An East Lansing police officer stands in the middle of the Cedar Street and Waters Edge Drive intersection on April 5. The East Lansing Police Department classified Cedar Fest as a riot.
Police tackle a man outside of El Azteco Restaurant, 225 Ann St., to arrest him in the early morning of April 3, 2005 during a public disturbance.
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3 years later, lessons learned
East Lansing police say the response to Cedar Fest shows they’ve changed since the April 2005 disturbances, which tarnished their image.
And several local officials, who reviewed the 2005 melee, agree police have revised their practices.
The department has received no formal complaints of police wrongdoing at Cedar Fest, where it monitored a crowd of more than 3,000 revelers for several hours before launching 13 canisters of tear gas on an increasingly hostile crowd.
Following the April 2005 disturbances, eight police officers — five from East Lansing, two from MSU and one from the Michigan State Police — had complaints filed against them. Many officers, who students and other people out that night said committed crimes, weren’t able to be identified.
East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said the lack of formal complaints proves police have changed their response methods after the 2005 disturbances, which some critics labeled a police riot.
“It’s the total opposite reaction of 2005,” he said.
During the 2005 disturbances, 297 police officers from East Lansing, MSU and other agencies donned riot gear and deployed 299 canisters of tear gas into a crowd of about 3,000 people after MSU’s Final Four loss in the NCAA Tournament. In the aftermath, many citizens and community officials blamed police for turning a peaceful celebration into chaos.
Following the 2005 disturbances, an independent commission of students, residents and local officials was created to review the way police handled the event. After about eight months, the commission created a list of final recommendations for handling future celebratory events that could draw large crowds.
The recommendations included suggestions for police actions before, during and after a celebratory event.
A few recommendations included having police be readily identifiable by badge number, taking better video footage and having better equipment to make dispersal announcements.
For the most part, members of the independent commission agree that police followed through on the recommendations.
Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, was East Lansing’s mayor during the 2005 disturbances and was the chairman of the review commission.
“I feel the police response was consistent with what we recommended through the review commission,” he said. “Nobody has any question about what occurred, nobody has any question about the police actually being attacked.”
But Joe Tuchinsky, a member of the Lansing chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union as well as a member of the review commission, said there are still improvements that could be made. Among them, he said police should have set up a decontamination site for individuals who had been affected by tear gas to receive treatment.
“That wasn’t done, and it should have been,” Tuchinsky said. “It wouldn’t have been hard to do.”
Wibert said police’s decision not to set up the station was because they didn’t expect to use tear gas.
“We went into the night under the belief that we weren’t going to be using tear gas,” Wibert said. “We also have a problem with finding someone who is willing to decontaminate.”
Tuchinsky also said he would have liked to see police recruit a group of volunteers to attend Cedar Fest as liaisons between police and citizens.
The recommendation was a contested one among the commissioners, some of whom felt that it could endanger the volunteers, said Beth Alexander, MSU’s university physician and a member of the 2005 commission.
“People in that role can get hurt or get in the way of the police doing their work,” Alexander said.
Alexander said police have not adhered to every recommendation, but they’ve made huge progress since 2005.
“Police really worked hard to contain the crowd in ways that didn’t provoke more response,” Alexander said.
Wibert will be the first to say the way police handled the 2005 disturbances was anything but perfect. But, he said, the department has come a long way since then.
“The 2005 riot was the one where I think we learned the most,” Wibert said. “That’s because we had the opportunity to spend several months just picking apart this incident layer by layer.”
Published on Monday, April 14, 2008
Comments
Enough
04/15/08 @ 2:36am
Shutup about this stupid Cedar Fest!
Quick Recap
1.College kids got drunk threw beer bottles and pulled out street signs.
2.Cops showed up, arrested drunk kids, and shot gernade launchers with tear gas in them whereas in Iraq they use gun powder and metal.
It’s time to move on!
A bunch of kids got drunk and the police showed up! Enough! God!
Mr. Alum
04/15/08 @ 8:21am
“Enough” is clueless.
The actions by our students have tarnished our degrees and have ruined whatever was left of our school’s prestige worldwide. We are a laughingstock, a punchline to all jokes, and it’s thanks to people like “Enough” his hoards of drunken, immature students. This event will never be forgotten, and it’s all your fault.
Thanks for ruining MSU, MSU students! All of you, all 40,000, should be expelled for stupidity anyway.
Smart Spartan
04/15/08 @ 9:01am
Mr. Alum,
I am personally offended by your comment that “All of you, all 40,000, should be expelled for stupidity anyway.” There are many of us at MSU that take our studies VERY seriously, probably way more seriously than you ever did. I’m personally offended as well, because I wasn’t even in the state of Michigan when Cedar Fest happened, I was at a conference representing Michigan State in a very positive way. So, I should be held responsible as well? So, until you can realize that there are still GOOD students at MSU, you should reevaluate your perception of the university.
guy
04/15/08 @ 9:16am
Funny, there was no mention of any disciplinary action taken against the out-of-line officers from April ’05. I wonder why…
Mr. Alum is obviously a troll. No college graduate could be that stupid.
Dude
04/15/08 @ 10:24am
I’m pretty sure Mr. Alum is being sarcastic and/or joking. No one is THAT stupid.
Dont tase me bro
04/15/08 @ 10:25am
I am a 2005 MSU alumni who was very disappointed to learn about “Cedar Fest” on CNN…..
Once again, ELPD and the other responding law enforcement tarnished my expensive degree.
How MSU lets East Lansing get off tear gassing its students is beyond me.
Large concentrations of drunken students are a side effect all large public universities have. Strangely, ever other police department in the country can handle larger crowds of drunken students with little or no incident.
Wake up MSU. The spoiled little child that is East Lansing continues to bite the hand that feeds. For the sake of alumni, current and prospective students, put an end to this embarrassment! Lou Ann, as the University President, please condemn this outrageous police behavior!
Miami ALUM
04/15/08 @ 11:00am
I agree with many comments on how the police react to this situation. It is known for a large party at MSU you know as soon as it hits 2am, gets wild, or sooner that the police are going to break it up. The students knew this going into Cedar Fest and the police suited up and were ready. So ELPD they are going to party again, they will make an effort to form a large party sometime again, how you handle it again will determine our fate. Leave the tear gas for riots which obviously this wasn’t.
redonk
04/15/08 @ 11:29am
I am honestly very tired of hearing students complain that “the police were too rough on us.” YOU PLANNED A RIOT; an act of civil disobedience with no moral or positive outcome designed ONLY to incite the attention of said police. YOU CHANTED FOR TEAR GAS and YOU GOT IT.
I hope that the people posting to this board are simply whiny students who were NOT involved; anyone who attended “CedarFest” knew what they were getting involved in…deal with it.
And to the student who compared MSU to “a police state”; that is offensive to anyone who has actually lived in a police state. Grow up.
Dad
04/15/08 @ 11:50am
As the proud father of 2 children who are grads. of MSU, and me being a grad of Western Mi. 1973. I have had several occasions to observe the Police attitude at MSU. I see large suv’s and Harley Davidson motorcycles and tickets being written everywhere, even on move-in weekends-How about a little understanding and help to bewildered new students and parents. I have also seen parties broken up and asked -Why ? No one bothered us at Western-I was incredulous. If police were called to a party at Western ,which was rare-only happened once and we called them when a bunch of non -students showed up, they were nice and just said, hey people-keep it down a little. They then left and we actually wanted them to break it up. The point is, the attitude of the police at MSU in my experiences of observing them was confrontational. I could not beleve the way these students were treated. Hey East Lansing-where would you be without these kids ? No more Harley’s and big SUV’s. How about the business community ? I think a huge attitude adjustment is needed. Nobody wants lawbreakers or criminals, but at the same time no one wants a heavy handed police force bent on confrontation no matter what. Proud father and supporter of MSU-Go Green !!
dg
04/15/08 @ 12:41pm
It’s sad to see how some students fail to take any responsibility for their actions. Gee, ripping out street signs, setting fires, throwing rocks. And these children think that the police treat them unfairly. Quit blaming others for your own actions. If the police did not respond at all and someone got injured (or killed, which is possible, given the drunks climbing balcomies, etc.) then the same folks would be crying that police did not do enough to protect them. This was a planned party turned riot that was advertised online by some students. Grow up. And yes, the actions of a few idiots do harm MSU’s otherwise good reputation.
Steve
04/15/08 @ 12:48pm
Anyone who blames stupid behavior on the police is an idiot. Oh the police showed up, I guess that means its time for me to go into jackass mode.
Dad – You are equally dumb. The students at WMU were teargassed back in 2001 when they were rioting resulting in around 30 arrests. Not to mention they brought in the State Police wearing riot gear. Stop posting about parties and events that happened in 1965… no one cares.
Matt
04/15/08 @ 1:03pm
What happened to the days when people respected the police and kids were raised to respect authority figures including teachers and police officers? No wonder you have 18 year old kids throwing bottles and bricks at the police. It seems to me that a lot of these newer classes of freshmen are way too empowered by their parents. You would never see parents coming to meet academic advisors or calling professors or holding their kids hands through everything 10 years ago, but now its commonplace. So now here’s Dad, driving through campus and seeing big SUV’s and Harley Davidson motorcycles automatically assuming that the police are heavy handed and confrontational. Hey Dad, the police are here to protect us from ourselves and from other people. Did you ever stop by the police station or listen to the presentation they give at orientation to find out more about them? Did you ask for help from a police officer or did you just assume that because they had pulled someone over they were automatically writing them a ticket and not giving them a warning since it was welcome weekend? Did you ever think that kids aren’t as innocent as they were back in 1970? How many kids brought guns and knives to parties on campus back then? Were you at Cedarfest or are you just assuming things based on your past observations of SUV’s and Harley Davidsons? My point is that it’s parents that give their kids a false sense of empowerment and make their kid think that the world revolves around them…never mind the need for law, order and safety. Look, the cops at MSU and East Lansing might not be the nicest all the time but I don’t think they are “bent on confrontation”. If they were then nothing would have changed from 2005. But I think giving a crowd of 3,000 people that much time to party and then clear out is more than reasonable.
agrees with the 1st post
04/15/08 @ 1:05pm
The rest of the world has gotten over this event so why can’t the STATE NEWS? It was just a minute long segment on CNN for one day. Your degrees are not tarnished so stop whining and get to class.
SJ
04/15/08 @ 1:44pm
Why are you giving these people so much publicity. Forget about it. Wrongdoers and idiots must be dealt with. However I do agree-police need to sometimes be helpful and not always be just about tickets. I doubt half these people who wrote are actual MSU alum or students.
Tom
04/15/08 @ 2:03pm
Dad is right. The cops in EL are hell bent on confrontation. I was there from 98-02 and during my freshman year had cops follow me while walking on campus at night just to see if I’d trip/stumble so they could stop me and ask me to take a breath test to see if I was drunk. There was one EL cop who took a liking to my girlfriend and made it obvious he was gunning for me. I’m not saying that students should be able to riot, or that cops shouldn’t have been there to “supervise”, but the MSU cops and ELPD really do have some officers who probably shouldn’t be cops in the first place. A few bad ones tarnish the whole department. I know I have a different view of the police after my experiences at MSU.
Dylan
04/15/08 @ 3:50pm
I agree with Tom and Dad—and was there from 98-02. It always felt like an aggressive “us v them” situation—have never experienced that in any place I’ve lived, before or after my time in East Lansing.
'06 Alum
04/15/08 @ 4:51pm
I too agree, whether the actions of the ELPD at Ceder Fest were justified or not, the ELPD has serious issues. They are overly aggressive and have major attitude problems. I even worked very close with them through the Gus Maker 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which raises money for ELPD charities. I only met ONE officer who I believe had the proper morels and values needed to be a police officer and he transferred long before I left MSU. Until they are willing to make adjustments I will guarantee that situations will continue to again and again at MSU.
EL Police Still Wrong
04/15/08 @ 5:17pm
The truth is the EL Police leadership still have their tactics wrong. It is the full body gear, riot gear, tear gas and warnings of an unlawful party that causes the “riot.” They need to learn from other cities that have large parties like these that do not get out of hand because the police do not provoke people. Don’t fault the line officers, they are just doing their job and following orders. It is the leadership that needs to fix their methods they direct to be used.
Uncle Patrick
04/15/08 @ 8:38pm
I wasn’t there. I was out of town when it all happened.
Re
04/16/08 @ 9:40pm
Wow, forget about murder, governmental corruption, the oncoming recession, the cost of gas, and numerous other world problems. Clearly, the most important thing to report (and complain about) is a bunch of college students doing what college students do. I’m amazed.
I hope "Dad" has put chlorine in his gene pool.
04/22/08 @ 8:08pm
Dad, I’m glad you are so omniscient, (that means you can see and hear everything whether you’re there or not), that based on a 5-15 second observation, as you were driving by and dropping off your little angel, you were able to tell everything that was going on. I’m glad we have psuedo-dieties such as yourself here to make sure we all know what’s happening.
In case you couldn’t figure it out, I was being sarcastic. There’s this book, (a paper block shaped thing with writing in it), called a dictionary. I think they have them at WMU but I’m not sure. I’ve only seen the Kalamazoo area on toxic waste alerts, so I can’t say for sure. Anyway, I digress, (that means I got off topic), look up sarcastic to see what the whole contect of this post means. (That means what I meant by it).