We'd like to thank newly-anointed WL reader DoctorOctagon for this tip on some black-on-white crime that took place in his backyard. Well, it was in a gym. "Backyard" was a figure of speech. Anyway:

Mickey Shaffer of Poyen said he was coaching the Lady Wings from Central Arkansas as they competed in the seventh- and eighth-grade girls' division of the Challenge of Champions tournament in Little Rock when he questioned a referee's call, and the referee, whose name Shaffer did not know, called a technical foul on him. Shaffer said he sat down but continued objecting to the call, and the referee called a second technical foul on him and ejected him from the game. Shaffer said he was "getting my two cents in" on his way out when the referee grabbed him by the throat and choked him for a few seconds.

Shaffer said that the photo of the choke makes it look worse than it actually was. Like that's gonna keep anyone from getting pissed. Did we mention this happened in Arkansas?

The referee who choked Shaffer was removed from the game he had been officiating and swapped with a referee from a different game on another court, according to witnesses. "He way overreacted, and he did a malicious thing in front of a lot of kids," said [a] parent, who asked that her name not be used. "When you're in that kind of position, you're supposed to be about sportsmanship and all this, and if you don't have any more self-control than that, you just don't need to be in that position."

The coach, by the way, is not pressing charges. Could it be that the coach doesn't want to admit to what he might have said to the ref? Do they mic up coaches at the 7th-grade level?

[Arkansas News]