Officers injured, Oakwood students arrested after melee
Posted by Staff December 09, 2007 4:53 PM
A melee early today at Oakwood College, which resulted in two police officers being injured and the arrests of students, led to a private campuswide meeting this afternoon.

"Oakwood College administration is deeply concerned about the reported altercations that occurred early Sunday morning involving some of our students following a basketball game on our campus," said the college's official press release today.

Initial rumors among students were fueled by talk of dozens of arrests, but Huntsville police reports confirmed only two.

However, in the lobby of the Huntsville Public Safety Complex this afternoon, a college employee spoke with two students who had been arrested the night before. All three declined to comment on the record, but said there had been additional arrests.

Michelle Solomon, an Oakwood College spokeswoman, declined to comment on the number of arrests.

"The names of the students involved are not being released at this point, pending notification of their families and the clarification of details related to the incident," the release said.

"While we are not at liberty to discuss the details of the investigation currently being conducted by the Huntsville Police Department, please be advised that the administration, staff and students of Oakwood College fully intend to cooperate with the investigative efforts of the authorities."

Police spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment today and calls were not answered at west precinct, which handled the incident.

Oakwood, a private Seventh-day Adventist college in northwest Huntsville, has 1,824 undergraduates.

Solomon said students were "packed to the rafters" at today's closed-door meeting with college officials. The news media was not allowed to attend the meeting and were told not to take photographs on campus.

A student, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Times students were asked by school officials not to speak to the media about what was said at the meeting.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2007/12/officers_injured_oakwood_stude.html

This must be a bogus report. Oakwood College no longer exists .... the last I heard.

I think the name change to Oakwood University becomes effective January 1, 2008.

THe discussion of this in http://www.blacksda.com reports that it took some 20 (or more) police officers to restore order.

The discussion takes places in the section <The Cafe>

What is it about sports that makes people stop thinking?

The Adventist Review has a report on this incident. You can check it out here.

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1539

I didn't know that an "off duty" cop had the right to haul someone off. Isn't that kidnapping? Wouldn't he have to call someone who is ON-duty?

I don't claim to know the answer. It just seems a little strange.

And it is a shame that 16 students had to get arrested. But perhaps having someone hauled off caused some anger for these 16 . Did this "off duty" officer act responsibly?

In a sense, police and firefighters and many key medical personnel are never really "off" and are subject to call at any time. All the officer had to do was call the city's Central Dispatch and report that he had made the arrest and where the arrest occured. Note that he was driving her away in his patrol car.

Those of us on emergency services (EMTs included) have made a commitment to do whatever we can whenever we can and take pride in this. In this case, the officer probably knew that the on-duty officers would not get to the scene in time so he made the arrest. Whether this made the confrontation worse I don't know.

Why do sports spark these types of confrontations? For one thing, to take part in a sport you have to have a desire to win. In some people and in some sports, this is stronger than others. In basketball, football (American), or soccer, it seems to me that the desire to win becomes intense, so intense at times that the part of the brain that moderates behavior is switched off.

Crowds at either of these types of games get involved, too. Individual crowd members identify with individual players or teams and get so strongly involved that their minds switch to one thing - winning. If that doesn't happen, often a mob psychology takes over, which probably happened in this case, and the crowd goes looking for something or someone to beat up on to avenge the loss. In this case, it sounds like it was a Huntsville police officer.

This is probably why Ellen White questioned competitive sports. It certainly doesn't look good for the Adventist church. It doesn't help our witness.

Anyhow - my two cents.

Yeah, I wonder too if that's the whole story. I'm sure it will all come out in time.

Yeah. It still does not justify what happened. But it may give us some insight into the matter.

[quote=james423]

Agree wholeheartedly with your two cents.

Any citizen has the right to detain a person in connection with a crime. However, that detention can be litigated, and found to be illegal.

Local city policy governs the authority of a local policeperson during off-duty time. It is often the case that an off-duty policeperson has the authority to detan and arrect a person in connection with a crime. In some cases an off-duty police person may be hired by a business to provide security services. That policeperson will wear the city uniform, and the city will be liable for the actions of that person while working for the business--e.g. the city will be liable if a that policeperson fires upon someone and kills or injures that person.

Then there is also another factor:

I am thinking of a certified law enforcement officer who was visiting in a town located in a State where he did not live. Walking down the street one night he noted a male in an arguement with a female. He walked up to the couple, flased his badge, and asked a few questions. The male appeared to be under the influence. After talking to the woman, he advised the male that he did not want to disrupt his evening, and if the male would immediately leave the area, no official record of the incident would be kept. The male immediately departed the area.

Actually, the authority of this person was no more than that of any other person. But, the sight of his badge carried some moral authority, and neithr the woman nor the man wanted it to go further. But, possibly an assult was prevented.