this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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What began as a routine band performance of Talkin' Out the Side of Your Neck by Cameo at an Alabama high school football game ended in a troubling confrontation when a police officer tased the marching band director for refusing to stop the music.

The altercation occurred Thursday around 9 p.m. local time after a game at Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham, Ala.

Minor High School band director Johnny Mims, 39, and his ensemble of 145 students were about a minute away from being done with their final song when a police officer approached the podium. According to both Mims and the Birmingham Police Department, officers asked Mims to stop the performance so they could clear out the stadium. Mims responded that the song was about to end and the performance was agreed on by both schools.

"Nothing we were doing at the time was being a danger to the community, fans or the school," Mims told NPR on Monday. "Everyone was enjoying themselves. That's the part I'm having a hard time grappling with."

As the students finished their performance, officers attempted to arrest Mims for not complying. Police said the band director "refused" to place his hands behind his back and allegedly pushed an arresting officer.

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[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Can someone explain to me

  1. why the police is at that stadium to begin with?
  2. why that stadium needed to be cleared out?

The bodycam footage looks like everyone was having a good time. So, I'd consider it the duty of police officers to enable everyone to continue having a good time. Asking a band director to cut off a song when there's no emergency is completely ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 108 points 1 year ago

The cop probably wanted to get home so he could beat his wife.

[–] Isthisreddit 66 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Simple, the cops job is absolutely not to enable everyone to continue having a good time. Their job is to protect capital and the ruling class, usually with impunity. Unfortunately that sort of power corrupts, and this cop probably had somewhere to go and wanted to hurry things up (with impunity)

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Police were at the stadium because they were likely required to be. Very often if you have a large gathering you are required to have Police present, often paying for it. It's largely a racket to get officers easy overtime.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since posting that, I thought about it myself. Over here in Germany, we have similar laws, but it's specifically securities, not police. The massive difference being that those securities don't have guns.

And yeah, that was basically my thinking. Why would you send people with guns to such an event? It just causes everyone to feel uneasy. And unarmed securities can break apart brawls much more aggressively.

...but yeah, I forgot that everyone and their mother has a gun in the US. Unarmed securities would be on a suicide mission. So, yeah, I do understand now, why police is present...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It's not really about guns. They are already illegal on school property and large event venues. Unarmed security is also common in the US, but it's growing to require police specifically.