You cannot make this shit up - Two football officials arrested.

[Berkut]

This is simply dumbfounding. Maybe one of the dumbest cop stories I have ever seen.


http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/10/arrested_referees_police_clash.html


There are a lot of other stories out on this, including discussion on some officiating boards. But the basic story is this:


Cop gets job to provide security for high school football game. This is very typical.
Cop has son playing in game, for the visiting school.
Cop invites his friends to hang out on the sidelines with him to watch the game, inside the restraining fence.
Friends get down on the field along the sideline where they are not supposed to be, interfere with chain crew.
Official on that side has problems because there are all these people where they are not supposed to be - but no worries, there is a police officer RIGHT THERE, so we can fix this...
Official asks police officer to remove spectators who are not allowed to be there from the sideline.
Officer tells official to pay attention to the game, and let him handle the crowd.
Officials boggles at his response. What. The. Fuck?
Official is not happy about this response, tells officer that everyone needs to be away from the sideline and off the field, behind the fence.
Officer again tells official to pay attention to the game, and quit worrying about the sideline. Officer actually tells official to "shut up" and "you don't have the authority to tell anyone to move anywhere"
Official calls head official (referee) over.
Referee asks officer to remove spectators.
Officer tells referee to go back to the game, and if he says "one more word, I am cufffing".
Referee tells officer he is going to home team game management, and the spectators and now the officer as well are going to be removed from the playing field.

OFFICER ARRESTS BOTH OF THEM FOR "Intimidating a public official", and they are both taken to jail and booked. They are both released the next morning on bail.


Much drama ensues, and eventually the mayor and new police chief (of course) eventually drop all the charges and issue an apology.

[DGuller]

It should really be a criminal offense to abuse one's authority like that.  Giving one citizen legitimate control over another citizen should come with great responsibility, and merely having that authority removed if you're caught abusing it is not enough of a responsibility.

[Berkut]

It should really be a criminal offense to abuse one's authority like that.  Giving one citizen legitimate control over another citizen should come with great responsibility, and merely having that authority removed if you're caught abusing it is not enough of a responsibility.

It's actually kind of ironic. After the cop arrested them, he called the DA to find out what he could charge them with. DA apparently told him he had nothing. Cop decided to charge the officials under the law that covers someone attempting to intimidate a police officer unlawfully - like trying to threaten to get one fired because you are a city council member, or something like that.

But what we really have here is the opposite - a police officer threatening a civilian with illegal arrest if they don't act in the manner the officer insists.

[Barrister]

What a shame - that officer is ruining the sterling reputation of the Louisiana justice system.

[The Minsky Moment]

His kid must be pretty embarrassed.

[crazy canuck]

His kid must be pretty embarrassed.

Hopefully the police force is embarrassed as well.

[The Brain]

If they feel they can afford the lawsuit then why not.

[Barrister]

So it's obviously a completely ridiculous action by the cop, but really - this happened in small town rural Louisiana.  I'm really not expecting top-not police work from the Covington Police Department (Covington LA - population 8,765).

[crazy canuck]

So it's obviously a completely ridiculous action by the cop, but really - this happened in small town rural Louisiana.  I'm really not expecting top-not police work from the Covington Police Department (Covington LA - population 8,765).

One might expect a police officer to know the difference between being a cop and being hired as a security guard for a school game. 

[Berkut]

So it's obviously a completely ridiculous action by the cop, but really - this happened in small town rural Louisiana.  I'm really not expecting top-not police work from the Covington Police Department (Covington LA - population 8,765).

I don't think not arresting officials because tehy tell your friends they cannot be on the field is an unreasonable bar to expect even out of rural town police officers.

And it isn't really rural anyway, it is the New Orleans metro area.

[lustindarkness]

Who won the game?

[The Brain]

Who won the game?

The law.

[Barrister]

So it's obviously a completely ridiculous action by the cop, but really - this happened in small town rural Louisiana.  I'm really not expecting top-not police work from the Covington Police Department (Covington LA - population 8,765).

I don't think not arresting officials because tehy tell your friends they cannot be on the field is an unreasonable bar to expect even out of rural town police officers.

And it isn't really rural anyway, it is the New Orleans metro area.

No, obviously that is not unreasonable to expect.  But LA is notorious for poor policing.

And I looked it up before commenting - Covington is on the other side of Lake Ponchatrain from NO - 30-40 mi away as the crow flies, much longer driving.

[Neil]

Wow.  That's some pretty stupid shit.  If that were to happen on TV, I wouldn't believe it.

[Berkut]

So it's obviously a completely ridiculous action by the cop, but really - this happened in small town rural Louisiana.  I'm really not expecting top-not police work from the Covington Police Department (Covington LA - population 8,765).

I don't think not arresting officials because tehy tell your friends they cannot be on the field is an unreasonable bar to expect even out of rural town police officers.

And it isn't really rural anyway, it is the New Orleans metro area.

No, obviously that is not unreasonable to expect.  But LA is notorious for poor policing.

And I looked it up before commenting - Covington is on the other side of Lake Ponchatrain from NO - 30-40 mi away as the crow flies, much longer driving.

So? It is still part of the New Orleans metro area, and most certainly NOT rural.


And it is not that much further driving  there is a bridge that goes straight across the lake from NO to Mandeville (one of the teams involved)/Convington.


Finally, you can even look up the definition of the NOMA, and it includes the parish (St. Taminy) that includes Convington.


Your internet schooling is now complete.