Or, how would the people who keep downplaying the severity were the ones who were hit. Being hit by a paintball is not fun. I know. Hurts like hell.
Football Max Melton & Chris Long Suspended
- Thread starter Tango Two
- Start date
I'm going to venture a guess that the entire thing will get dropped with some form of a slap on the wrist, possibly even just public service. Although it might take awhile before that happens and it's hard to say what the team will do in the meantime.
I would be shocked beyond belief if they are playing before the matter is adjudicated, which I cannot see happening anytime soon.
Might also be plea bargained down to a lesser charge and be sentenced on, quickly , if the prosecutor feels the charge doesn't really fit the crime and the victims don't object.
you could be right, but I feel once Chris and Max get lawyewrs , those lawyers will be working to get this resolved quickly and asking for the charges to be knocked down to a lesser offense for a guilty plea and have the sentence handed down quickly to have the player miss as little playing time as possible .
Letting Schiano decide how long time missed rather that time missed because of the accused having to wait for the case to go through the legal system
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The fact that it was close range changes my opinion of one or two games. I was thinking little chance for harm. Close range makes this more serious imo. Really amazing how dumb young people (anyone really) can be.
I mean... we have absolutely no idea if there was racism involved here or not. The person to whom you're responding didn't claim there was any racism, he just said they were lucky they didn't experience any. You are actually claiming, with no possible way to prove it, that there wasn't any racism.
He's guilty of leveraging a populist mindset about police and racism. You're guilty of leaping to a conclusion without any factual evidence.
I'm guilty of failing completely to understand why people are so damned insistent upon staking out rigid ideological positions about a situation in which we haven't even seen an indictment, let alone a conviction.
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Or lucky some cops weren't witnessing what happened, saw what looked like a drive-by shooting, and opened fire on the occupants of the car.
People are calling it a prank and maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. We just haven't seen nearly enough evidence to form a valid conclusion about the intent behind this.
But one thing we know is that, whomever actually did the paintball gun shooting from the car, it was a very stupid, situationally unaware thing to do that clearly risked some serious consequences for the people involved. Even if they wind up getting off with a slap in the wrist, which is my guess here, the "reward" from the prank couldn't possibly have justified the risks (legal or otherwise) involved. Just very, very dumb.
I don't know the specifics of the charges or what's alleged in the complaint, but if no one was seriously injured and the paint gun was not used as an instrument in another felony such as robbery, its hard for me to see how it does not get remanded back down to municipal court. If I am defending them just on what I have seen here, and assuming these kids have no priors, I am going to ask the court that they should be candidates for PTI.
There's a former prosecutor posting in this thread. Read his posts on the timing.
Right. They aren't deadly weapons but they ARE weapons. What you call hysteria normal people call common sense.
If I shot you in the eye with a paintgun, should I face arrest? Or should it just be seen as playing with a toy, and your losing an eye was just "bad luck"?
Exactly. This is one of the cardinal rules of gun safety. Only point your gun at intended targets when you are ready to fire.
Yes, idiots. Kinda like the guy driving by and slapping girls asses.
Aim. Shoot. Inflict damage = dummies
Middle school stupidity carried out by adults = felony.
Based in the law. I'd rather be caught drunk driving than aiming and shooting a weapon at someone. Much harsher consequences with felony assault.
I think thsee are valid viewpoints. Shooting at your fans and classmates is a bad look. Some have been harsh on you for the race thing, but in all actuality, those very events have played out recently with bad results.
What?!?!? RUPD would look the fools if they allowed an indictable, felony offense to go by the wayside and it was discovered they gave preferable treatment to football players....and it was uncovered. They did the right thing. Responded to an assault on campus and charged the individuals. Period. Let the lawyers and court duke it out, and get the charges reduced for this prank. I agree it is a waste of tax payer money, but it is also a waste of tax payer/university money to give scholarships to people who are willing to commit felony crimes, isn't it?
I am still trying to figure out how the fellow described earlier in the thread drove up and down College Ave pinching young women. If he was driving, as described, did he constantly veer to the wrong side of the road to get in his kicks? If it's poorly worded, and he got up to his shenanigans on the passenger side, how was he so deft that he could pull this off without knocking someone over? That's to say nothing of the fact that these young women would alert someone, even back in ye olden times.
I smell a steaming pile of b.s. on that story.
I smell a steaming pile of b.s. on that story.
I disagree as yours makes zero sense at all. It's just an attempt by you to make an excuse for their behavior and to downgrade the assault into a "prank".
So they were just driving by. See friends and just happen to have paint ball guns at the ready in less time then it takes to drive by them in a car?? Please!! And it was 10pm so it was dark out too.
Come on Mildy. Saying they were lucky not to have been shot and killed by the police is far more extreme than saying they were lucky that they didn't experience any racism. You are bright enough to understand so are being purposely opaque.
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I don't agree with all of your points. A paintball gun is not a gun. IMO drunk driving is a much more serious offense. Not talking the law. Just talking common sense. If they were shooting strangers, it shows a real lack of moral compass (that is just a D#CK move) and wild lack of judgement. And since an errant shot can cause serious harm such as loss of an eye, there should be meaningful consequences. But not jail time. Possibly dismissal from the team, but probably not if they are remorseful and were good citizens otherwise. If they shot at friends as a prank, then the penalty should be even less.
RUPD needs to enforce the law. End of story. Agree 100% there.
Could've been only on one way streets. Or he was driving a car built to British spec.
Or yeah, it could've been a steaming pile of BS. 😄
Bingo
Some redneck states fight background checks. Are you fff’nnnnn kidding me.
This isn’t going away. These guys will be tied up in the courts for probably 6 months to a year. The unlawful possession of a weapon charge alone is a 4th degree with a presumption of up to 18 months in jail.
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I merely repeated what he said using pretty much the same words he did. I didn't advocate for or against what he said.
Meanwhile, you've sidestepped the fact that you've claimed to know racism wasn't involved. Which none of us here can possibly know. It is something we'll likely never be able to factually know.
I don't intend to chose sides in some ideological debate about the prevalence of racism and policing in this thread. That's a conversation better suited to the CE board.
Agree. But the attitude of the NJ government is to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who wants to exercise their 2A rights. There's a quote from part of the NJ judiciary that says something like "Folks in NJ exercise their 2A rights at their own risk." This is from the judges(!!) in NJ.
Hence, BB guns, wrist rockets, paintball felonies, etc...
Don't point guns at anything you don't want to kill. Period.
This does not sound good for reducing charges.
Claiming ignorance of not knowing someone could be seriously injured I don't think will fly here.
Bleeding sounds like a game changer for trying to get reducing charges.
Look - every single poster has acknowledged this was an idiotic thing to do. At 10pm they should be in bed during season.
But the bottom line is nobody was badly hurt and neither you nor I have the background information on why they chose this location on this particular night to pull this crap. Maybe it was random or maybe they knew the victims would be there for some reason that we’ll find out later. It was an extremely stupid prank regardless but I for one hope we find out there’s still more to the story that will come out later confirming it was a just dumb prank with no malicious intentions.
At this point, the “injuries” described in the report thankfully sound on par with the typical collateral damage one endures when voluntarily engaging in a paint ball game for recreational purposes (there’s bruising involved and sometimes some bleeding if you break skin, etc).
UPDATE:
Rutgers football players Max Melton, Chris Long suspended, Greg Schiano says
Rutgers football players Max Melton and Chris Long have been suspended following an incident involving a paint ball gun.www.app.com
Kenneth Cop, Rutgers University Police Department Chief, released the following statement:
"On Monday, September 20, 2021, at approximately 10:00 PM, the Rutgers University Police Department (RUPD) responded to the area of Livingston Campus in the Township of Piscataway for the report of three student victims that were struck with paintballs discharged from a motor vehicle. The three victims sustained minor injuries and declined further medical attention on scene. An investigation completed by the RUPD resulted in the arrest of two male suspects on September 21, 2021.
Malachi M. Melton, a 19-year-old resident of Toms River, NJ, and Christopher M. Long, a 19-year-old resident of Willingboro, NJ, have been charged with three counts of Aggravated Assault and Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose. Both were released on their own recognizance with summonses to appear in Middlesex County Superior Court on November 4, 2021, at 8:45 AM."
So driving around being idiots. Guilty. Probation. Wash police cars every weekend for a month. Sit out first half of UM game. Run til you barf. Write letters of apology to just about the entire world.
No third chances.
See done. Now we can move on - I wish.
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So three owies. Lucky they didn't take out an eye but no big deal other than what I laid out earlier. 1/2 game. etc...
There is a presumption of NON INCARCERATION for third and fourth degree crimes for first time offenders; the exceptions to the presumption do not apply here. Having said that, if the county prosecutor wants to make headlines regarding this case it could be dragged out well beyond the season as you suggest.
Believe me you'll know the difference between being shot at with a paintball gun and a real firearm. At no point did those three think they were shot at with a real gun.
A guy living in the wrong part of Newark, Camden or Patterson?
Some folks in the world carry one every day - just regular Normal Americans.
Again. You keep trying to down play this incident. I'm sure you wouldn’t if you child pulled this crap or was one of the kids that got hit. Obviously the kids that got hit called and talked to the police so your prank theory is full of crap.
