Police Pepper Spray Haka Dancers At Football Game In Utah (VIDEO)

ROOSEVELT, Utah -- 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.

Comments

[withnail]

08:41 PM on 10/26/2011

Well, the Haka is a challenge - and the cops responded. Not saying they should have, but they accepted the challenge.

[Jondrea Smith]

11:27 AM on 10/26/2011

Bad form on the part of the officers all-around. When you import and make as much money off of pacific islanders as the state of Utah does, it would seem that you would be just a LITTLE more tolerant of their cultural practices. I mean, they are dealing with the great expanse of NOTHING that is Utah, and making y'all millions a year to boot. But this is not necessarily an indictment of the state of Utah as much as it is a commentary of the heavy-handed ignorance of two bully cops.

[Jondrea Smith]

12:09 PM on 10/26/2011

And oh yeah....the haka is AWESOME, an almost perfect combination of unity, precision, and passion. Reminds me a lot of good-ol, boots on a wood floor stepping...

[maxwelldog]

08:47 PM on 10/24/2011

They got off easy.
In 1894, our own US Cavalry dragged Indians out into a snowy ditch and shot them for dancing.

For dancing.

What's so strange?
Some states recognize a need to imprison people for LIFE without parole, for being involved with marijuana. For people that either want to laugh or want to cure their cancer (but can't afford the $100000 a year to get the doctors, hospital time, and lifetime drugs because the pharmaceuticals are using a chemical replacement)...

Murderers and rapists get paroles.

http://maxwelldog.wordpress.com/

[mikal haley]

03:56 PM on 11/16/2011

this took place somewhere far from the main schedlue of staged Occupy events -- yet the paranoid too-swiftness of the cops involved, and the ethnic disparities of the cops and the NON dangerous DANCERS that were molested by the cops -- that is the underlying issue of the Occupy movement -- the thing that is so bad that they can't get it into words, the "Occupy Agenda" as it was...it is the real truth of atrocity and ethnically biased institutionalized oppression that takes place in the American Southwest, and has for generations and generations...

[1512c]

08:11 PM on 10/24/2011

Another example of what the Homeland Security and Patriot Acts have done to this country. Cops have been given a green light to Punish and Enslave instead of Protect and Serve.

[John McCaffery]

08:02 PM on 10/24/2011

Stupid cops. Now they will 300lbs of Samoan beef after them. And thats just the women. You clowns deserve to be raped in prison and given aids.

[tbone99]

07:07 PM on 10/24/2011

Polynesian men dancing =sexy as hell

U.S cops lack real cojones - and they know it

[Aaron Connelly]

05:38 PM on 10/24/2011

It's like an even more ridiculous remake of Footloose.

[not2 good]

03:40 PM on 10/24/2011

Don't mess with cops. Especially the ignorant ones who love power plays.

[catneely6]

03:31 PM on 10/24/2011

police in the united states are as bad as syria's security force. when our police can beat an unarmed homeless man to death and nothing happens to them or they shoot and kill a person for wielding a baseball bat, who can say what's happening in syria is any worse. the best cops are served with apples in their mouths

[AndyWright68]

01:15 PM on 10/24/2011

The cops just keep getting worse.

Abolish the cops before you or someone you love becomes one of their victims.

[Smacle]

03:01 PM on 10/24/2011

So that I can become your victim instead?

[AndyWright68]

03:21 PM on 10/24/2011

I don't crave power over others. That is what cops and politicians do.

If you would rather continue to be a victim of the cops then that is your choice. Just don't support forcing other people to fund their criminal activities.

[Smacle]

01:14 PM on 10/24/2011

Facts:

1: "dozen or so performers who were blocking an exit"

2: "who chant, beat their chests and gesture aggressively before matches. The Maori tradition also can include fierce facial expressions."

3: "many people in the crowd knew the group was going to dance, but the two officers and others didn't."

4: The police action came after a pair of officers unsuccessfully attempted to disperse the dozen or so performers

Lesson of the day: Listen to the police. They are the law.

[not2 good]

03:51 PM on 10/24/2011

Lesson of the day. Listen to the police especially the ones who are begging for a fight. Sometimes some police officers go overboard.

[maxwelldog]

08:50 PM on 10/24/2011

Question authority.
ALWAYS!

[elsquibbs]

11:36 AM on 10/24/2011

We can expect more unruly dancing unless that jobs bill is passed.

[Daigham]

11:02 AM on 10/24/2011

Another example of what police officers will do when there is zero fear of accountability. They already made up their mind about what they were going to do, regardless of whether or not everyone else was okay with the situation it was already to late.

[rickcraft55]

10:53 AM on 10/24/2011

What a joke those officers were/are

[Fortune27]

10:51 AM on 10/24/2011

Plus, Haka dancing it really exciting and very, very male. Maybe the police were just....dare I say it...jealous.