Over 40 people were arrested in Wyandotte, Michigan last Saturday in connection with a fight operation pitting two civil engineers against each other.
According to city police spokeswoman Celia Minsle, officers were called to a home on Biddle St., by a neighbor disturbed by the noise of cheering spectators and the engineers yelling “Stop that!”
Civil Engineer fights have grown in popularity the past 20 years. They began in Kansas City, long known for its chicken fighting, owing mainly to two things: Animal rights activists kept rescuing the chickens, and a slowdown in the local economy left many engineers out of work.
“Mechanical and electrical engineers wanted no part of it,” says former fight promoter Millicent Palling. “Civil engineers have always been more gutsy.” Palling, incidentally, served four years in prison in the early 2000s when an engineer who’d suffered head injuries in one of her fights later designed a garage that subsequently collapsed, destroying a vintage Volkswagen.
Police in Wyandotte are investigating rumors that there are other homes hosting fights in the city. While most are believed to involve only civil engineers, says Minsle, the department is taking steps to ensure it doesn’t spread to other occupations.
“We are especially keeping an eye on cost accountants,” she says.
