's fall, Mrs. Sapp also was knocked down. Rudulph and friends fled, and she hailed a passing police car.

As Friday dawned, police, acting on witness information, arrested Rudulph at his residence. Although he reportedly told police that he hit Sapp, Rudulph said the soldier dropped a name universally recognized as a fighting word. But none of the witnesses heard Sapp say it, and Rudulph was booked into the Benton County Jail on charges of fourth-degree assault, harassment and disorderly conduct. He was released before noon.

Beaver football coach Mike Riley suspended Rudulph indefinitely, but still allowed him to travel with the team Saturday to watch from the bench in his street clothes. Monday, Riley also suspended Rudulph's teammates, Anthony Wheat-Brown,19, Whitfield Usher, 19 and Ryan Rainwater, 19. All had been with Rudulph Friday night.

Although everyone is eager to rush to judgment, the facts are still coming in. It's useful to reflect that another recent beating incident - in which two Junction City teens were charged with taking turns beating a classmate so that one could tape the action - turned out differently than first reported.

For one thing, the music added to the tape of the beating was not the idea nor the work of either accused attacker. One of the two did know the victim, who was originally thought to have been selected at random to "star" in the beating video. Finally (although this makes the incident no less disturbing) it was a third classmate who suggested enhancing the video beating with a driving rock score and then selling it to other students for $5.

Neither incident clarifies where the notion of "live and let live" has gone, and other big questions remain: To what degree was this a hate-motivated incident, and how much of it can be attributed to that incendiary trio of attitude, alcohol and immaturity? Will Rudulph's temper and attitude ultimately cost him his scholarship?

In another time; or if there had been more time, perhaps this could have been resolved with apologies and handshakes all around. But that isn't likely now. For one thing, Sapp won't be in town when Rudulph makes his Dec. 9 court hearing on the charges.

Sapp headed back to Iraq on Friday to resume his duties as squad leader assigned to B Company, 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry Regiment, 39th Brigade Combat Team. At least there, the enemy he is fighting is not one of his countrymen.