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Bob “The Bad One” Probert would have been proud. In a year in which arrests for getting Tasered by police after resisting/slugging an unsuspecting uniform have become humdrum, all too commonplace, along comes Eugene S. Bright, a junior defensive end from Purdue, to liven things up. Along with freshman wide receiver Derek Benson, Bright scored what we’re guessing will prove to be a major innovation in the sports-related Taser-gun arrest — the so-called “Drive-stun” incident.
“Drive-stunning” is the practice of actually holding the Taser gun to the exposed skin of the resisting individual, instead of shooting two barbs at him from a distance. The drive-stun is far more painful and incapacitating and also, apparently, far more likely to result in serious injury than the normal barb-stun. Basically, the drive-stun is what you do when you’re sitting with your knees on the chest of a 280-pound d-lineman, aided by four cops with one holding each limb, and you still can’t subdue the guy, because he’s kicking and screaming and because he’s got 4.6 speed and does the shuttle cone drill in under four seconds. And also, maybe, because he’s got eight shots of vodka in him and he just saw his girlfriend getting into a car with a grad student from the physics department.
In the Bright case, what happened was that police responded to a call about a loud house party, showed up, and were trying to arrest one of the occupants when Bright intervened. According to news reports, Bright even hit one of the policemen in the chest and arm during the disagreement. Cops then wrestled him to the ground and drive-stunned him when he wouldn’t stop struggling. “We got him to the ground, and he would not give up,” one of the arresting officers said.
Along with Bright, Benson and another player, tight end Jerry Wasikowski, were arrested on minor alcohol-related charges. The three players picked a very bad time to start beefing with the police; Purdue was scheduled to travel to Hawaii this week. We’re guessing the roster is light three players when all is said and done.
This appears to be the first “drive-stun” incident involving a major college athlete. Police in Utah were questioned after numerous fans were Tasered with the drive-stun technique at a 2004 University of Utah football game.
Meanwhile . . .
True story: a student from Saginaw Valley State University was Tasered at a Saginaw City Council meeting when he refused to take off his Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap.
The student was not drive-stunned. Apparently he was not aware of the council’s no-hat rule and refused to comply when asked to remove the hat. The Tasering resulted in a huge fracas that apparently left a local police chief with a broken finger. Told afterward that the removal of a hat was considered a sign of respect — hence the rule — the student answered that respect was “respecting your guest as is” and “loving them for who they are.” Not much love for the Dodgers in Saginaw, apparently.
The choking thing
So what’s up with basketball players getting popped for choking their girlfriends? Seen a rash of those busts in recent years, going back to Missouri’s Ricky Clemons in ’03, Wisconsin’s Boo Wade in ’04, Michigan’s Daniel Horton last year, and Art “The Horse Puncherer” Long from Cincinnati years back. Of course the crime is not restricted to college hoops players. There’s always Lawrence Phillips, who has the rare honor of getting arrested for this charge twice; technical foul collector Rasheed Wallace, former big-10 running back Booker Stanley; Seattle Seahawk Sean Locklear; and numerous others. But it does seem to be mainly a college-hoops thing, the choking business, as does throwing your cell phone at your girlfriend’s head. In contrast, ramming your girlfriend’s car with your Hummer or your Escalade seems to be mainly a pro football matter, largely confined to linemen and running backs.
In any case, this time around it’s former NC State Wolfpack hoops star Marcus Melvin, for whom an arrest warrant for “felonious assault by strangulation” was issued last week by a North Carolina judge. The warrant comes on the heels of an incident in August in which Melvin’s girlfriend, Shaunesi DeBerry, apparently found out that he had gotten another woman pregnant. In the ensuing heated argument, Melvin’s hands found their way to DeBerry’s neck. Melvin was busted at the time and then failed to show for a court appearance, leading to the issuance of the warrant.
Have they checked Italy? Last time we checked, that’s where Melvin was playing.
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