A New York high school football game was canceled because a group of about 30 migrants refused to leave the field, even after police arrived.
The game was scheduled for Thomas Jefferson Park on Sunday, April 14.
About 40 teenage boys from both teams had shown up to play, but the African migrants, who spoke little English, refused to come out for them.
“I directly asked them to leave and some of them considered it, but then four or five of them said, ‘You know what, screw it, we don’t have to leave, we can do whatever we want.’ I want,’” Erik Johansson, the coach of the Manhattan Kickers’ 17-year-old boys travel team, told the New York Post.
The Post reports that when the police arrived, instead of removing the migrants, they asked to see a copy of the club team’s municipal permit.
“When you show up with two teams in uniform, a referee and two coaches, usually no one asks to see your permission,” Johansson said.
By the time the permit was located, 30 minutes had passed and the teams no longer felt safe playing there.
“Even when the game ends, you don’t know if they’re waiting for you, so even if the cops throw them out, it might not be over. So we all agree that this is too dangerous,” Johansson said.
Johansson is from Sweden and knows how quickly clashes between migrants can escalate.
“I’ve seen it before, I know how bad it can get,” he said.
Parents told Johansson they no longer want their children to play on that field, and the coach said they have no plans to return.
“It’s so frustrating that the kids who refused to follow the rules won,” Maud Maron, mother of one of the kids on the team, told the Post. “That’s the message the kids got.”