Posted on 04/04/2012 11:52:41 AM PDT by Nachum
DEARBORN HEIGHTS (WWJ) – A judge has dismissed assault and battery charges against four high school football players who were accused of starting an on-field shoving match last October.
WWJ’s Florence Walton was in the courtroom when 20th District Judge Mark Plawecki dismissed the misdemeanor charges against the 17-year-old Star International Academy football players – Mohamed Elfatih Ahmed, Fanar Al-Furat Al-Asady, Hadee Mohamaud Attia and Ali Maniff Bajjey.
The judge said although the students’ behavior on the field was deplorable, football is a brutally violent sport.
“If we criminalize these players’ actions, we criminalize nearly every football game ever played. If we criminalize these actions, we criminalize every pitcher who has intentionally thrown at a batter, and every vagrant elbow thrown beneath the basket,” said Plawecki.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred during the final minutes of a playoff game last year, as Star International Academy was about to be defeated by Westland Lutheran High School 47-6.
Referees told the players on the field that Westland’s quarterback was going to take a knee to run out the clock, are warned players not to react violently. Instead, police say several Star players burst through the offensive line and laid out the quarterback, 15-year-old P.J. Guse, who suffered a grade III concussion and missed some school as a result.
(Excerpt) Read more at detroit.cbslocal.com ...
In the case of Star Academy, you'd be absolutely right. I looked up their record when this story first broke. It was something like two wins and 59 losses over the 7 years they've fielded a team!
“P.J. Guse’s family tells Action News they are stunned by the judge’s decision, and are considering filing a civil lawsuit.
“This was just thuggery,” said Jane Guse, P.J.’s mother.
The four teenagers are Mohamed Ahmed, Hadee Attia, Fanar al-Asady and Ali Bajjey. All are heading to college and will do so with clean records.”
Where are the big $$$$ Conservatives and Christians stepping up to help this family?
Yup
Submit, dhimmes. We may not win the game, but we will win the war.
The starting quarterback goes to my church. I believe that he had his eyes raked earlier in the game, which was one of the reasons he was not playing at the end of the game. I wonder what his folks have to say about this ruling?
Yeah, the video is extremely tame. It doesnt show the hit, just some shoving afterwards. The line should have blocked just like they do every play.
The first sentence, yes. I dont know if I believe the second sentence. The video doesnt show that. The picture shows him with his helmet on.
But yes, if you are on the field, be ready to hit or get hit. This is an example of why.
Care to elaborate?
Thats some pretty lame conjecture.
Im not discounting where this was. I just dont see a political angle behind everything. Sometimes, people are just rough. Especially when they are getting blown out in the playoffs.
The Muslim school, Star Academy, hadn't won a game all year. They couldn't possibly have qualified for any playoffs, unless their "feel good" rules allow even the worst teams to compete.
It doesnt look like it. On the Michigan HS football website, it shows they played each other October 21. Lutheran finished 6-4 and Star finished 1-8, so I cant imagine either in a playoff. They are in class D, but Im not sure what that means in Michigan. Both teams finished third in their divisions, and I know in Texas that can qualify you. The division winner for Star was only 4-4.
But with all that, I still think it was more likely frustration and an inability to control themselves than it was a deliberate attack because of religion. And I think the way football handles onfield fights with suspensions or kicking them out is the way to handle it. In general, I am against charges being pressed because of something that happened within the realm of a game. If they waited outside his locker, it would be another story.
And the video doesnt really show anything. I think the blogger in the link is just trying to rile people up for prominence with all of the incendiary language, because I just dont think HS football players think that way.
My source for the teams:
http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/school/dearborn-heights-dearborn-hts-star-international/football/standings/2011-football/
That reminds me of the Rodney Dangerfield joke: I went to a tough school. After the football team sacked the quarterback, they went after his family.
>>”After the snap, however, the four arrested Star players burst through the line and allegedly manhandled Lutheran’s quarterback. Police said they ripped off his helmet, threw him to the ground and punched and kicked him repeatedly.” <<
Dude, this is not a Hockey match.
Nor Aussie Rules.
Punching and kicking repeatedly is not part of the game, it’s assault with intent to cause bodily harm.
We don’t “play” like this in American Football.
The article doesnt say that, and the picture shows him laying down with his helmet on.
And while punching is not part of the game, I think its a suspendible offense. Not a legal matter.
On a side note, if you knew what went on inside the piles, you wouldnt have written that last paragraph.
>>The article doesnt say that, and the picture shows him laying down with his helmet on.<<
Okay, I’ll give you that the article doesn’t state that his helmet was off. I’m in Detroit and watch local news.
So let’s say you’re right and his helmet wasn’t off. He had a CONCUSSION! With a helmet on. That’s more than a punch.
You can say what you want about “what goes on in the piles”, if adults beat a fellow player into concussion, it would be all over the lib news and the player would be punished, either by the law or the league.
Anyone who knows players who participate in Aussie Rules, Rugby or Gaelic football with tell you that American Football is a cakewalk compared to these. Maybe you beat your fellow teammates, but it’s not the norm.
Most football players get their concussions with helmets on. If you lay someone out, and they bounce the back of their head, they can get concussed.
There was nothing in the video to show kicking and punching or ripping the helmet off, which is why I believe the blogger was just trying to use sensationalism to fire people up into a Islam/Christian frenzy. Most people who never played football dont know what goes on on the field away from the ball, and most dont know what is going through a player’s mind.
As to adults, players have been giving each other concussions all the time. And in the NFL, they usually get fined. I remember Darren Woodson gave a Seahawk player a concussion (on a helmet to shoulder, not helmet to helmet hit) and got a 75k fine for it. James Harrison gets fined every year. The entire Saints team is being reprimanded publicly. And Im not defending the Star players as being good sports. I just dont think it should spill into the legal realm.
The point is, it is the norm to beat the other team senseless. The difference between rugby and football is padding. But I guarantee you every star LB in HS/College/NFL has twisted some guys ankle at the bottom of the pile when the refs couldnt see. Deacon Jones used to headslap linemen. Jack Tatum was known as The Assassin. Jonathan Vilma put down 10k for anyone who could take a QB out of the game. Even Ray Lewis and Ed Reed admitted they wanted to take a Steelers RB out of the game.
>>The point is, it is the norm to beat the other team senseless.<<
The point is, these are high schoolers. If adults want to be morons, cool.
The point is, and Im not saying this to be rude, but you dont know football or how players think. High schoolers play that way too. And I do think it was unsportsmanlike, because if someone is conceding, the sportsmanlike thing to do is accept it. But I dont think it should be pushed into the legal realm.
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