CB Dominic Clarke (transfer to Illinois State)

[dragurd]

Put it this way my freshman year in the dorms some guys brought pellet guns in and thought it would be great idea to shoot at each other with them in the floor lobby in front of the elevators. Do I think they were sociopaths? No. Morons? maybe. Ricochet off those thick concrete walls is a bitch and yeah if anyone had come up the elevator and walked out they would of been caught in the cross fire. Needless to say people that age do stupid things. Doesn't mean they are terrible people though.

 

[jwinslow]

Tell him I said hi back. He could still be dysfunctional young man for all I know. If you know him personally and he is not, it great to see that he has matured. I mentioned him in my first post. It seems David has done everything else asked of him and has matured but I personally have no idea. It could be the case or he could have became better at not being caught.

Bottom line, IMO this is bigger then a silly kid being a silly kid. Taking pleasure it hurting people for sport or to laugh at that fear that you caused is not just a sign of being immature. I believe there are deeper character issues involved.

or you are blatantly ignoring the grand canyon of people between your extremes.

most adolescent to young adult males enjoy practical jokes, at varying levels of expense at someone else's behalf.

I realize I could be overreacting but the incident reminds me of this...

Paintball Drive By Shooting - YouTube

funny, it reminds me of almost every make I knew throughout school.

it is noteworthy when a guy isn't humored by that kind of practical joke.

and there is no justification for implying he is mentally unstable or troubled.

 

[craigblitz]

Sorry it is not popular opinion but that is how I feel. I do not feel attacking innocent unexpecting people with a paintball gun, or an airsoft bb-gun is a good time or just a fun frat jooly-whiz good time, I just don't. The kids in the video got 4 years of jail time so I assume that the law did not find the humor in it either.

Guarantee if just good ole frat boy Dom was to hit one of your kids with that gun you would be signing a different tune.

 

[southcampus]

Sorry it is not popular opinion but that is how I feel. I do not feel attacking innocent expecting people with a paintball gun, or an airsoft bb-gun is a good time or just a fun frat jooly-whiz good time, I just don't. The kids in the video got 4 years of jail time so I assume that the law did not find the humor in it.

Guarantee if just good ole frat boy Dom was to hit one of your kids with that gun you would be signing a different tune.

Again, you're extrapolating with your accusations, both your direct and indirect ones.

 

[craigblitz]

Southcampus, what am I extrapolating? Was he not caught shooting a gun of some sort at people not expecting to hit? I am not sure where I am being indirect. Obviously I am in the minority here, but I find his actions to be a lot more then just a silly prank.

 

[buchtelgrad04]

Sorry it is not popular opinion but that is how I feel. I do not feel attacking innocent unexpecting people with a paintball gun, or an airsoft bb-gun is a good time or just a fun frat jooly-whiz good time, I just don't. The kids in the video got 4 years of jail time so I assume that the law did not find the humor in it either.

Guarantee if just good ole frat boy Dom was to hit one of your kids with that gun you would be signing a different tune.

You don't know the situation. You don't know if there were people on the ground with airsoft bb guns or paintball guns. You're assuming he was just shooting random people. I also think if that was the case, he'd be charged with more than disorderly conduct. The person who called the police was in a building, also probably not fully aware of what was going on. As stated by dragurd, people shooting each other with bb guns is very common. This may not be what happened, but you don't know that and neither do I.

Just trying to bring some perspective.

 

[jwinslow]

Sorry it is not popular opinion but that is how I feel. I do not feel attacking innocent unexpecting people with a paintball gun, or an airsoft bb-gun is a good time or just a fun frat jooly-whiz good time, I just don't. The kids in the video got 4 years of jail time so I assume that the law did not find the humor in it either.

Guarantee if just good ole frat boy Dom was to hit one of your kids with that gun you would be signing a different tune.

I didn't say it was fine or excused. I said it was typical. I said it wasn't justification for sociopath hyperbole.

 

[Poe McKnoe]

That's pretty damn close to being funny.

Would have been funnier had they hit someone who could return fire...with something a little more hurty than a paintball gun.

 

[craigblitz]

buchtelgrad I understand your point. You are saying they could have been playing a game with others, and you are 100% right if the people who were hit with the "bb's", or "paintballs" were participating then that is whole different perspective. That is not the story I was told by supposedly an observer of the incident. Also from my understanding he was the only participant called out who had a gun.

JWINS - I absolutely implied there may be serious character issues with Dom but I don't recall calling him a sociopath but I can see where my words imply that.

 

[Buckeye513]

Guarantee if just good ole frat boy Dom was to hit one of your kids with that gun you would be signing a different tune.

Or just if this story was about a player from another school.

 

[sandgk]

On a roof, firing a paintball gun at people, per the Lantern.

Chris Carter was with him, but not arrested.

Which one of you knuckleheads called Dom "The Sniper?"

Related to later discussion of whether Clarke was aiming at folk:

According to Ohio State Deputy Chief of Police Richard Morman, Clarke was arrested after 9 p.m. Sunday when a witness reported two or three people shooting what was believed to be a paintball or BB gun above the MarketPlace restaurant at the William H. Hall Residential Complex at 1578 Neil Ave. When an officer responded, Clarke was the only one there.
According to Morman, Clarke said he was trying to see how far the gun would shoot and did not target a person or object. No injuries or property damage occurred.

Still dumb.

 

[craigblitz]

Clarke said he was trying to see how far the gun would shoot and did not target a person or object?

Then one would have to ask exactly how they were determining how far the gun was shooting?

 

[MaxBuck]

I'm at a loss to understand what crime was committed if no one was hurt and no property destroyed. Clarke claims he wasn't aiming at anyone or trying to destroy property, and given where he was doing this stuff, he clearly could easily have hurt someone or damaged something had that been his intent. So his comments are credible.

 

[MaliBuckeye]

I'm at a loss to understand what crime was committed if no one was hurt and no property destroyed. Clarke claims he wasn't aiming at anyone or trying to destroy property, and given where he was doing this stuff, he clearly could easily have hurt someone or damaged something had that been his intent. So his comments are credible.

I'm not sure if it was a "crime" (the law) or a crime (university policies).
I'm also not sure if there's a law and/or policy about any type of weapon on campus- some universities have gotten really strict post Virginia Tech (we don't allow squirt guns at my current employer).

So, no one or nothing was hurt, but it's possible that a rule/statute was broken. Plus, this kind of thing is rarely about if someone gets hurt and often about the potential for injury/damage (think speed limit).

 

[matcar]

Clarke said he was trying to see how far the gun would shoot and did not target a person or object?

Then one would have to ask exactly how they were determining how far the gun was shooting?

By watching the bullet go and land? Pretty simple really.

Like others, I'm not justifying college kid behaviour, but this doesn't mean Dom is anything other than you very average college kid doing something risky/dumb. I've said this in many other threads, but I did stuff far worse than this and wasn't a "bad guy"...I just wanted some excitement and at that age, excitement often means straddling the line on what is acceptable to people 5 years older than that.

I will grant you that if this was something that a kid from TSUN or PSU or any SEC school did, it's quite possible that this board would react differently, but they shouldn't...