“I can tell you for a fact that the first officer on the scene is not an LSU fan,” Bates said Wednesday afternoon. “He hates LSU. He doesn’t like the color yellow or purple and gold. In fact, he’s a Florida fan. If you mention LSU around him, he throws up in his mouth. Most of our officers are LSU fans, but we have some who are Arkansas fans and Georgia fans and Alabama fans. And I'll tell you this, the first officer did not even know those guys were players.”
Bates explained that the first officer noticed four men in a car at 1:30 a.m. in Forsythe Park, which was closed at the time.
“They were in plain view,” he said. “Our officer was doing his job. They were not supposed to be there. He called for backup, and the other officers arrived and made the arrest. We enforce the law based on the law.”