Video of the "tasered" Jets fan has finally surfaced, and I don't want to spoil it for you, but it looks like at least one Indianapolis police officer is living life on a very thin edge.
Before we get to that, an email alert from Deadspin I-Team operative Dave:
I am an admitted Colts fan and was there when they hauled this Jet fan off to jail. He did through full beer bottles (as were about 150 other drunk Jet's fans), he did push police, he did scream obscenities at the police, he was very drunk and refused to take the most simple police instructions. He got exactly what he deserved.
I thought the Indianapolis Police showed great restraint by not using a club on him. He was not tazzed as reports have it.
I'm not sure what is typical fan behavior at NY games, but as they now know, that crap like that doesn't fly here. Regardless, they all seemed to behave shortly after the second half started.
Ha. Scoreboard. Anyway, the "150 drunk Jets fans" claim sounded suspicious until I saw the first clip of the melee. (Gothamist has the full multi-video rundown, but we'll summarize.) A very large group of predominantly Jets fans are gathered in the parking lot of Lucas Oil Stadium, being Jets fans. You don't see any hurled beer bottles on tape, but the gang appears to be clowning with each other and the police. So the officers decide to drive two cop cars through the crowd—slowly! they aren't monsters—to disperse them.
Suddenly, one of the cops—apparently hearing a crude remark from the throng—leaps out of his cruiser to confront Patrick Mallon, the fan made famous by yesterday's New York Post cover. Mallon is told to "get the fuck out of the way" even though he isn't really in the way, and when he does immediately respond, is shoved against the cruiser by two lawmen. Even though Mallon is putting up very little resistance (he doesn't appear to shove anyone) the first officer who confronted him immediately reaches for his taser and places it behind Mallon's neck.
Now, I have a lot of sympathy for police. They have a lousy job that is roughly 98% dealing with assholes and 2% paperwork. But still ... seems like a bit of an overreaction here. Mallon may or may not have been acting like a jackhole off camera, but it looks like the only reason he was arrested was because he mouthed off. While Dave is correct in that it doesn't look like the perp was actually tasered, I think he oversold it a bit.
I'm guessing this video won't make into the Indy PD's next seminar on effective crowd control strategies.
Video: Jets Fan Arrested, Tasered (Discreetly?) [Gothamist]