Teen Punk Gets Nasty Surprise After Sucker-Punching Deputy and Resisting Arrest: Report
He fought the law and …. you can guess the rest.
A Florida teenager who might have watched a few too many videos of mobs attacking law enforcement with impunity over the past few years found out the hard way that an up-close-and-personal encounter with a deputy sheriff doesn’t always go smoothly, according to reports.
And a second teen got a similar lesson not long after.
The incidents took place Saturday on the final night of the Southwest Florida and Lee County Fair on the Sunshine State’s gulf coast, according to WBBH-TV in Fort Myers.
As the fair was supposed to be closing at about 11:30 p.m., Lee County deputies providing security for the event began ushering out an unruly “swarm” of fairgoers, the station reported.
One of the deputies heard a reference in the crowd that led him to believe there was a threat of violence, the station reported, and began trying to get more information.
That’s when it happened: An assailant later identified as a 14-year-old boy sucker-punched the deputy.
“A male in a black hoodie, covering his face, walked up next to him … then struck (the deputy) with a closed fist to the left side of the face, hitting his ear and facial area,” an affidavit states, according to the Miami Herald. “At this point, (the deputy) grabbed the subject and escorted the subject to the ground (and) informed the subject he was under arrest for battery of a law enforcement officer.”
The subject who was “escorted to the ground” (in the dry language of the law) kept resisting arrest, though, which necessitated the deputy delivering a “closed handed strike,” the Herald reported, citing the affidavit.
“Compliance was gained, the subject was handcuffs and force was discontinued,” the affidavit states, as quoted by the Herald.
(It doesn’t take much imagination to hear the sounds and struggle behind those three words, “compliance was gained.” As understatement goes, it’s almost poetic.)
While that deputy was gaining compliance, however, one of his comrades found himself facing another teenager who mistakenly decided that picking a fight with a uniformed officer of the law was a good way to close out the fair.
Turns out, it wasn’t a fair fight. Another deputy quickly arrived to detain the second youth — this one was 17, according to WBBH.
Both teens, who reportedly live in Fort Myers, the Lee County seat, were charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest without violence. The parents of the boys were notified of the arrests, WBBH and the Herald reported.
Now, there is obviously no way of knowing at this point what was going through these teenagers’ heads to think sucker-punching a deputy was a good idea, or picking a fight with a deputy in a crowd was going to end well. But it’s a pretty good chance it has something to do with the environment leftists have created across the country in the third decade of the 21st century.
In an atmosphere where attacks on police are fodder for social media, where the progressive chant of “defund the police” is a rallying cry that too many places take seriously (to their sorrow), and where law enforcement is regularly demeaned by elected officials, it’s hardly even surprising anymore when attacks like this get reported.
It might have behooved the belligerent youths, however, to remember they were in Florida — a state that stands out for brooking little nonsense when it comes to law and order.
In fact, they were in Lee County, where Sheriff Carmine Mercino fits right in with Florida’s crop of outspoken sheriffs who aren’t shy about making sure the criminals — and criminal sympathizers — know they’re not welcome.
We only know right now what’s been reported about the Lee County fair skirmish, but we can hope it’s a lesson learned.
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