Altercation at H.S. Football game....

[Hardware]

You did good. You protected your family and everyone important, including you, went home without injury.

As far as the kid, some people are like slinkys. Not good for anything, but you just can't help but smile when they tumble down a flight of stairs.

 

[MartinBrody]

Now I've got some of the people, all women from what I could see, yelling at me that I went to far.

Why is the bad guy never accountable for his actions? Everyone blames guns, drugs, poverty, bad parents, no jobs etc. Maybe if someone had held those kids accountable for poor decisions in the past they would have known better. And the cycle continues, instead of chastising those dummies, they felt it was their duty to lay some blame on you.

 

[Lupinus]

you did good, more drunk punks need to get their ass kicked a little every now and agian. No one is made responsible for their actions anymore and it's sad, throw some of these idiots back fifty or sixty years and see how they do they'ed end up in the hospital with half the bones in their body broken.

The only thing you could have done better is move your family when the fight broke out of get up make them scoot down and put yourself closest to the fight.

 

[atlctyslkr]

Hope that punk doesn't come after you. Teenagers these days are very vindictive.

 

[Ezekiel]

I'm, almost universally, the guy that argues for restraint with a handgun.

With "hands?" Never. Bring the heat.

To be honest, I find it curious -- NO JUDGMENT -- that you (training, awareness, et al) didn't see something coming. Must have been an entertaining game.

You did swell.

 

[Coronach]

Seems ok to me, from the info related.

Now I've got some of the people, all women from what I could see, yelling at me that I went to far.

These are the same people that would summon the police to deal with an aggressive drunk, then yell that the force used to restrain him was excessive. We see it all of the time. In this case, I'm sure the officer talking to them was like "Uh huh. Uh huh. Suuuuuuuuuure."*

Tell me, when he went flying, did he yell: "Airborne leads the waaaaaaaaaaaa *thud* aaaaaaaaaaaaa *thud* aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa *thud* aaaaaaaaaaaa *thud* aaaaaaaaaaaaay!" *thud*

Mike

*Seriously, I patrol an area where there are lots of touchy-feely bliss-ninnies living in a small, trendy area, bordered by urban blight. The BGs wander across the Line of Demarcation and prey on the sheep. We respond, and there is always at least one witness who thinks we were too rough on the poor guy and should have, I dunno, held a Group Therapy session instead of cuffing him up. You learn very quickly who those people are and you take in what they have to say in reference to the FACTS and ignore the rest of the drivel, spin, personal opinion, armchair-quarterback interpretation and could/shoulda/woulda crapola.

 

[SnakeEater]

To be honest, I find it curious -- NO JUDGMENT -- that you (training, awareness, et al) didn't see something coming. Must have been an entertaining game.

Well, I had my 2yr old sitting on my lap, and the whole thing happened extremely fast. I'm guessing that from the time I first noticed the fight until the punk went flying down the stairs was less than 10 seconds. I didn't have time to think things through, I simply reacted.

Thank god for the old man. I was completely outnumbered and I began fearing that it would be my word against 20, until the old man bravely stood up and took my side. The first officer to arrive aleved my worries when he whispered "no problem, that kid's a piece of sh**, he got what he deserved".

THIS JUST IN: I was just told that before performing his cartwheels this guy had hurt a teenage girl. He's damn lucky I wasn't aware of this at the time.

 

[Byron Quick]

Given the ten second scenario, you did excellent. The only things you could have done better was to get between the fight and your family while getting them to move elsewhere. Ten seconds isn't quite enough time for that unless you see it coming and have time to be proactive. Then you don't have time to watch the game.

 

[Heavy Metal Hero]

There was a huge fight at last night's Homecoming game. A big brawl that dealt with most of the players from both teams. I don't understand why fighting is so "cool." You should only fight to survive, for sport, or to protect. Any other reason is immature.

Well good job, your family (mainly your young children) were at risk. Maybe you should have just gave him a good curbing.

 

[Geno]

Based on 5 years as H.S. Principal

Based on 5 years as H.S. Principal, I have to ask, where was the H.S. principal? By policy, we had an administrator present at EVERY SINGLE athletic event. You should never have had to intervene.

The students, apparently drunk, should have been caught at the gate, smelling of alcohol and sent packing with the police.

If by error they were admitted, at the first sign of a fight, the administrative team should have extracted them from society, and sent them packing with the police.

My point is, I am not a police officer and I don't play one on TV. I tell the students day one, “If you get into an assault, the police will arrest you and sort it out. I have a Ph.D. in education, not law enforcement!”

Did you do right? Do you really even need to ask? You're a husband, a father, and a danged respectable man in my book! When I was principal, you would have received my handshake from me, not a frown.

I would NOT lose any sleep over it.

Doc2005

 

[roo_ster]

WARNING TO ALL DRUNK PUNKS- Don't fall on a mans family, especially if that man is a 6'3 240lb former paratrooper.

Roger that. It holds true for those less than 6'3", too.

I only have two children, 23 & 6 months. Both are still small enough to take under arm and make like a running back, stiff-arming as I go. That said, I would have been hard-pressed to get them and my wife up & out in <10 seconds.

Folks just have to understand, getting OUT of the situation when little children are in the mix is many times not an option. You gotta defned in place and make the best of it, 'cause you are mobility-limited.

Punks & drunks deserve worse than they usually get.

 

[Working Man]

Equivalent Exchange

I'd say you even acted with a measured amount of refrain that many
might find hard to do. In all honesty the stairs might have been my first
response. Just sitting here at my computer I can say that I would act
with reasonable force but the reality might be very different.

 

[Borachon]

Did you steal the punks wallet after you kicked him down the stairs?

No?

Grade "F".

 

[brufener]

I'm feeling a little regretful.

Feeling regretful was the only thing you did wrong. I'd bet that for for the 20 women who complained, there were at least that many other adults in the crowd thinking that they would have done the same thing you did. From what I've seen human nature is to speak up to complain and be quiet if you agree.

<RANT>It seems that liberals now days think that they have the right to complain about anything that anyone does. A good example is the anti-SUV campaigns. Who cares what people drive, we live in a free country. Let people do what they want (as long as it isn't illegal). Liberals seem to think that they need to "parent" everyone. The real problem with this is that they blame "society" when things go wrong. They try to parent someone and they take away their personal responsibilty and make "society" responsible. When everyone is responsible for something, then nobody is responsible for it. Why liberals can't see that people are better off when they are forced to take responsibilty for their actions I don't know.</RANT>

If you feel ok about what you did, and it wasn't illegal, then that is all that matters. You did good in my book.

 

[kennyboy]

Good job. Do not have any regrets. You were in the right the entire time. If that kid had not been ILLEGALLY drinking and acting disorderly, none of that would have happened. Just remember, you did not make start the madness, it was the idiot kid. More people need kicked. People who think otherwise are simply naive.

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

He falls into my wife and daughters, ages 5 and 2. I'd seen enough. I grabbed the guy and put him down on the ground, then I told him to "get the hell out of here, now!". Well I take 2 steps back and he tries to lunge at me from the ground. I shoved him with my foot and he goes cartwheeling down a flight of stairs, a rather long flight of stairs.

I don't know if grabbing the guy and putting him to the ground initially was a good idea. I wouldn't have done that. He would have gotten up on his own, and you could have put yourself between him and your family to prevent them from getting hit again. And since you did throw him, he now had a reason to fight you. He may hold a personal grudge against you now and attempt some sort of revenge in the future, though that's probably unlikely.

On the other hand, he needed to be stopped, since this was happening in crowded stands, so you did everyone a favor. But if the women yelled at you for being too rough (no good deed goes unpunished), wouldn't they have deserved it if you hadn't and he had fallen into them, hurting them?

 

[Mr. Ouchie]

uh.

brufener - yup, don't blame society, just blame the liberals! Funny logic is the best logic!

 

[offthepaper]

CARTWHEELING?
Are you sure he was'nt demonstrating a new move for the cheerleading squad??

 

[Rotty]

Only thing that i seen that stood out, Is you just "assaulted" someone, his friends seen you do it, and you then send you wife and kids out to the parking lot by themselves......I wouldnt do that.....

 

[Thin Black Line]

I have to ask, where was the H.S. principal? By policy, we had an administrator present at EVERY SINGLE athletic event.

+1. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the principal was taking care of
some other problem such as the usual alcohol/pot smoking in the school
parking lot. My dad was a principal/Vp in a couple different schools and
he confiscated so much paraphenalia and drugs, you'd think he was
in the DEA.

My point is, I am not a police officer and I don't play one on TV. I tell the students day one, “If you get into an assault, the police will arrest you and sort it out. I have a Ph.D. in education, not law enforcement!”

My dad broke up quite a few fights --one was by breaking a kid's hand. Now,
before you go crying "child abuse" the high school kid broke his own hand
when he punched my dad in the forehead. The kid is on the floor writhing in
pain and my dad says something like "Had enough now? Let's go to the
office." LOL, he didn't have a problem from *anyone* the rest of the year.

My dad didn't have any military or law enforcement training --just a short
stint of on-the-job-training during the Detroit riots.......that is for a
different story, though.

Ah, then there was the other principal I knew who kept his CCW weapon
at school.......this was a LONG time before Beslan!

 

[Pilgrim]

Now I've got some of the people, all women from what I could see, yelling at me that I went to far.

The unwashed masses, not familiar with the concept of measured violent response, are made uncomfortable when they see violence of any kind. These are the folks who rely on 911 and demand anger management classes in grade school.

Pilgrim

 

[SnakeEater]

On our community message board there is a thread going about the incident. I do not post there but I occasionally browse. Surprisingly I seem to be getting some support but here is what one poster had to say. I do not know who this person is.

I also heard about this and actually know the parents of the kids that the guy figthing fell on. However,I do not agree with the fathers approach. Yes the kids were wrong to be figthing and they could have seriously hurt (but didn't) the kids he fell on BUT come on as an adult do you choose to throw the guy down the stair in front of your kids. Two wrongs do not make a right. Not to mention what if the guy busted his head on the bleachers. And the if the kid was under 18 I believe that you would be in serious trouble since he is a minor. I am so glad that my kids did not witness this as I would not want them to think this would be the proper way to handle the situation.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

If you had done something wrong, the youth and his parents would have charged you with assault, or at least reported your attack to the police. As far as you know, that kid is somewhere cleaning his soiled underwear thanking god that he got away before he seriously got hurt.

I'd have done the same thing or worse. If someone fell on my baby and wife, I'd get so enraged that I'd probably do something dumb, actually. When reading the story, I had thought you were going to ask if you should have put 2 slugs between his eyes, or if putting a pair in his heart was sufficient.

Plus, in this day and age, "drunk" can easily mean high, maybe he was smoking some pot, maybe he had some meth or ecstacy, maybe he was armed with a little pocket knife. You have no idea.

When he started the incident, he put on a sign that said "I am a public disturbance and a potential danger to everyone around me, someone please take care of this situation".

 

[dfaugh]

I think you did it "just right"...I know that I have a temper, and temperment, that MIGHT have resulted in me beating the absolute cr@p out him, had I felt there was ANY threat of harm to my kids, no matter the circumstances. Probably woulda landed me in jail, it were me.

 

[one-shot-one]

SnakeEater

"And the if the kid was under 18 I believe that you would be in serious trouble since he is a minor."

I gotta call B.S. on that, I'm 6'1" my son just turned 18 he is 6' 2" and if a guy his size stood up to fight me I'm not going to take the time to ask to see his ID.
+1 on you did good and ignore the jerks who don't know (as my grandma use to say) how the cow ate the cabbage!