Official Attacked
 

I'm new to the forum and first time poster. This attack occurred last night in a VB game with officials in an adjoining association. Truely amazing, YouTube link below

YouTube - Ref gets tossed by Desoto player

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Wow! HC and AC got there quick to remove the perp. so that was good in spite of player behavior.

Unfortunate....

Not sure about Florida's laws, but here that is a Class C Felony and the kid would be arrested and spend the rest of the night in jail, to be arraigned and tried at a later date.

Wow. Talk about a temper tantrum. Hopefully the official wasn't injured.

If you all don't mind, let's dissect this a bit as there is a lot going on. First there is at least a common or possibly intentional foul. Then the calling official assesses what appears to be a flagrant technical on the player. After that we have at least two more flagrant technicals on the same player.

My thoughts are we assess all fouls against the player without any indirects to the head coach and the other team is shooting at least 6 shots with the lane cleared.

What I'm wondering is if you all would consider ending the game at this point as this crew did?

It also gets me to thinking as to what I would do in this official's situation. I think he was clearly surprised but I'm not so sure I would just stand there either. Hard to say from the comfort of my computer screen.

Not sure what the original call was, but it looks like a TC foul followed by a technical foul followed by a flagrant (I'd likely go with 1) felony foul.

As for ending the game? Probably. Depending on what happened before, it could be a definitely thing. But now you've got officials (at least one) who are emotionally shaken (I know I'd be).

And what other response would you envision yourself taking? If it involves physical retaliation, be prepared to be arrested yourself and/or face possible lawsuits in the future.

You are the adult on the scene...you will - like it or not - be held to a higher standard than the juvenile involved.

So much for "hurt feelings".... how about a hurt face??? :eek:

I was thinking more along the lines of creating or keeping distance between myself and the player to try and descalate the situation. Obviously retaliation is not an option and it is certainly not descalating the situation.

I agree that as the adult I am held to the higher standard, but I also reserve the right to protect myself from physical injury against a "kid" that has six inches on me and is physically stronger than I am.

My understanding is that the kid was arrested, still learning more as this develops

The "create or keep distance" is pretty much your best course of action. As far as the right to protect yourself - all I can say is that the courts in this great country sometimes have a different view of that right than we do. As a teacher, I learned long ago to never use force against a student attacking me. About the only time I can legally use physical force is if it will prevent harm to another student. That was the only acceptable defense in the situation I found myself in a number of years ago.

Something similar happened to my partner and he couldn't consider ending the game. Not because of physical conditions, though the attack had been more violent than that, but the stress on everybody had been very heavy.

It was reported in the papers, because it happened in a wheelchair basketball game. :eek::(

Ciao

I like where you're going with this. Player was wrong, no two ways about it. The official handled his business with class. Doesn't mean there isn't something valuable to be learned.

Here in Oregon, assault on a sports official is automatically a Class A misdemeanor and will be prosecuted. Depending on the severity of the assault, it may rise to the level of a felony. This was a law passed a few years ago here. At the time it was going through our legislature, I testified in committee in its favor as a member of NASO. I keep a copy of the law in my bag. We also have a law here in this state that if you are directed to leave a facility by a sports official and you refuse to leave, you may be arrested for trespassing.

First of all, I have no idea how I'd react in that situation.

Second, I noticed that between the foul and free throws that preceded the incident that the non-calling officials didn't seem to be watching the players. That seems like a mistake, though perhaps an inconsequential one. OTOH, it may also be an indication that there wasn't anything obvious "brewing" and that what happened really came out of the blue.