MVDP Arrest: More details released

Don’t get me wrong, what he did was dumb and out of line. But it just seems like everyone is in bad light here. MVdP, the girls, parents, hotel, whoever was handling the Dutch national team logistics

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I think what MVDP did was wrong and by the laws of that country (and many others) a crime. I think what the girls did was also wrong but I did much worse at that age (and I’d hazard a guess that most have). I can’t comment on the parents. If the family were on holidays and they left two teenage girls in their room while they had a drink at the bar. How much fault could we put on the parents? We don’t know how they handled the aftermath. Were they disciplined? Who knows. I have no idea why the team were posted an hour from Wollongong but they did have their own floor. Maybe the mistake they made was letting MVDP stay with his girlfriend?

Any way, all just opinions. I love MVDP, and I’m sure he’ll learn from this. He’s only 27 after all.

Per this article it says the parents were aware of the girls previously doing knock and run incidents at other hotels. The knocks were occurring over the course of three hours. Negligent parenting.

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Parents are responsible for minors.

Not a parallel argument, as dogs are considered property, but if I had a dog that escaped my fenced yard and bit you, you could sue me in court. If that bite caused you to lose wages, you could try and recover lost wages.

Again not a completely parallel argument.

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That article definitely sheds more light on the situation. I don’t agree with how the parents responded. And I can’t believe those kids have done this more than once. Let alone for that length of time. I personally couldn’t go so far as saying negligent parenting. Perhaps, I don’t know. I had amazing parents. They were incredibly strict on me, most would argue too strict. And I still did way worse things that knock and run.

I don’t drink, never have, but I haven’t met a person in the U.S who didn’t have a fake ID while under the legal age (which is a criminal act) and drank alcohol (another criminal act) well before they were 21. By that account the entire country is filled with negligent parents.

Why are you taking a comment about a single group of kids and parents in this instance and then pushing it to country wide indictment as a counter argument (alcohol & US)?

What you quoted has no statement about the country where they reside or other sweeping generalization. It’s about that small group of kids and parents from that very situation only.

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I agree completely. I’m just struggling a bit to go so far as saying they were negligent parents. The kids messed up. Then they were assaulted in their hotel room by a grown man. If I was a parent I’d imagine my reaction might be extremely protective. I’m just blown away the kids had done this more than once.

And then I walked into your front door and assaulted you. What would happen? Interesting hypothetical.

I guess, I had the strictest parents imaginable and boy was I a shit kid. The things I did. They deserved better and they did the best they could.

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It has nothing to do with the country, I was trying to highlight that many of us did far worse things, illegal things and still had good parents and most certainly didn’t deserve to get assaulted.

Roid rage?

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A ton of blame. A TON. Almost all of it.

:thinking:

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Incredible takes in this forum. :astonished:……From my perch, 99% iof the blame is in MVDP. He got lucky no serious ppl witness his assault and set him straight. He deserves what he got and more.

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We’re the kids speaking Flemish or French? :wink:

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If you look at it through the prism of “self defence” then any legal defence would be based on whether it was proportionate. If you are attacked and knock the guy down then that’s probably ok. If someone is acting like an annoying teenager around you and messes with your sleep then chasing them and “attacking” them (however lightly) would probably be deemed excessive.

It’s very easy to take a bad situation and make it worse. QED.

Maybe next time he will open the door, shout “f**k off or i’ll call the manager!” and go back to bed.

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I totally blame those two brats for a lacklustre worlds. Imagine what Cipollini would have done.

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Getting some parenting in 3 hours after she should’ve. Excellent work.

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Completely unacceptable for him to menace kids especially two young girls. I don’t care what they did, he had almost infinity number of other ways to resolve this than the one he chose. That being said, the situation he was in was comical in how risky it was for his race. Sounds like his organization and he share equal parts of blame in him being in that ridiculous hotel on a floor by himself. I liked MVDP before this event. I’m not so sure how I feel about him at the moment.

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Yeah, I’m a little stupefied at the number of people saying it’s totally justified for a grown man to assault a 13 year old girl. It sounds like the Dutch team had a whole floor to guarantee quiet for the team members, but MVDP chose another room, then suffered from the exact reason the Dutch team booked a whole floor in the first place.

I’ve done a lot of travel for work and have had some very noisy neighbors on plenty of trips the night before important meetings. Sure, the stakes were never as high as a world championship, but somehow I managed to never assault a child. Instead, I bugged the hell out of the desk, called their security repeatedly, and things either settled down or they moved me to another floor.

The other thing is, acting like an asshole is acting like an asshole. Assholes need to be dealt with, but being an asshole in and of itself does not justify violence, does not mean negligent parenting, and does not mean legal exposure. As many others have said, ring and run (or ding and ditch) was literally the very least of the ways in which I acted like an asshole at that age. I was occasionally caught by adults and screamed at, sometimes threatened with violence, etc. but even rage-filled adults in the 80’s knew not to actually physically assault a child.

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I would have avada kedavra’d them. Muggles.

In all seriousness, he could have just walked back up to his other room.

Further, my parents would have done a helluva a lot more than call the cops. They would have disciplined me for sure, but I can’t imagine a scenario where my mother would not have also ended up with a minor assault charge :joy:

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The funny thing is I request the quietest room available in a hotel when doing a gran fondo. A bloody fondo and I’m precious with my sleep. :joy:

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I think VDP is a champ and I am disappointed that we didn’t get to see him fight it out for a medal.

I think people don’t understand that elite athletes are basically maniacs lol. We like to think they are just like us but really fast, but they tend to be super extreme people. They are used for advertising so a lot of effort goes into trying to make them seem relatable. It is smoke and mirror to make money.

For example, the horse that wins the Kentucky Derby is not just a chill nice but very fast horse. It is a straight up crazy horse.

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