Arrested in the Middle of a Game

[Atlanta Blue]

WOW!!!

Don't the facts that the charges against the officials were dropped and the cop was suspended, imply that the escalation was initiated and carried out entirely by the officer?  I believe that your attempt to place some of the blame for this incident on the officials is, to say the least, unwarranted.

No, not at all!  Was the MAJORITY of the problem the fault of the officer?  Absolutely!  But did the officials handle it in the best way they could have?  Probably not.

Because of the officer's actions, there is no way any reasonable prosecutor is going to going to move forward against the officials.  But that does not in any way mean they were "blameless".  I doubt seriously they did anything that merited arrest, but I also think they could have handled the situation better.

[HLinNC]

The simplest thing would have been to refuse to resume play until the unauthorized personnel were moved.  If this required the game admin to tell the cop to move his buddies so the game continues, the onus is on them.

In a clash of egos, the badge and gun are always going to win in the short term.

While I would never criticize the remaining officials who finished the game, I believe I would reach a conclusion that the same officers arresting my crew mates were going to be responsible for my safety and thus the situation was no longer safe to continue.

[Atlanta Blue]

While I would never criticize the remaining officials who finished the game, I believe I would reach a conclusion that the same officers arresting my crew mates were going to be responsible for my safety and thus the situation was no longer safe to continue.

That was part of what shocked me.  I assume LA is using 5 man crews.  Well, with two officials gone, now they only have three?  Sorry, if I'm one of the remaining officials, this game is suspended.

Who knows, if they had taken that stance, MAYBE cooler heads would have prevailed and the arrested officials would have been put back on the field.  And how do the remaining officials keep their head in the game knowing what just happened?

[TNofficial]

That was part of what shocked me.  I assume LA is using 5 man crews.  Well, with two officials gone, now they only have three?  Sorry, if I'm one of the remaining officials, this game is suspended.

Who knows, if they had taken that stance, MAYBE cooler heads would have prevailed and the arrested officials would have been put back on the field.  And how do the remaining officials keep their head in the game knowing what just happened?

They were actually using a 7 man crew for this game and so they finished using 5 man mechanics.

[RMR]

That was part of what shocked me.  I assume LA is using 5 man crews.  Well, with two officials gone, now they only have three?  Sorry, if I'm one of the remaining officials, this game is suspended.

Who knows, if they had taken that stance, MAYBE cooler heads would have prevailed and the arrested officials would have been put back on the field.  And how do the remaining officials keep their head in the game knowing what just happened?

We use a lot of 6 and 7 man crews here.

[blandis]

I just read where the two officers involved were sort of forced to resign.

[Ralph Damren]

IMHO, using three underused words - please, and thank you - by all parties involved could have pervented all of this. When authority meets authority with the common goal of keeping things under control, things got out of control quite quickly .