Posted on 10/14/2013 1:16:10 PM PDT by servo1969
As reported by WWLTV, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Associated Press, among other outlets, two referees who were working the St. Paul's School (Covington, La.) against Mandeville High (Mandeville, La.) football game were arrested on intimidation charges related to threats they allegedly made against a Covington police officer during the course of the game. The officer in question then reported the threat and shortly thereafter, both officials were escorted off the field by a group of three other police officers.
The delay occurred in the middle of the third quarter of what eventually became a 20-3 St. Paul's victory. The unexpected departure of the referees forced the game into a 20-minute delay, during which the Times-Picayune reported that the Covington police department spoke at length with both coaching staffs.
WWLTV reported the issue actually began as a disagreement between referees and members of the St. Paul's chain gang, which was responsible for down and distance marking in the game.
The referees reportedly engaged in a vocal disagreement with members of the chain gang, which then spilled over into an argument with a designated police officer about crowd control.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
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WilliamP
"I live in Mandeville, and this story as Yahoo tells it leaves out every possible detail, even what is widely known locally. The cop's son plays for the losing team, and he and his pals were on the sideline to watch the game. They repeatedly got in the way of the chain gang, and were repeatedly asked to move by the ref. There was NO problem between the ref and chain gang, the ref simply asked the cop to do his crowd-control duty and move. After being repeatedly asked to move, the cop told the ref to "Pay attention to the game" and "You don't have the authority to make me move". A verbal exchange ensued between ref and cop, and instead of diffusing the situation by simply moving a few feet, the cop called in the cavalry and had two of the refs HANDCUFFED and PERP-WALKED out of the stadium. The charge was Intimidating a police officer. Seriously, the ref was in the middle of officiating a game, how does he 'intimidate' a uniformed cop who is wearing a gun?!?!"
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If this guy is telling the truth it sounds like they were really arrested for "Contempt of Cop."
Thanx .. I suspected as much but I wasn’t THAT interested to go look.
Well, if it’s on the internet, it must be true.
The next step by the official should have been to forfeit the game for his side
If they really believed the crowd was out of hand, they should have suspended play until things were under control.
Trying to toss a cop out of the game is just foolish, even if the ref was in the right.
That was my speculation. Refs are used to being “God” on the field, but police officers are used to being “God” wherever they go. When two Gods fight over who is in charge, whichever God has the power, in this case the gun, wins.
If the comment is right, it wasn’t the crowd that was out of hand, it was the officer assigned to the sideline duty getting in the way of the officials moving the chains.
According to police and witnesses, the incident began when the Chain Crew, the volunteers holding the yard markers at the game, got into an escalating verbal confrontation with spectators on the sideline. The Chain Crew was made up of St. Paul's supporters, the spectators were Mandeville supporters. According to witnesses, the Chain Crew asked the referees to move the spectators. The spectators said they were not in a restricted area and had permission to stand where they were standing.Eventually, the on-field officials got involved, one threatened to have the officer removed from the field, and that is when people started getting arrested.
I the greater Houston area, football games have at least 12 uniformed officers for security, and quite a few more at big rivalry games. It’s an extra job gig for the officers. Some of the cops come from the visiting teams jurisdiction. They even have 2-3 at the volleyball matches I ref in the area, and there is never an issue with fan behavior.
Some further speculation. The arresting officer was the father of one of the visiting players. The chain gang was home team volunteers, working the chain on the visiting team side, and was arguing with visiting team crowd. The chain gang told the sideline ref that the crowd was interfering.
The sideline ref got into an argument with the crowd. The police (father of a visiting team player) told the ref to do his job and leave crowd control to police. Head ref asked police to move crowd back, police said crowd was far enough back.
So head ref threw the police officer out of the stadium. Or tried to. The police officer left, got two buddies, and arrested the two refs and had THEM removed from the field.
It seems more and more like two power-hungry people fighting for supremacy. If there had been a normal peon involved instead, the ref would have thrown them out and the cops would have tasered them for good measure.
i was a little league umpire..
i knew without reading the story what happened..
bad call against sons or daughters team..
threatened with beating (happened to me) had things thrown at them (happened to me) got cussed out or plain old told to f%$k off (happened to me) and it just so happened that a cop was one of the parents ( i did not read the story, so tell me if i am wrong)...
worst thing about little league is the PARENTS...
The head linesman, Gambino, asked the spectators to move back to give him room. They allegedly did not. At that point, Gambino asked a Covington policeman, who was standing next to the two fans to move them back. The policeman allegedly told the official to watch the (expletive) game and not to worry about anything else. According to the returning officials who finished the game working as a five-man crew, Gambino asked the policeman a question and the reply was, "If you open your mouth one more time, you're under arrest."So apparently the "fans" who were interfering with the chain gang were friends of the cop, and when the officials said fans were not allowed on the sidelines, and they had to be moved, the cop arrested the officials for "talking back".Radcliff said Saturday morning following his release, "The back judge, who heard the conversation between Chris and the policeman, told me, 'You better get over there. We have a situation,'" Radcliff said. "When I went over there, the policeman told me to take care of the game and he'd take care of the spectators. He said, ''One more word, and I'm cuffing''. "I asked him again to move them back. The policeman then told me , 'Are you ordering me?" I said, 'I want them behind the fence.' At that point Chris and I were arrested for misdemeanor intimidation. "While I was being detained, I found out that the (arresting) policeman's son plays on the Mandeville football team and the spectators were his friends," Radcliff said.
Meanwhile, other local officials, some retired New Orleans policemen, and a few other attorneys, attempted to locate a bail bondsman to have their colleagues released Friday night. However, they could only get them bailed after the two officials were detained in the St. Tammany jail. The Covington Police Department detained the two for several hours before re-arresting them in the St. Tammany detention center. Gambino's family had him released. Gambino then posted bail for Radcliff's release at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday. St. Paul's coach Ken Sears apologized to the officials. To their credit, they did not want to penalize the teams for something that was out of their control and finished the game.
I don't see how we ever allowed a law to be passed that lets a cop say to a citizen "say one more word to me and I am arresting you". We have freedom of speech, and that is pretty much absolute so long as we are not inciting danger to others. An officer has no real right to silence people in public.
The local side is pretty much that. The ref “threatened” the cop by saying he’d be ejected from the area if he refused to clear out the sideline around the chain gang.
The chief of police is literally on his first day on the job and this idiot cop gave him a PR headache.
(...look it up....)
Leni
i was a little league umpire.
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My grandson (16) umps 10-12 yo baseball games.
Some of the coaches are a little rambunctious and try to intimidate him.
He holds his ground but is a player himself and pretty much behaves and was raised to ‘respect’ adults and others.
A coach got out of hand a couple of weeks ago, and stormed down the 3rd base line and got in his face. I was ‘concerned’ but I really can’t say anything till or unless he is physically touched etc.
After the game I did call the coach aside and told him my GS enjoyed umpiring etc and was raised to respect elders and really didn’t appreciate being referred to as an ‘SOB’ or having spittle in his face. I went on to ‘remind’ the coach that he wasn’t setting a good example for his players.
I was for ‘reporting’ him but the GS said, no problem and the guy did apologize to both of us.
My suggestion to the GS was since he is carrying his cell phone, if a situation looks like it may be at the point where it may get out of hand, just take out your phone and ‘record’ it etc....
Only reason I suggested that is NO one is there to help the kid umps till he gets ‘struck’ and if he has somehow managed to alienate BOTH coaches, he is on his own.
I don’t ‘follow all the rules’ and I do have to be very careful about getting involved in personal altercations etc., not only at ball games but in daily situations.
Like the ad says “Don’t leave home without it”.
With apologies to the good cops at Covington PD, there are several out of control cops in that department who really do have a god complex. Without severe discipline or termination, the problem will get worse.
Simply amazing what cops get away with. “Disrespect me and you’re going to jail, MF!” And all cops are either that way or they support their buddies who are that way.
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