Wichita Ref gets shoved by cop
 

Terrible!
I commend the young lady for her conviction and guts, but following that guy to tell him to leave is definitely breaking into jail.
Looks like a rec-mess!

Curious to see how this plays out. Being off-duty is no excuse. Especially given the victim is a minor.

Here is my thing with it. Should a parent come on the court? no but if the kid is hurt I have no problem with it. I have had it happen before and I walked away and allowed the parent and coach tend to the player with no T. She had no reason to be there and blowing the whistle in his face was ridiculous and should have never happened. While I don't think he should have pushed her I don't understand why she then decided to keep going at him after that. It was a bad situation that could have been avoided if she would have just done her job right

I get what you're saying, but given she is a minor, I wonder how much training she received, especially in terms of injured players and ejection protocols. Sure, experienced officials know to move away from the scene of an injury when a coach or trainer comes onto the court, and they know that one doesn't have to be right in front of an individual being ejected. However, I wonder how much instruction she received regarding these items.

Training, We Don't Need No Stink'in Training ...
 

Back when my daughter played high school basketball, the players were recruited to be recreation league referees on weekends. Nice way to earn few bucks on the weekend. She received absolutely no training. The league just figured that high school varsity basketball players knew all the rules and mechanics because of the many years that they played.

I gotta admit, I'm kinda shocked that anything was filed in this case

Credit the cell phone video which memorialized this inconsequential kerfuffle.

Yeah, there wasn't that much there, but on the other hand, he's a police captain with no excuse for what he did, and he assaulted a game official, so by charging him I think you send a message that absolutely needs to be sent. I think a misdemeanor charge is highly appropriate here. If the DA drops the charges in exchange for being suspended from coaching and a reprimand from his law enforcement agency, I think that would be a wholly appropriate outcome.

The official is not without blame. There was inexperience involved, for sure. I hope she acknowledges that she could have handled it differently, and more importantly I hope she learns from this and continues to officiate.

I agree with everyone who says there's a not a lot there, and that it was obviously very poorly handled by the official. And if she hadn't decided to blow the whistle directly in his face (she's a child, after all), the assault never happens.

But perhaps this guy was being "that guy" from the stands all game long (we all know the type in these hot-mess rec leagues) and when he was suddenly all the way onto the court, just feet from the officials he had perhaps been riding like a lunatic all night, she finally lost it and went lunatic too.

Doesn't justify it. Just a theory ...

And his kid did not look hurt enough to warrant a parent trip to the court. He could've just met him at the bench.

The kid definitely did not need to walk towards the parent in this situation. She needed to identify who her site administrator was and let them deal with removing the officer. I too hope the kid sticks with our craft and learns from this.

I wonder how he would handle being shoved while in uniform?

this!

A adult making contact with a youth official is not an inconsequential kerfuffle.

The assault charge (plus other charges) would have been immediate, not weeks later after an investigation.

"stop resisting!!!"

Not to mention that the cell phone was probably only pulled out to take the video because the parent was already making a scene.

If the guy was quietly walking onto the court to be helpful to the injured player there's no issue. I'd bet that this guy was already yelling at the official and making a scene before the video even started.

Bingo.

The official obviously did not handle it well. But she is a 17 year old minor with little or no training. (Could be my daughter.) He is an adult male police captain a head taller than her. He needs to take the much higher, smarter and calmer road. He should never, never ever have come close to touching the official much less pushing her. And like someone said, if anyone ever pushed an officer in uniform while they were on scene that person would rightfully so be on the ground in handcuffs and charged with assaulting a police officer. This is not an insignificant matter. He should be charged, plead to a deal and get some training.

Charged? meh....he didn't two hand push or punch her. He emotionally brushed her aside with fingertips. Disrespectful? Heck yes. Embarrassing? Heck yes. Worthy or admonishment/punishment? Heck yes.
Worthy of being charged with a crime? Probably not. Worthy of a public and one on one apology to the official and her family. HECK YES.

Worthy of losing his job? HECK YES

There are plenty of regular folks who would be charged with battery for such an act; and arrested on the spot if law enforcement were available.

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Maybe.

I think there has to be a pattern of him boiling over, some type of trend that shows he has a problem with managing his anger/emotions, for him to be fired from his job.

This incident, in and of itsself, probably isn't sufficient cause.

Time will tell, though.

I don't condone any of his actions. However I do believe the work shove is not the correct term to use to describe what took place.

Agreed. His actions cannot be condoned. His punishment should "fit the crime". The severity of the punishment should take the entire picture of his career to date into account, as well.

I do feel as though someone in his position needs to be held to a higher standard than the average citizen.

This assumes that everyone in a striped uniform is an official.

Or this rec-mess is already so out of hand that a kid ended up with a broken arm?

And if his kids arm is broken, because these untrained high school kids were put in this horrible situation?
You want to now ruin his career and hurt his family?
Did this girl who clearly acts like she can handle herself lose some sense of self-worth?
As a dad of four daughters and I'd want to take this guy out and kick his ___. But it'd be over after that as far as I'm concerned.

Agreed!

If an I.T. guy does this, we don't really care if he gets fired? Instead let's fire the public servant doing a job that many of us will not or could not do...

I'm not necessarily suggesting he be fired, but he should be held to a higher standard, yes. Keep in mind this was obviously investigated and they're going off of more than what's on the video.

How would someone who did the same to him in his official role be treated?

I hope there is more reasoning for his firing than that video!
BTW: This is not that young lady's "official role" - so this isn't apples to apples.

Which makes her far more vulnerable to abusive adults . . .

I'm suggesting that if someone had done the same to him in his role as an officer, they'd have been treated a lot more harshly than he has been so far.

We have different versions of abuse - clearly.
He was wrong!

Try this: 17 year old boy; clearly irritated mother (even a cop) comes out of the stands. The boy blows his whistle in her face and she shoves him away, then grabs her daughter (crying and holding her arm) and begins walking away. Boy is now trolling her like the young lady was trolling this dad.
What do you have? NOTHING, and I agree!

No. They can come after the investigation.

As someone else said in this thread, higher standards apply to some people depending on the job they hold. This is one of them. Is it fair? Maybe not.

If you as an official go to a game and cry and complain about the officiating, then the microscope is turned back on you. People notice that. That behavior is not allowed and depending upon where you work, you may be suspended or put on probation depending upon the severity.

And to make it clear, no, I do not want to ruin his career, but he is the one that put himself in that situation.

This is another reminder for why every state should include "sports officials" as a special victim or have included legislation designed to protect officials.

State Legislation - National Association of Sports Officials

Incidents like these become treated differently with these types of rules. They make it much easier for administrators to have a backbone. If you're state does not have this in place, I would encourage you to reach out individually or through your state associations to adopt.

If the cop were in uniform and was called to the scene... and a citizen did what he did to the referee, the citizen would have been thrown to the ground and handcuffed... let’s see what the judicial system does....

Update to this story:

Man who shoved teen referee no longer with Wichita police

No longer with the department, doesn't show a direct connection but he was charged.

Good to see that this person is no longer with the police.It would be legally confusing if a police officer attacked someone in the performance of his duties, especially if the victim was someone whose job is ensuring safety and controlling access to the playing surface.
Hopefully future police officers (and parents in general) do not repeat his mistakes.

No just charged but convicted on the assault and disorderly conduct.