Six Phi Kappa Theta’s Arrested At University Of Missouri After ‘Hide-And-Seek’ Game Is Mistaken For Assault

Six brothers of Phi Kappa Theta at the University of Missouri were arrested after some traditions were misinterpreted by people on campus as an assault.

One tradition of the Phi Kappa Theta’s is for pledges to stage a walk out during class, and the active brothers give chase. It’s basically a slightly more involved, adult-version of ‘hide-and-seek’. But when students reported men in masks and a van full of kidnappers and kidnapped the police moved in.

The Columbia Tribune reports:

Weimer said MUPD officers were called to Lathrop Hall on campus after several students saw what they thought was a person being assaulted. Weimer said several members of Phi Kappa Theta had chased down and grabbed two pledge members who were then put in a van. One of the pledges had his hands tied behind his back, but neither person was injured, Weimer said. He described the game as a version of hide-and-seek.

The pledges who were grabbed and put in the van aren’t pressing any charges, Weimer said.

Student members had already left the fraternity house, 601 Rollins St., Friday evening for winter break, but an alumni board officer said fraternity members don’t comment on arrests. A staff member from the Office of Greek Life at MU said the office doesn’t speak about incidents involving the police.

On the one hand, I’m feeling a little bit of those all too familiar ‘when did we become such massive pussies in America?’ feelings when it comes to this story, but on the other hand I think it’d be impossible to see (or hear) something like that and not assume it was an assault.

You see some masked people in an unmarked van appearing to kidnap students and you can’t help but assume the worst…I guess?

But the real problem with this entire incident is that the brothers were arrested. How these cops refused to apply any measure of common sense to this case is mind boggling.

So you’re the cops, and you swoop in thinking that you’ll be arresting kidnappers, hardened criminals, or something along those lines…but you’re pissed off to find that you’ve just cockblocked a campus-wide game of hide-and-seek. And in your rage at being a cockblock you choose to arrest everyone involved? That’s the only logical explanation I can come up with for why the officers wouldn’t just walk away from the situation after gathering all the facts.

From the Columbia Tribune:

Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brouck Jacobs said charges have not been filed. The six men have pending court dates for 9 a.m. Jan. 23, Weimer said.

Soooooo they’re hoping for a judge that gives them a ‘Do you know how many people you inconvenienced?’ speech and then they can move along with their lives…

For more on this you can head on over to the Columbia Tribune HERE, and a tip of the hat to Total Frat Move for reporting on this story yesterday.

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