While responding to a noise complaint on the night of December 7, two unnamed St. Paul Police Department officers were filmed joining the fight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside the young men they were called in to investigate. This bit of refreshingly positive police-related news began circulating the internet on the night of the Switch’s newest best seller’s December 7 release.
While showing up to his friends’ apartment to try out the all-new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch on its December 7 launch day, St. Paul resident Jovante M. Williams came upon a concerning scene developing outside. Called in to investigate a noise complaint in a series of many were a number of SPPD officers, who were simultaneously preparing to confront Williams' friends at their front door. Ultimately (no pun intended), the situation de-escalated in spectacular fashion, with two of the responding officers agreeing to join in on the fun with Williams and his friends. And who can blame them? Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest and greatest entry in Nintendo's Smash franchise, and the flagship fighting game isn't selling better than any entry in the series before it and receiving rave reviews for no reason, after all.
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Chronicling the entire heartwarming ordeal in a Facebook post last Friday, Williams uploaded a picture and brief video of the two easygoing peace officers battling it out with himself and his friends. In the video, Williams films himself narrating the situation as his friends and the pair of police officers presumably set up a match, referring to both groups as his "homies." The resulting picture (captioned, "I told you I was being serious,") captures the officers and Williams' compatriots standing with controllers in their hands, transfixed on an onscreen fight, a culminating moment in an extraordinary night that Williams described in an interview as "wholesome."
In a Yahoo Lifestyle interview that followed up on his viral post, Williams provided further details about the impromptu gaming session, noting that the call to which the SPPD officers were responding was just one of many noise complaints of late, all filed by "the same people." Though he concedes that he and his friends occasionally share a few beers when they get together, Williams clarifies, "We're not trouble," adding that they had gone so far as to having been playing games "on mute" prior to Friday's incident. According to Williams, police responding to past noise complaints had previously confirmed that he and his friends "weren't even loud" enough to warrant so much as a slap on the wrist, let alone citations or arrests.
Considering the growing general sense of distrust toward police officers felt among Americans amid a recent spike in law officers' killings of unarmed civilians - happenings that disproportionately target black men - Williams' Facebook post restores some faith in humanity. While a game or two of Masahiro Sakurai's latest masterpiece can't bridge the divide between civilians and law enforcement in America all on their own, it's nice to be reminded that the only real differences between cops and private citizens should be their Smash mains.
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Source: Jovante M. Williams/Facebook