Police in Utah used pepper spray to disperse a group performing the Haka at a high school football match after supporters refused to make way for players leaving the field. The group had travelled to the small town of Roosevelt, 200km east of Salt Lake City, to support a relative who was playing in the match on Thursday.
The team had not won a game the entire season and the group of Polynesian men and boys wanted to perform the traditional Maori war dance to lift their spirits. But the gesture backfired when police attempted to move the performers on, despite assurances from officials and spectators that everything was fine. The police said they were trying to create a passage for players to leave the field, but the performers were blocking the path.
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Zack Aguiniga, who was at the ground watching his brother play in the match, said those performing the haka probably couldn't hear the police demanding they move. "As we're there watching, we could hear the cops say, 'make a hole'," Aguiniga said. "But they were in the middle of their dance, and if anyone knows the haka dance, they're loud and talking in unison."
Unable to disperse the group, two local officers deployed pepper spray in an act considered excessive by those nearby, some who were also hit by the spray. "I've never seen anything like it," one observer, Jason Kelly said. "It was totally unprovoked." An investigation into the incident has been ordered by police.
4 comments:
American police overreacting? Strange that.
I love the haka. I'm not any sort os islander but it still gets me fired up.
Mokes are idiots. Five minutes of exposure to their "culture" will convince you of that, but I was unfortunate enough to have spent years around them.
Use more pepper spray.
I love seeing people like Anon here post. It makes me smile to know that there are so many who are happy to see police use brutality on everyone who is different than they are.
It makes it all the sweeter when they are the ones screaming and howling as the pepper spray chokes them and their beloved fascist militias are clubbing their heads in.
(A different anonymous here - we're not all intolerant d*ckheads hiding behind anonymity)
Totally unjustified use of force there - bloody ridiculous. It seems that American police are becoming (?) increasingly trigger-happy with pepper-spray these days. Just because it's non-lethal doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful, or that your response shouldn't be proportionate. I hope the tosser gets suspended.
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