Perhaps you’ve seen it, since there are multiple copies on YouTube and other video sites: Protester runs on the field waving a sign, gets tackled by cops who proceed to get entirely too rough, which provokes the fans to attack the cops. If you haven’t seen it, go here and watch it yourself.
What ever happened to the old de-escalation ethics of police? When I was in uniform, had I been on duty on the field that day, it would not have been anything like that. Okay, so some goon interrupts the play of the game. In a free society, we tolerate such things as the norm, in that the occasional hijinks for whatever tragic cause by itself is within the envelope of what civil society expects and tolerates. It’s not a personal insult.
So I would have been laughing as I tackled the guy. I’m bigger than him, I assure you, so I would have taken advantage of that. But with at least one other, I can promise we would eventually have cuffs on him. If he struggles, it’s still part of the game. We were trained to do it against resistance and two can always defeat one struggling resistor. Six? Too easy.
Get the cuffs on, lift him off the ground and carry him out. What’s the big deal? I’d still be laughing, even joking with the guy. Only if he tried to strike any of us would there be any fighting. Just catch him and get him off the field. Turn him over to a police patrol dispatched to take him away. Job done; nobody harmed.
This notion folks have to comply with your personal whims or be punished for the grand insult to your authoritah fully warrants the reaction of the fans. The cops were wrong, and while I am sorry the one was knocked unconscious, the defense of the running protester was absolutely right. That’s not hooliganism, that’s justice as the Bible defines it. Thus saith the Lord.
