La Barra needs your help with the incident at the chivas game

LABARRAREAL · 28 Aug 2009, 03:31 PM

(To the Mods, if this doesnt deserve it's own thread please feel free to move it to the Barra Real Silenced thread)

Here in La Barra we are still trying to make sense of what happened Wednsday evening but after speaking with many witnesses and people involved I will explain what we have so far. What we ask of all of you fans of this BigSoccer community is that if anybody who was there, or knows someone who was there, that might have more video or pictures of what happened please get in touch with us and let us know so we can piece this together better.

So as you all know at haltime LBR does our little half-time "mosh-pit" style show to get ppl pumped up for the second half under the East stands. This particular game we seemed to have more hispanic people than usual, (no surprise knowing who our opponent was) but things were going like always. Ppl were having fun jumping and dancing with us but about two minutes into the start of it a red smoke bomb appeared inside the circle, which 'senior' barra members were quick to step on and put out. At that time no security or cops were present yet. A few minutes later a second blue smoke bomb was thrown in the middle of the circle made by the jumping group and was also quickly put out.

About 5 minutes later after the event had ended with a little "Salt Lake, Salt Lake" chant Trino Martinez, the stadium director, yanked out one of our 14 year old members out of the crowd and without explanation tried to get him to leave the stadium. Two of our members noticed the kid starting to freak out and approached Trino demanding an explanation to which he replied that it had been the 14 year old who threw the smoke bomb and was going to be kicked out. Our two members said okay but told Trino that the kid was a minor that we should either explain to his guardian what was happening or talk to the leader of the barra so that they could take out the kid calmly. This is when according to our witnesses Trino said there was no need for that as he had the cops on their way to handle the situation.

Now this is where things got heated and slipped out of hand. About four or five Sandy cops showed up and grabbed the kid and told him he was coming with them. The kid started to cry and say that he didnt want to go to jail. I guess the cops must have seen this as a form of resistance and twisted the kids arm behind his back and cuffed him. At this point the kid was completely scared and crying which called the attention of most of the people that were there. As people approached to see what was going on the young barra member was thrown to the ground and held down by a Sandy Officer. A couple of our members tried to calmn the kid down but when they got close to him the cops pushed them back and threatened to mace them as by this point they had their pepper spray out. This infuriated a lot of people present, a lot of which were not even barra members just people who happened to walk by as it happened. A crowd mostly of hispanic people formed around the cops yelling at them for what they were doing to the kid. The cops and a member of the RSL F.O. responded by yelling back and shoving people telling them to go back to their seats. From what we have heard it seems that one of the officers grabbed a guy who was telling them to leave the kid alone by the neck and pushed him back, which caused the guy to fall back and as he did apperantly that's when he kicked one of the officers. It seems that after this the other cop realized how it happened that he was kicked so the guy did not get arrested.

Finally the members of the barra got most of the people to disperse so that things would not escalate any further. A couple of the main members stayed back to try to make sense of what was going on as none of the main people in La Barra had seen exactly what had gone on. The kid admitted to throwing the blue smoke bomb, that someone with a lighter had lit for him, he doesnt know who it was. No one that we have talked to appears to know who threw the red one, but some had said that it had been a chivas fan who threw it into the crowd as he walked by at the half.

Now La Barra Real recognizes that the kid was wrong in his conduct of having that smoke bomb in his possesion. It was against the rules and he should have been escorted out of the stadium. The reason we made our silent protest in the second half was because we all thought that the treatment of our young member by the two individuals in the RSL FO, who did nothing to prevent it, and by the Sandy Police Officers, who in my opinion overreacted, was uncalled for. We wanted to send a message to the FO that the Barra was not going to take this type of treatment and that we are united and will not leave behind one of our members who has been there since the beginning, especially a kid this young. We also want you all to know that just because we did our silent protest doesn't mean we weren't behind the team, all of us still cheered and clapped with every goal our boys scored. We still and always will love the RSL shield and we would've never walked out of the stadium on our team.

With that being said once again I would like to ask all of you out there that if anybody has any evidence in the form of videos of pictures, of what went on to please come forward, we are trying to do everything to support the kid who went through this experience and we hope that those of you who can will too.

aosthed · 28 Aug 2009, 03:41 PM

Thanks for giving this account.

Obviously the cops & RSL FO over-reacted but the problem is the "crowd" / mob scenario - when police/admin types are significantly outnumbered it is very unsettling to them. It's not surprising that they over-reacted. The problem is when a crowd gets involved it's never going to go well.

What needs to happen is the FO needs to sit down with this LBR and make sure they understand BOTH sides of the story. They need to reach out to the 14 year old kid and make sure he's okay and that he's WELCOME back. They need to also work with LBR and the Sandy police to make sure everyone knows how to appropriately react in these situations.

For example, what is and isn't going to be allowed. If someone needs to be removed, what they need from LBR and the Sandy police need to know how to appropriate diffuse the situation.

Good luck! I love LBR. I think you add so much to the games.

When I buy the team, I'm giving LBR tickets at half-price (or less) because I want 300 of you at every game.

Allez RSL · 28 Aug 2009, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aosthed

Thanks for giving this account.

Obviously the cops & RSL FO over-reacted but the problem is the "crowd" / mob scenario - when police/admin types are significantly outnumbered it is very unsettling to them. It's not surprising that they over-reacted. The problem is when a crowd gets involved it's never going to go well.

What needs to happen is the FO needs to sit down with this LBR and make sure they understand BOTH sides of the story. They need to reach out to the 14 year old kid and make sure he's okay and that he's WELCOME back. They need to also work with LBR and the Sandy police to make sure everyone knows how to appropriately react in these situations.

For example, what is and isn't going to be allowed. If someone needs to be removed, what they need from LBR and the Sandy police need to know how to appropriate diffuse the situation.

Good luck! I love LBR. I think you add so much to the games.

When I buy the team, I'm giving LBR tickets at half-price (or less) because I want 300 of you at every game.

The problem that I see in the above account is that stadium management were not willing to let LBR police their own members and seemed to think that a 14 year old kid at a soccer game represents some sort of threat to public safety.

The police should have never been involved. If the above is accurate, I blame the stadium management for escalating this incident far, far beyond where it needed to be. Once you bring in the Sandy police, things are going to get ugly.

RealSandy · 28 Aug 2009, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allez RSL

The problem that I see in the above account is that stadium management were not willing to let LBR police their own members and seemed to think that a 14 year old kid at a soccer game represents some sort of threat to public safety.

Have you seen the news lately? Yeah, I do think a 14 year old kid can be a threat to public safety.

15 to 32 · 28 Aug 2009, 04:49 PM

La Barra obviously isnt clean in this, but the stadium management handled it pretty poorly. Just take the kid to the side, talk to him, have a guardian with him so that he doesnt freak out... why is that so hard?

CerealKillah · 28 Aug 2009, 04:49 PM

If that's the way the situation really went down then I stand by my earlier statment in the other thread. Throwing a smoke bomb into the pit area, while not allowed, should not have been met with force.

The police and the suit should have walked over, asked who was in charge and pulled them and the kid aside, asked where his parents or guardian was and removed them from the stadium with a warning not to do that ever again. Though I think a smoke bomb is a silly little thing that a strict warning not to do again would've been fine.

15 to 32 · 28 Aug 2009, 04:53 PM

i personally dont quite fully understand why we cant have smoke bombs in the stadium.
the fog machine, which pretty much does the same thing, is allowed but the smoke bomb isnt?
the obvious problem is if they go on the pitch, but if its just in the stands... whats the big deal?

d1ddy · 28 Aug 2009, 05:00 PM

Sounds like the FO was trying to compensate for the last time chivas came up here for the playoffs and lit multiple smoke bombs in their own little section and didn't get any punishment at all.

Its unfortunate that the cops were called. Stadium security could have handled that situation, and I doubt the kid would have freaked out as much. I blame the FO (Trino Martinez) for making such a meal out of such a minor incident.

Best of luck with finding evidence and reports to help clear up the situation. Lets hope the FO handles this better than they handled the half-time party.