Deputies use taser on two juvenile football fans "to disperse the crowd"

[Bluebear]

LEE COUNTY: Fans at an all-star football game got an unexpected show when a brawl broke out. Deputies tasered two men to disperse the crowd. Our cameras were there as it all went down.

Fans at the John Carrigan Rotary South Classic saw plenty of action on the field. But Thursday, they were probably talking about what happened off the field.

Off-duty deputies work security at various sporting events - and usually the crowd stays under control.

But Wednesday night, a fight started and a raucous crowd gathered.

"A fight broke out between two of the juveniles and caused a large crowd to assemble... as I'm sure you can see on your video," said Sergeant Larry King of the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

A third person was involved; he squirted pepper spray during the melee but disappeared in the crowd. Deputies and police had to work together to restore order.

"The officers needed to intervene and break up the fight. Once their presence was made known, the two continued to fight," said King.

"Somebody from the crowd was apparently using pepper spray and it was inciting the crowd further and it was just a situation where things could have gotten out of hand," said Tony Schall of the sheriff's office.

So deputies decided to use force and tasered both boys.

http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=16227&z=3&p=

[Richard Steele]

1. Without knowing more, I can't condemn the Cops' actions.

Excited crowds can become angry mobs in a heartbeat- it's a scary dynamic.
Tasering the two combatants may have been the "least bad" choice.

[Bluebear]

10. Then taser the person who was doing the pepper spraying if you must!

Somehow, the world has gotten through centuries of juvenile boys fighting without the need to taser them , but maybe it's just me

[Richard Steele]

13. Well, the pepper spray bandit was smart enough to skedaddle before the cops arrived.

If they had tasered HIM, I'd have no problem supporting them.

[EvilAL]

2. They got tasered

because someone else was using pepper spray?? Maybe I misread that.

2 juveniles in a fistfight.. What a rare occurence.. then instead of doing what they are trained to do, like hold them down and do what they had to do to stop them from fighting.. they tase them to scare the other kids into leaving?

[CT_Progressive]

3. Sounds like a justified use of tasers.

Next.

[EvilAL]

4. heh. exactly.

[Bluebear]

11. It's that simple for you?

[gratuitous]

5. Sounds reasonable

After all, there's no way for a police officer to project any authority unless he tasers a teen-ager. And they make such a satisfying shriek as they go down. The fact that one of them might die as a result? Well, any judgment will be reserved to a board of their brother officers months or even years later based on carefully filtered "evidence." So it's win-win all the way around, any hard feelings by some ingrates and malcontents notwithstanding.

[RB TexLa]

6. I remember several fights at high school football games, including one where both stands pretty much

emptied, the police never did anything but watch.

If two people are both hitting each other are they going to arrest both of them?

[EvilAL]

7. They should have went after the guy that was pepper spraying

the innocent, yet entertained, bystanders.

[PassingFair]

8. If you give a Moose a Taser....n/t

[saltpoint]

9. They should have called in an air strike just to be on the safe side.

[goddess40]

12. cops are getting lazy and sadistic nt