There’s high schools in the South and high schools in the South. Some fairly sane, some fairly insane. Some poor, some rich.
There’s a lot of context there we don’t have that will probably emerge soon. But it’s a decent bet that race and racism of players, coaches, spectators, and cops has something to do with it. Because 'Murricah!
Hard to know exactly what happened here.
If you believe the press reports… big IF, then the director refused multiple requests to stop playing after the conclusion of the game, and was arrested for disorderly conduct, and struggled against being handcuffed.
Question I’d ask - how long had the game been over? Did the game conclude at an unusually late hour? Why the rush to shut down the music, were there historical concerns or present threats of violence between these 2 particular schools? Is it clear that the director understood the order to cease?
Of course, the local press tends to be nothing but stenographers for cops, so answers to those questions are unlikely to be forthcoming until the trial.
…you are more convinced he deserved a tasing? From that video? When he was literally standing still when they lit him up?
When sporting events end, the stadium is cleared. That’s standard protocol unless there is some kind of post game fireworks show or some such. It escalated to tasing because, according to the article, the guy deserved to be tased. He resisted arrest and was physically aggressive. WHY all this occurred is the question I can’t answer. Did the two band directors have words that resulted in some kind of post game “face off”?
In my admittedly somewhat limited experience, the audience clears the stands without a lot of encouragement from the police. The police are mostly directing traffic, both foot traffic where there are “choke points” and car traffic in the parking lot.
Also, it’s normal for bands to play while this happens.
I just saw a video not too long ago of a football game where the bands were having a bit of a playful competition. The video, which had gone viral, was taken by someone in the stands. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
I’m eager to learn more details about this event.
Bonnie Raitt played at the Stanley Theater the night she turned 30, and I was there. There were cops there for crowd/traffic control and they opened the theater doors, signaling “that’s all folks” at some agreed upon time.
Bonnie wasn’t having any of it. She yelled, “it’s my birthday and I’ll play as long as I want”. She played another 30 minutes before leaving the stage. No tasing, though I bet she paid some sort of fine.
Back a zillion years ago, I worked campus security while attending college, and we were required to provide crowd control at football games together with and under the direction of the campus police.
Without knowing any more details than what’s known here, it looks like a clusterfuck.
There should be someone in charge with a plan, and that plan needs to have a cutoff time for bands. It’s so much easier to go up and tap the shoulder on the director and say, we agreed to end the battle of the bands at 9:00, it’s 9:10 now, can you wrap it up after this song?
Even back in my time, there were “badge heavy” cops and guards. There are better ways of getting people to do things and worse ways.
At our games, the families and friends of the players were allowed on the field to wait for the players to come out after the game. But, the tricky part was that we had to wait for approval to let them on the field, and the person in charge could wait until the stands had thinned out a certain amount.
Security was posted at the gate and would need to get people to wait until approval given.
There was one badge heavy security guard who would get into screaming matches with the friends and families F&F and even physic pushing matching keeping the gate closed while frustrated F&F couldn’t understand why this ass was keeping them from doing something they had done for years.
A much smarter guard handled it much better. He would stand well back from the gate and wait for the first group to come. As they approached the gate, he would let them know that they were waiting for the OK, and as soon as he got it, everyone could then go in.
This group then became the new gatekeepers. As other people would come the first group then let them know what the situation was and everyone was fine. Once approval was given, all the F&F went in and there were no arguments or fights.
Unfortunately, it’s the civilians who get tazed and taken to jail after bad confrontations.
I mean, that’s the sane thing to do. It’s not the “i get off on exercising my power over other people” thing to do.
Taylor Swift was fined after her concert in Santa Clara for playing past the curfew, in violation of local noise ordinances.
Come to think of it, if the school was in a residential neighborhood, there may have been some sort similar curfew and noise ordinances the band had to comply with. That’s still not really an excuse for the way the officer handled the situation, though.
No. I never mentioned tazing anyone.
I’m more convinced there’s a feud or some backstory we don’t have knowledge of.
As I noted in an earlier post, the stadium is in a wooded area adjacent to a Wal-Mart. The nearest residential area appears to be at least half a mile away, with several hundreds of feet of trees in the intervening space.
According to posts allegedly by locals, including band members (but which I obviously can’t verify), the bands planned in advance to do 3 songs each, taking turns, which should take about 20-25 minutes. That sounds to me like about enough time for the crowd to leave a small-town high school football game. Each band had finished the first song, and the visiting band had started their second turn when the cops approached Mims. If that’s the case, then the music had likely been going for about 6-8 minutes.
Other posts additionally say that they turned the lights out while students were still in the stadium. Which, if true, seems like a really bad idea. You’ve got a bunch of kids who’ve had their adult supervisor taken away, who are just figuring out that they’re stranded in a strange town (because said supervisor was also their bus driver), and you literally leave them in the dark?
Were the spectators still leaving during the incident because the conductor may have just been playing until he could get to the bus with the band.
Geez those cops realky hate music.
What colossal power hungry jerks.
I was never aware of any time limit for the band after a game. Its been a long time, but I recall hearing them playing as I went to the parking lot.
My school had pep rallys before games.
I hope the school and their band director sues. This abuse of people can’t be tolerated.
Watching the video … he was just standing there when the officer whipped out a taser and zapped him. It looks like a gross abuse of power to me. Yeah, he was arguing. Police can argue back. They shouldn’t use tasers unless that’s actually a threat. A threat to more than their unquestioned authority.
I hope the police department pays a hefty fine to the school band, and a suitable compensation to the director for assaulting him.
A clear case of Conducting While Black. If he’d been White, it’s unlikely they’d have gotten out the Taser.
Make them buy up the entire year’s supply of band candy.
It’s amazing what police consider a “threat”. Stapler. Cell phone. Car keys.
Sometimes I think they have watched John Wick one too many times. “Look out! That guy might be able to kill three men with a pencil!”
And that conductor probably had a baton.
The conductor was literally standing still when they assaulted him.
And the second article claims that he’d promised to wrap up at the end of the song his band was playing.
But but but… Standing still is merely the precursor to violent action! Every killer was, at one point, standing still! TASE HIM!
I remember when police were not chickenshit cowards.
You remember the time before ubiquitous cameras?