Jerks

Two St. Lucie County, Florida sheriff's deputies have received written reprimands for their breathtakingly rude and bullying behavior while playing last March for a softball team sponsored by one of the local jail's food vendors (and thus leaving no doubt as to what the men did for a living):

"The home plate umpire said [Deputy Thomas] Johnson 'insulted' a base umpire, who has a single arm, 'by removing one arm from the sleeve of his shirt, placing the arm inside his shirt, thus indicating that he only had one arm as well.'"

"The home plate umpire also said [Deputy Rigoberto] Iglesias was 'rude and belligerent' during and after the game. The home plate umpire said Iglesias used 'excessive profanity both on and off the field.'"

Other observers (most likely game spectators) to the deputies' asinine behavior also subsequently complained to the sheriff's office, according to the story.

Contrast this utter juvenile nonsense with the quite noble but completely undeserved class the umpire in question showed towards the deputies in response to his treatment:

"The base umpire with a single arm, however, told sheriff’s officials 'both teams were vocal but that is a part of sports and emotions can run high from time to time,' records show.

He didn’t feel any sheriff’s employees should be disciplined. The deputies’ actions, he said, weren’t different from those of 'any other team on a given game night.'"

People on other teams don't have the responsibility (while armed) of keeping the peace and making sure things don't get out of hand at such events when they're on duty, though. Keeping that fact in mind, we think that this is probably the proper chastisement.