Postponed Metallica Gig Now Canceled

Posted Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:21pm PDT by Reuters

(Reuters) – A concert by heavy metal band Metallica on the sidelines of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, which was earlier postponed till Saturday, has now been canceled as organizers failed to attain necessary approval, the band said in a statement.

The show was postponed on Friday evening after a “failure of a security barricade in front of the stage that could not be adequately repaired,” Metallica said.

TV images and footage posted on YouTube showed an angry mob on stage throwing water bottles and equipment in the air and at organizers. Equipment worth $200,000 belonging to the band was damaged, local TV reported.

TV channels also quoted sources saying four of the organizers had been arrested. It was not immediately clear what the possible charges against them are.

“Our first and foremost concern is always for the safety of you,” Metallica said in the statement posted on their website. The band added ticketholders will be entitled to a full refund.

The concert was part of the entertainment organised to coincide with the inaugural Formula One race in India. Lady Gaga is also scheduled to perform in Delhi at an invitation-only show in a five-star hotel club after the race on Sunday.

This is the second such embarrassment for the Indian capital this year, after a concert by Canadian rock star Bryan Adams was canceled when police refused to give organizers permission.

Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with heavy criticism of the organisers and the inability to successfully arrange high profile music events in Delhi.

The announcement disappointed thousand of fans, some of whom had waited for hours, and traveled miles to attend.

An Arizona student’s sudden emergence from the stands dressed as an official set the chaos into motion. In addition to being tackled, cuffed and paraded off the field in his skivvies in front of halftime entertainers decked out in full 19th Century Mexican regalia, the streaker was also booked on a felony charge:

Jace Michael Lankow, 22, was arrested on charges of criminal impersonation and was booked into Pima County jail Thursday night after his televised streaking at Arizona Stadium. Lankow was released Friday, the jail said.
[…]
The criminal impersonation charge is a Class 6 felony. According to Arizona Revised Statutes, the felony can be dropped down to a Class 1 misdemeanor based on the court’s review of the defendant’s character and history and if the crime was not a dangerous offense.

I might have guessed running onto a football field during live action could get you hit with a trespassing charge; I don’t think I would have come up with “criminal impersonation” of a ref. At any rate, unless/until the charge is downgraded or dropped, Lankow faces a year and a half in jail if convicted. He may also face repercussions from the university.

According to a police report, Lankow got on the field via a fake all-access pass he made using an old pass from his days as a student volunteer for the team in 2006. His motivation? Lankow told officers he’s applying to be a contestant on the TV show “Wipeout,” and wanted a better answer for the application question, “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” Assuming he’s a free man when producers begin casting, they just may have a winner.

Police pepper spray Haka dancers at football game

ROOSEVELT, Utah (AP) — Police in a small Utah town are being accused of overreacting after using pepper spray to break up a group of Polynesian men and boys performing a traditional dance called the Haka after a high school football game.

The police action came after a pair of officers unsuccessfully attempted to disperse the dozen or so performers who were blocking an exit after the Union-Uintah game Thursday night, the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune reported.

A form of the Haka has been popularized by rugby players in New Zealand who chant, beat their chests and gesture aggressively before matches. The Maori tradition also can include fierce facial expressions. Haka are now performed at football and rugby games around the world.

The group in Roosevelt, a town of 8,000, had traveled about 125 miles east from the Salt Lake City area to watch a relative play his final game for Union, which lost to rival Uintah and finished the season without a victory.

The group reportedly was trying to boost Union’s morale with the Haka as the players left the field.

Spectators, coaches and players told police that everything was fine and they should let the men perform, Jessica Rasmussen said, but officers asked them to make room and started using pepper spray.

Rasmussen said she and other bystanders also got spray in their eyes, ears and mouths.

Union fan Jason Kelly said the way police reacted was an embarrassment to the community of Roosevelt.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kelly said. “It was totally unprovoked.”

Police said the incident is under investigation, and anyone wanting to lodge a complaint should contact the department.

Police said many people in the crowd knew the group was going to dance, but the two officers and others didn’t.

Spectator Shawn Mitchell said while he didn’t view the dancers as a threat, the impromptu performance might have played a role in how police responded.

“If they’re going to do something like (the Haka), maybe some planning could be done ahead of time,” he said.

For UD fans, games now a no-fun zone

NEWARK — Matt Delaney never wanted himself and his trumpet to become central figures in the growing rift between the University of Delaware and some football fans.

When he was tooting his horn in Section J at Delaware Stadium — or at NCAA title games in Chattanooga, Tenn., or Frisco, Texas — it was about bringing attention to the Blue Hens.

“I did everything I could to try to get our section and the stands excited for the ballgame and to support our ballclub,” he said.

But when Delaney, 31 and a 2003 Delaware graduate, did that Saturday night, it set off a chain of events that riled Blue Hens rooters and led to a commotion involving fans and UD police. The incident, some fans say, exemplifies how UD football games in recent years have become less appealing as administrators have made the experience more expensive and less fun.

In the third quarter of Delaware’s 21-0 win over William & Mary, Delaney was escorted down the stairs from his row Q seat in Section J of the East grandstand after playing his trumpet, as he’s done several times each game the last 15 years.

Other fans sitting in the area stood and booed Contemporary Services Corp. (CSC) security personnel and UD police officials as Delaney was led out. Underneath the stands, he was handcuffed and taken to UD police headquarters.

He was not charged, but many fans, angry over Delaney’s removal, left their seats in protest, leading to confrontations between fans and police underneath the stands.

Some had chanted “Trum-pet! Trum-pet!” as they saw Delaney led away.

One fan, 60-year-old Robert W. Bradford, of Bear, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, according to UD police, after he chest-bumped an officer, was pushed back, charged at the officer and was wrestled down by several officers.

Friends of Bradford disputed that version, saying he was provoked. They said he won’t comment on the advice of an attorney. Other fans felt police overreacted.

“What I observed was shameful, and I’ve been attending games a long time,” said UD graduate and season-ticket holder Reza Moqtaderi.

After drunken football fans were forced to leave the last Bridgewater-Raritan High School game, school officials plan to crack down on students drinking at home games.

Superintendent Michael Schilder told the school board Tuesday night, that a number of students were “quite intoxicated” at the Sept. 16 game against Westfield. Bridgewater police officers intervened by telling them to call their parents to pick them up and take them home.

They won’t be so lenient in the future.

Schilder said students have been drinking in the parking lot before home games — and sometimes in the stands during the game. “It’s happening,” he said. “It’s happening a lot.”

As a result, Bridgewater police have decided to change their approach.

According to Schilder, it is illegal for anyone, of drinking age or not, to consume alcohol — or even “possess” it — on school property without prior approval of the school board. Police, Schilder told the board, have a legal obligation to take into custody students who are caught drinking, and charge them with disorderly conduct. They’ll observe that obligation in the future.

In the past, the district has hired five police officers to cover home football games. Beginning with the next home game, Thursday, Oct. 6, against Immaculata High School, an additional officer will patrol the parking lot before and during the game, Schilder told the board, on the lookout for students drinking. That officer will come to the high school an hour earlier than the others, he said, at 5 p.m. The game begins at 7 p.m.

“It’s really needed,” Schilder told the board. “We can’t just look the other way. We have to step up our vigilance in terms of discouraging this from happening.”

Prior to the Immaculata game, Schilder said, Principal Lew Ludwig will email high school students and their parents about the problem — and explain the more aggressive response planned by the district and the police. In addition, Athletic Director John Maggio is to inform the athletic directors of all Bridgewater-Raritan’s opponents of the district’s new policy.

The school board discussed the possibility of erecting signs at the stadium and in the parking lot detailing the policy on school property, but no decision was made.

On Monday, Simmonds allegedly used an anti-gay slur against New York Rangers’ agitator Sean Avery(notes) during an exhibition in Philadelphia. The NHL didn’t punish Simmonds because the league said there wasn’t conclusive evidence.

More than toilet paper that hurt Uruguay official

Updated 03:13 p.m., Wednesday, September 28, 2011

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — The linesman who was ridiculed on the Internet after being apparently felled by a flying toilet roll during a match in Uruguay was actually hit by a heavy spool of cash register tape.

The incident in last week’s Copa Sudamericana match between Nacional of Uruguay and Universidad de Chile was caught on video and became a viral hit, with some people wondering if the much-maligned habit of diving among players had now spread to officials.

Seven fires reported after LSU game

The Morgantown Fire Department responded to seven malicious fires following the West Virginia University football game against LSU Saturday.

The Fire Department responded to six street fires and one dumpster fire during the hours following the game, but Fire Marshall Captain Ken Tennant said the number was lower than anticipated.

“Whether the team won or lost we were ready and expecting fires,” Tennant said. “We’ve had over 150 fires set after a game, and we’ve had games with no fires. For a high-profile game, I would say it was a very small number.”

One person was also arrested during the weekend for malicious burning.

Keith Ryder of Fairfield, Pa., was arrested in connection with a mattress fire on the 300 block of Grant Street.

Tennant said Ryder is not a WVU student.

During a furniture abatement order issued by the fire department, 37 truckloads of furniture and other combustible items were removed before the weekend.

The order required residents in certain sectors of downtown Morgantown to remove furniture from their porches and exterior property or risk having it removed by local law enforcement.

“It removed a lot of combustibles, and the opportunity was lessened for starting fires,” Tennant said.

Furniture collected by the city will be disposed of if not retrieved from the city garage by Thursday Sept. 29, Tennant said.

Tennant also mentioned that other programs and initiatives through the University are continuing to help prevent malicious fires.

“I think that the prevention efforts that have been put forth by the city, WVU and the neighborhood organization Sunnyside Up have led to a decrease in the number of fires,” Tennant said. “All of those things had a contributing factor, and we hope that we’ve turned a corner.”

Sunnyside Up is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the Sunnyside neighborhood and is currently promoting a “Learn Not to Burn” campaign to discourage students and WVU fans from starting intentional fires.

The campaign distributes magnets, banners, flyers, posters and door hangers to promote the initiative, and it has led to the installation of security cameras and warning signs in Sunnyside.

More than 400 people have been cited for malicious burning in Morgantown since 1997, and the city leads the nation in the number of intentional fires reported each year.

Tennant said he hopes the University and all WVU sports fans will continue to maintain an enthusiastic Mountaineer pride, while at the same time doing their part to keep a safe game day atmosphere.

“Hopefully people will find other avenues of celebration other than burning things in the middle of the street,” he said.