doebrmn said:
Nope, when charges are dropped. They are dropped. Reduced means that a more serious charge has been reduced to a lessor charge. That wasn't done in this situation. The two most serious ones were dropped, and the less serious one (disorderly conduct) remained (and the players plead no-contest to it, which is not the same as guilty).
Yes, on that Sunday (which was only hours after the incident), O'Day said what you quoted. By then, the university already knew that the charges were incorrect and would likely be dropped or largely go away. Saying that they'll let the legal process run its course is essentially saying that they don't believe the charges are valid or will stand and/or they don't have sufficient information to be able to determine the facts sufficiently to make an informed decision.
Despite saying that day that the univesity would led the legal process run its course, UM took action later in the week, suspending the players for part of the important Weber game and presumably other internal discipline. The university also decided that it would look at the matter again, after the charges were resolved and the disputed facts were better known.
I don't agree with your view of what should have occurred. There was not sufficient evidence that the players were not acting appropriately. In fact, there was considerable evidence (multiple witness accounts and video and audio) indicating that the police had acted inappropriately and escalated the situation. The police had illegally wanted to enter the apartment and grab Kemp's phone when he said he was calling a lawyer. The police were mouthing off to the players, and making marginally racist comments. The player's lawyer said the police had acted inappropriately and wrongfully tased the players. I heard that Kemp was tased when he said he couldn't get the arm of injured shoulder further behind his back, and suffered further injury when the cop forced his arm back. I heard that Johnson, who was not near the police, eventually came to assist Kemp after he was tased, went down, and called for Johnson. The athletic dept was told that Johnson was a complete gentlemen on the way to the station. Neither players had had much to drink that night.
It is important for a university and an athletic department to support its students and athletes, when they have been wronged. It is especially important to support black athletes when they have been subject to possible racist statements and actions by people in Missoula--as black athletes encounter plenty of bigotry and racism in Missoula on some occasions. I applaud the university for supporting Kemp and Johnson in this matter. It was not easy, given the noise coming from no-nothing yahoos like yourself, and people who refused to even accept the fact that there hadn't been a charge of assault on the police and refused to look objectively at what had occurred. I thought it was quite telling that many of the calls to the university after the incident, were coming from Bobcats wanting harsh action taken against the players.
In my view, the university gained more respect from people like me by doing what I viewed as the right thing. They worked to ascertain the true facts in a matter of days. They didn't bow to pressure from people who didn't understand the situation or were just plain biased like yourself.
