cause I'm the best
Posted on 09/20/2005 9:10:11 AM PDT by Rutles4Ever
It sounded like something out of a teen competition movie such as "Drumline" or "Bring it On."
But the brawl that broke out Saturday night at McAdams Park following a spontaneous "dance-off" wasn't a movie scene, and police and city officials on Monday were sorting through the aftermath that left one person hurt and two others -- a mother and a son -- facing criminal charges.
"This is a whole new arena" of crime, said Lt. Jeff Easter of the Wichita Police Department's gang and felony assault section.
The Dancing Steppers, a local drill team, was practicing routines at McAdams Park near 13th and I-135 on Saturday night when members of another drill team, the White Tigers, showed up and challenged the others to what was described as a "dance-off," police said.
When it became clear the challengers were losing, Easter said, a 28-year-old woman struck a 17-year-old drummer with the Dynamic Steppers in the face with a drum stick. The teen, who had left the White Tigers recently to join the Dynamic Steppers, retaliated by punching her in the face. He then ran toward his Ford Explorer and tried to run over spectators with it, witnesses told police.
The boy's mother, who served as a coach of the Dynamic Steppers, grabbed a box cutter and sliced the other woman's right arm, Easter said. The wound required eight stitches.
An estimated 50 people were involved in the altercation, although only two people were facing charges on Monday.
The mother was booked on suspicion of aggravated battery for cutting the other woman, Easter said, and the son faces charges of simple assault and aggravated assault.
Police said additional charges are possible.
Larry Foos, director of parks and recreation for the city, said a park employee told him the Dynamic Steppers had been practicing earlier in the day not far from Barry Sanders Field, but their whistles were confusing players in a youth league football game under way on the field.
The drill team was asked to move to another part of the park so their whistles would not interfere with the football game, Foos said.
"There was no conflict at all from that," he said. "They understood completely."
The brawl won't lead to changes in access or activities at the park, Foos said. To do that, he said, would be "an over-reaction" to Saturday's fight.
"I just believe this is one of those crazy, isolated incidents that happen once in a while," Foos said. "Thankfully, these incidents are rare."
Police may be asked to step up patrols at the park after ball games, he said, to discourage confrontations.
John Lithgow went from playing a transvestite tennis player to playing the reverand in that movie. What a career!
Well, just as I expected...there's not much to do in Wichita.
Good Lord, what's next, beat the crap out of each other over horseshoes?
You don't even want to know what happens over games of Canasta. Not to mention The Great Monopoly Riot of '89.
"You got Goth Served!"
No kidding!
"Ice-T .... Hip-hop MC" (from IMDB)
Now there's a stretch. I'm sure that really challenged his skills as a thespian.
Why not? Beating the crap out of each other over (football|futbol|soccer) is so passe ...
FYI there is no such thing as Kansas, it is just the Illuminati's code name for the extradimensional void that is west of the Mississippi. (it all has to do with area 51 and the Roswell landing thing.)
mark
Dance riot!
Who wouldn't?!?
Well, you got a point there. LOL! Thanks for your note!
"Remember the Dynamic Steppers"!
I see. Does Dan Brown know about this?
What is the sound a hair-lip dog makes?
Alex I'll take Great Dance fights of the midwest for 200.
what-is-THAT?
LOL! I'm coming back later to read the rest of the comments :-).
Yep it will all be revealed in his next book, "The Alien Rumble-Dancing Code" (Why Baptist don't dance!)
European rules...May the best man win.
it's always the damn box cutter... those things should be outlawed
(yes, is was sarcasm)
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