NYC Youth Soccer Game Canceled After Group of Illegals Refuses to Vacate the Field

On Saturday, the New York Post ran an exclusive story by their correspondent Deirdre Bardolf, describing a frankly troubling incident in which a soccer game between two East Harlem high school teams was canceled. This game was to take place in a public place, a field dedicated to use as a soccer field, a place presumably intended to give urban youths a healthy outlet for their youthful energy. That's a laudable goal. Sports are one of the best options for activity by big-city youths, but these youths were denied that activity.

Why was the game canceled? Because a group of 30 people were occupying the field and refused to leave.

Warning: coarse language:

A high school soccer game at a public field in East Harlem was canceled after a group of migrants refused to leave the pitch so the kids could play.
“I directly asked them to leave and some of them kind of took it into consideration, but then four or five of them said, ‘You know what, f–k it, we don’t have to leave, we can do whatever we want,'” said Erik Johansson, the coach of the Manhattan Kickers 17-year-old boys travel team.
About 40 boys from both teams showed up on Sunday, April 14 at Thomas Jefferson Park for the 5 p.m. match.
The Kickers were set to face off against FA Euro New York.

First, let's take a look at that statement by the people occupying the field. "...we don't have to leave, we can do whatever we want." The bald arrogance of that statement is staggering. These people--their legal status is unclear from the story, but we can probably hazard a pretty good guess--just took over a public field, designated for a specific purpose, and refused to allow children to use that field for that purpose.

But it gets worse.

But a group of about 30 men who appeared to be African migrants and spoke little English, wouldn’t leave — even when the cops showed up.
To resolve the conflict, the cops asked to see a copy of the club team’s city permit.
“When you show up with two teams in uniform, a ref and two coaches, usually nobody is asking to see your permit,” said Johansson.
By the time Johansson’s assistant was able to forward a copy of the Kickers’ permit, the game had been delayed 30 minutes and the teams didn’t feel safe.
“Even when the game is over, you don’t know if they’re waiting for you, so even if the cops kicked them out, it may not be over. So we just all agreed, this is too dangerous,” Johansson said.

So the police, when called, reacted by demanding to see a permit--which the club had--instead of evicting the people occupying the field.

Coach Johansson's call was probably the right one; he had his kids to think of. But it's a fine pass we've come to when kids in one of our major cities can't hold a soccer game on a public field because they were intimidated by a group of people who arrogantly took over the field and refused to leave.

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This was a pusillanimous surrender by the East Harlem authorities. The occupiers should have been removed from the field, and arrested, if necessary. One of the few hopes some of these inner-city kids have is to be drawn into sports or some other healthful activity; this is one of the few things in such places that might provide an alternative to less socially acceptable activities. We can only speculate what the youths in question have as alternatives, but many of them aren't good.

So why did the authorities react, instead of evicting the group that took over the field, by demanding to see the permit issued to the soccer team?

I'm not placing any blame on the officers that responded. They are, doubtless, doing what they are forced to do by their superiors, who are operating within strictures placed on them by the city. And that's a shame.

Here's where this incident has been left:

Parents told him (Johansson) they were rattled by the incident, and don’t want to play at the field anymore. Johansson said they don’t plan to return.

That's it, then. Once more, because of the arrogant presumption of a group of people who took over a public place and refused to leave, American youths are denied an opportunity to take part in a healthful, character-building activity in a location that the taxpayers have set aside for that purpose. Not only that, at least one of the teams involved has given up on future opportunities, as they lack any faith that city authorities can guarantee their safety.

This is inexcusable, and it is the result of bad policy, from the Department of Homeland Security on down through the various levels of state and local government. It's intolerable. It can't continue. But until the people of these jurisdictions change their voting habits, we will only see more incidents like this.