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.
Probably nothing. They may have just been there working security. It’s certainly very easy to assume they were just power tripping- because let’s be honest, ACAB.
But, it could also have been a bomb threat, active shooter threat or something to that effect.
Which might end with people not having a very good time.
Well, if there was an emergency, I’d have expected them to at least drop the word “emergency” when talking to the band director. That would have side-stepped that whole discussion of how, when and why the band should stop playing.
And then, yeah, them focussing entirely on the arrest rather than actually clearing the stadium when the band did stop, doesn’t speak in their favor either.
Me too. I’m assuming the cops are (yet again) assholes.
That said, they could have been wanting people out with out making too big of a scene. (With such threats, sometimes the panic is worse than the threat. Also, the person making it- it’s legitimate- could go active if they make it obviously an emergency.)
Yeah I was scratching my head at this one. Cop had better have a really good reason here because otherwise, have fun getting Section 1983’d. I am not sure qualified immunity would apply against the right to peacefully assemble, unless either there was reasonably a threat of danger, or some legal authority made the assembly or its actions illegal (e.g. no one allowed on school campuses after 9pm, a citywide noise ordinance on weekdays, etc).