Fans from the visiting team continued to move out of the stands and closer and closer to the field. At one point one of the people working the chains (Line to Gain Stakes) tripped over a fan. The HL stopped the game and asked the fans to move back. They refused and so the HL got a police officer involved. The officer was successful in moving the fans back about 3 feet. About the time the Referee comes over and asks that the fans be moved further back. The officer then responds with "you worry about the game, I will worry about the fans." The HL at this point goes to find another Police officer to see about moving the fans back.
The Referee getting nowhere with the first officer decides if the officer is going to refuse to help, the Referee will toss him from the stadium grounds. The officer didn't like that move and replied sarcastically about just worrying about what is going on on the field. The R again said he was ejecting the cop from the stadium. The cop then decided to arrest the HL and R for public intimidation. The officials left quietly and peacefully in handcuffs.
They were out on bail the next morning and worked a game that afternoon. The mayor of the town has an interesting quote regarding the situation. He admits the officials never touched the cops and that the were arrested because they stated they had higher authority over the stadium than did the cop:
Of course this is making the rounds of all officiating groups this week. In Texas we don't have to worry about fans having access to the field as all stadiums have a fence surrounding the stands and the field. We also have complete control over the game site per the athletic association rules. Turns out LA has similar rules as well. The officials can be held liable for allowing a game to continue under unsafe conditions. Fans on or near the sidelines certainly constitutes an unsafe condition.He said Short arrested them "more or less (because of) words... It was a question of authority, and there's probably a gray line there.
What we would have done was to send each team to their sidelines and not restart the game until after the fans were moved to a distance not less than 10 yards from the side or end lines. If after a period of time the fans refused to move and it was only fans from one side we would start throwing delay of game flags on that team. After the first or second flag the coaches would take care of moving the fans back even if the cops didn't. One thing we would never do is get into a verbal altercation with the cop. That is just a lose lose situation.
Officials groups from all over the country are chiming in on the situation and our National association is going to defend the officials in court if the charges are not dropped. The National Association has also threatened a lawsuit against the town and the officer if the charges are not dropped. It also appears that the LA HS Athletic Association guidelines give the officials the ability to remove anyone from the stadium grounds. No mention is made of police officers being excluded from that.
Too bad both the officials and the cops messed up here. I am sure if they had it to do all over again neither the officials or cop would handle it the same way.
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/201 ... er_on.html
