Garandman

This was an interesting situation for me because I was at Boch Ice Center (where Millbury's team is based) when the news came out and heard their side of the story, then heard a Brookline PD's officer's side of the story. Then I saw some online posts from former teammates and teammate parents of the boy involved in the altercation. The boy involved was a 12 year old named Zach K from North Andover, MA born in 1999, height 5'0 weight 95 lbs. He was playing for the Boston Junior Blackhawks based in Everett, MA. they removed all his personal data from their website but don't seem to understand how the internet works and it's all still out there. The first thing to keep in mind is that the Junta case of 2001 had a profound impact on youth sports organizations here and elsewhere. Most arenas have a zero tolerance policy towards any sort of demonstration and transgressors are escorted out. Most leagues also have a "Code of Conduct" which allows referees to call a forfeit for fan behavior as well. Here are some of the posts about this player from a local hockey forum: emphasis added. The facts as I could discern them are as follows: - The player Zach K has, as seen above, quite a negative "rep" for a 12yo. - This player had been verbally abusing Milbury's kid throughout the game. There are plenty of kids around who want to "make their rep" by harassing Milbury, so he's used to it. This was beyond anything that you or I would tolerate in a youth hockey game. - Milbury, as an assistant coach, asked the other team's coach to have the boy stop with the harassment. It is not known of the other coach took any action, but the behavior continued. - After the game was over and the referees had departed, a shootout exhibition between the two teams was planned. Milbury was walking out on the ice to be a goal judge. In other words, by position and activity he had a valid reason for being on the ice surface. - Some sort of physical altercation broke out between the players. The head coach of the Milbury's team grabbed his boy and sent him off the ice. Milbury grabbed this other boy and pulled him out of the fight, and swore at him, but did not "rough him up" or otherwise abuse him in any way. I'm sure everyone who has ever broken up a fight understands how things can happen. But to put it in perspective, the Millbury boy was "handled" about the same way, and was removed from the ice. - The player's mother did not report the incident until a day after it had occurred. - Brookline is known in the area as an extremely Liberal town - Cambridge, MA Liberal - and most in the area believe that if the BPD could possibly have brought charges against Milbury or anyone else, they would have done so. - Although it doesn't bear on the circumstances above, this was an exhibition game at Larz Anderson Park in Brookline, MA paid for by Millbury. The fact that all charges were dropped and he was reinstated to his announcer position almost immediately should speak volumes about the magnitude of the "incident." It is highly, highly questionable whether anyone other than Millbury would have been charged at all.