Student riot pointless; hurts MSU's reputation

As a permanent resident, I think this is great! All the excitement of students in East Lansing, contained in a students-only area. Really, this stuff is A-OK, so long as nobody comes by and trashes yard or steals my shit.

Or maybe MSU students and their guests need to talk to students at Wisconsin and learn how to have “an event of larger proportions” without throwing bottles, stealing signs, and starting fires.

The police let things go for hours and hours without interference; it was only when things got violent that they moved in.

That’s far preferable to the vile way that the police handled things three years ago.

The police obviously learned from their 2005 misbehavior.

It’s a pity that those acting violently hadn’t learned from the past or from the example of Wisconsin students.

This is why MSU will always be looked at a party school and not taken seriously. Do things like this happen at the University of Michigan? Nope, just idiot Spartans. I suggest using rubber bullets in the face next time. I love State but events like this make me ashamed to have MSU on my resume.

Absolutely disgraceful-
You come to college, spend your parents’ money, in order to do something like this. I hope lifelong success to all of those who think that being involved in something like this is worthwhile. I’m sure you have the courage and character to raise a family too. No one at CedarFest should ever complain about the world they have to raise their kid in——they created it.

I do not feel bad for anyone that was there. People went there for one reason only: to cause trouble. You went there knowing that tear-gassing was inevitable only so you could brag to your friends about how much of a complete dumbass you are. I do not feel bad for you.

“Although no one “side” — either police or students — conducted itself perfectly…”
-What the hell are you talking about? The police showed a lot of restraint and where extremely patient allowing the idiots to gather. They gave them several warnings, and even used smoke bombs to get the message across before launching the tear gas.

Next time I hope they bring rubber bullets.

Thousands of Students had lots of fun- Check

Police Officers got overtime and were able to shoot tear gas at drunk college students, fun- check

People who cleaned up the mess were paid as well or even overtime, otherwise not being able to work- check

Lots of beverages were consumed, equals thousands of tax dollars for the dying state of Michigan-check

Many tickets were written and fines will be paid, good for police and the city- Check

Students who wanted to “experience” tear gas did, fun for them I guess- Check

People who hate riots, or anything involving groups of drunk people, are able to vent their concern for drunk people and people having fun on statenews.com, fun again- check

Statenews, CNN, NY Times get something to publish on a dry news day, good for business- Check

Besides the reputation for MSU being tarnished(and by the way this happens at lots of other schools) did anything really bad come from this night??? Is it really going to effect the overall quality of education here? Are applicants/professors really going to say “geez I better not come to MSU they had a riot there”

And finally, for the permanent residents of East Lansing. How did this effect your night? I highly doubt you live anywhere close enough to the student ghetto for this to disrupt your sleep…..

There were about 50 students arrested, assuming their average ticket will be about $200, I am sure that $10,000 will be enough to cover the stop sign ripped out, litter on the ground, and the police overtime. And if it doesn’t, I am sure that some of the MSU police budget will be subsidized by our rising tuition.

Thanks for coming out

This is directed at “Dude,” who suggests that “without students, East Lansing would be nothing.” Hint: with students of the kind that turned a street party into a riot, East Lansing already IS nothing. I went down to Cedar Village Saturday night upon hearing the noise from my house. I went because I wanted to see for myself what the situation was, rather than trusting the media, the students, or police officials to tell me what happened. I left around 1 pm, before the police began to disperse the crowd, but it was obvious to me where things were headed. The sight I saw was depressing. As a resident, I found myself wishing I lived in the kind of college town that embodies more than the lowest common denominator of student behavior. As a professor, I found myself wondering how I could work up the enthusiasm to return to the classroom, knowing that a certain percentage of students in the class will believe that the behavior exhibited Saturday night was acceptable, perhaps even a necessary part of the college experience.

I went to both Michigan and MSU. Whenever people ask me where my loyalties lie, I tend let people proud to have gotten one of my degrees from MSU, but that Michigan holds the fondest memories.

I just want to thank everyone who went to the riot Saturday and, in the vernacular, acted a fool. I got a call Sunday from a friend in Italy (that’s not even remotely close to being in the United States, mind you) asking me if I’d been in the riot. Your legacy at MSU has already been cemented. A+ work there, kiddos.

Without students East Lansing would be nothing? This is a justification for committing multiple felonies?! Oh, but that’s right no one was doing anything illegal, it was just “THE MAN” trying to keep you down again, right?

I love MSU, I graduated from there and still go back for various events. These occurences are shameful and there are no excuses for them. Drinking a lot is “just having fun”, singing loudly is “just having fun”. Lighting things on fire and assaulting police officers is not “having fun” it is disasterously stupid. How did any of you even get into this university?

When I was there and I worked for student government, I could not have been more appalled to hear of the city’s decision to level Cedar Village. But after this being the fourth incident in less than a year, stemming from that area, I say the sooner they get level the place the better.

Students want to know why East Lansing residents have a “grudge” against them? This is why. Students want to know why they have to pay so much out of pocket for noise violations? This is why. Students want to know why all the tailgating rules were changed a few years ago? This is why.

But by all means, keep “Fighting THE MAN”. At this rate you’ll give city and university officials no choice but to turn campus and East Lansing into something that REALLY DOES resemble a police state.

Goodbye Cedar Village, Hello 2 day welcome week.

Thanks rioting idiots.

I completely agree with this editorial. I was attending MSU during the last “riot” and was outraged by the way that students were treated by police officers. This time, however, it seems that ELPD conducted themselves very well and it was the students who were in the wrong. This is a step in the wrong direction for student-citizen relations in East Lansing.

Now seriously? Are MSU students so self-centered to think that their actions do not affect the rest of East Lansing? Yes, EL is largely students, but how arrogant of you and selfish to not think how your idiocy hurts the area. Your stupidity and pride in NOTHING is wonderful. Yep, you guys sure had the “experience”, good for you. Hope Mommy and Daddy are happy to pay for the lawyers.

Dear Jonny,
Your mentality is WHY you can not attend MSU in the first place. I’m sure “rioting” will look great on your application should you ever attempt to gain entrance to MSU.
Rioters—-you are a disgrace to MSU.

TAB—-love your return comment.

“People were more excited about being a part of something,” Kraig Foreman, 21, an MSU student. – Taken from the Lansing State Journal article “Cedar Fest violence declared a riot” from 4/6/08.

I have lived in this area since 1998. When I first came to East Lansing I remember that people had photo albums of the Munn Field and Gunson Riots. Evverybody older than me that had been there that year seemed to describe them with all of the romantic enthusiasm that one is supposed to have when you come to college. The Munn riots happened because the University decided to ban tailgating there, and what ensued was a reaction by the students to protect their rights, or that’s the way people tried to make it sound. I could have bought that at that time. America wasn’t in a war then, the economy was great, and it seemed somewhat justifiable and noble, at least in a diluted way.

There have plenty of riots since, too many. Sometimes it’s been the students that have anticipated and instigated them, and sometimes the police have overreacted to what happens when the weather finally gets nice and 45,000 students that have been cooped up with their hormones all winter – more or less in prison cell sized dorm rooms or apartments – finally get the chance to get outside. And occasionally the Men’s Basketball team will do something in the NCAA tournament, giving reason to want to celebrate victory or express disappointment in being eliminated. When they won the NCAA in 2000 the students flooded into the streets and the air was more of a celebration that the police wholly allowed. Sometimes it isn’t the students from State that do the most damage in these riots, but students and non-students from other areas around the state that have come here to party and riot following the basketball games, though the students here still get the rap and the bad name. It seems to me that many of the riots that have taken place have always been about someone making a statement, establishing a power line between the students and East Lansing, and a lot of that is because there hasn’t been much meaningful dialogue between the two entities in the past decade. The student population is more of a transient wave that continually sweeps over the city every new school year, and then subsides each summer. There has always been a disconnect between the local government and the student population as far as I can remember. From my point of view, the East Lansing City Council as well as many of the prominent members of the community have approached the students, more or less, with an feeling of disdain and in turn the students reciprocate with indifference – which is ironic because the city depends on the revenue generated by the student population, while the students depend on the city for the goods and services local businesses offer, not to mention for housing, etc. At one time MSU students were active participants in the city’s governing body, they would run for Council seats, vote for City Council members and even had a special representative body to the Council. But over the past decade a series of events has occurred to disenfranchise the student population as the “permanent” residents of East Lansing have tried to shut them out of the halls of power in the community, though the City Council is not fully to blame for this. When Congressman Mike Rogers was still in the State Legislature he authored a bill that required a person to vote in the district that was on their driver’s license. Since it’s somewhat time consuming and expensive to get your ID changed every time you find a new apartment, many students opt to just keep their parent’s address on their license until after they graduate. The result has been that, although many students do live in East Lansing for the majority of the year, they do not participate in local politics due to what essentially amounts to a poll tax, which is not only sad but a form of discrimination. It is time that both sides reach out to each other in order to repair community relations, lest this vicious cycle continue in perpetuity. More students should take the initiative to become active in local politics, and the City of East Lansing should welcome and respect student opinions and ideas instead of fearing and shunning them. And while I am on the point of student involvement, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly chastise all who participated in “Cedar Fest” over the weekend, a small number of people who tarnish not only their names but the names of every student that attends and graduates from Michigan State University. There once was a time when students on this campus came together in large numbers for the noble cause of protesting an unpopular war that this country was in, one that seemed like it would have no end, and sent a steady stream of bodies home in caskets draped with the American flag. Today we find ourselves in a similar situation, we just recently reached 4,000 U.S. soldier deaths in Iraq, and the best thing the students of this University – which has had such a fine tradition of being socially aware by staging legitimate protests – can get together for is nothing better than a pointless orgy of selfish inhibition, desiring only to get drunk and forget about the troubles of life. I don’t blame anybody for wanting to have a good time, for wanting to have a party in the streets on a nice night. I have been there myself in the past and looking back I feel a little foolish some of my actions when things have gotten out of hand. I know how easy it is to just say “fuck it” and take the drop out’s attitude, but I want you all to realize that this type of attitude is not only wrong but harmful to society. Sure, you’re college kids, you’re supposed to party, but “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.” College is also supposed to be a time where you broaden your horizons and become active in the world you inhabit, I know this seems like a cliché but so is participating in a drunken riot. Students, now is the time that you must engage your world in a constructive manner. If you wait for the vestiges of power to be handed over to you in some ceremonious fashion you will be waiting for a long time, but if you become engaged with your community and politics we will all benefit from your youthful idealism and energy. If every student at MSU were to register to vote in East Lansing, and if students ran for Council positions the City would be forced to address student concerns and issues and recognize them as legitimate members of the community, and not just transients or vagrants. And the power you gain will reach beyond your local community, to state and national levels. The process is hard, politics is not an easy game and it’s often discouraging when change fails to happen, but you must never give up… unless you want the terrorists to win.

I think this article is spot on. I cannot agree more with the fact rioting has become to students the quintissenial MSU experience. As a MSU graduate and witness to the 2005 riots, I can’t blame the current MSU students for thinking like they do and wanting to incite riots, because I had much the same mindset back then. But as a graduate, you really do start to see how pointless and unnecessary the rioting is.

The one thing this editorial dosn’t get at is how to solve the inevitability of these riots. Because, as it points out, rioting has become the mindset, and endgame, of any sizable social gathering at MSU.

My only thought is to ban any type of large social gather like Cedar Fest for MANY years to come. Perhaps that way, the rioting will become a thing of the past, and hopefully will phase out of the students’ mindsets. But until then, current and incoming MSU students who weren’t apart of MSU’s “glory days” of 1999, 2000, and to lesser extents, 2005 and 2008, will always wonder and crave the MSU riot experience. This combined with the agressive prosecution of the events, i.e. the police using picture and video evidence to lead to explusions, might also help.

Justin,

Here is what you need to realized about 2005. I looked at the films that were paraded around and even spammed on the Internet that was supposed to document “police brutality” against students. What did I see? I saw students outside in the street, in some cases antagonizing police officers (many of whom had been assaulted with thrown objects) OVER AN HOUR AFTER the ELPD made an announcement for the crowd to disperse. So let’s put our ELPD Chief hat on and explain to everyone how to make a crowd disperse after officers are being plummeted with rockes, empty beer bottles, musket balls, and other dangerous objects.

2008, seems even worse, but I can’t comment on that like I can for 2005 (and don’t even get me started on 2003 when rioting students ran-sacked the library and set bushes on fire in the front lawn, I unfortunately had a front row seat for that one).

Should students be allowed to have fun? Yes. Should they be allowed to drink? Yes. Should the be allowed to scream, yell, cheer, sing, etc? Absolutely. That is fun on any other night in East Lansing. Unfortunately people like you try to justify the rules changing during Cedar Fest where blocking public roads, lighting things on fire, and assaulting cops is “just having fun”.

You want to arrest individuals. Send in some police officers into the crowd to do it. But what is your response when dozens of students hurl objects at him/her that threaten their well being? Well, we can’t use tear gas anymore, I guess we should just let the kids keep “having fun”, right? You speak as if the ELPD enjoys launching tear gas into crowds…believe me, they don’t.

Oh great, you kids riot, drink too much and according to Dan, the terrist are going to win because of your immature actions. Thanks alot rioting MSU (and others) for letting them win. Might as well pack it all up, bring the boys/girls home and call it a day in the the Middle East now that we have lost. All because of you guys drank too much and wanted to mix it up with the cops. How did the terrorist get all the beer into EL without getting nailed. Christ I can’t even get a joint over from Canada without worrying.

Thank you State News! For the first time in a couple of months, I couldn’t agree with you any more on this article.

Reading the accounts, it really does sound like the Police acted in the best manner they could have. It was unfortunate it had to result in tear gas, but it appears that they waited until it was absolutely necessary.

I am a proud graduate of MSU.. I get up there every once in a while. Every time, I notice the change in the campus, the city. I’m sure local politics change, just as students, staff, and officials change. None of this change has anything to do with the decisions the young people — MSU students or not — made last weekend. In the 10+ years since I graduated, I’ve heard the occasional unsavory news story about MSU, but this is the first time I was truly embarrassed. Not just as an alum, but as a resident of this state, a fellow human being. No one is entitled to behave like this. I don’t care where you go to school, where you are from, what happened last year, or what your neighbors are doing. The luxury of technology — and it’s being used not only to encourage this behavior — but to document it and be entertained? The opportunity for a college education — and this is how time is spent? Having fun at the expense of harming others and destroying property? A weekend night without any responsibilities but to enjoy yourself — spent being part of a mob standing around taunting police? I do expect more from anyone old enough to be there, and anyone with these opportunities. Are these the same people joining the workforce very soon, travelling abroad, voting? This world needs these people to make better decisions — and think for themselves. This is not the college experience — there is no excuse for this.

I’ve been reading a lot of the posts from all of the different articles pertaining to Cedarfest, and here are my thoughts.

Being on the front page of newspapers and on the news is bad for MSU...it doesn’t help with sports recruiting, monetary donations, incoming freshman recruiting, grant money from the state, having world renowned profs come here, or with companies wanting to give students internships/jobs after graduation. All of these things will have negative impacts on the University, not to mention TUITION.

For people to say that we only have our party reputation and that is why people come here? There are people who are proud to go here that got a Supply Chain Management or Packaging, or Agricultural degree (all ranked #1 in nation), or teaching…..the list is long, and these are the things we should be concentrating on being recognized for, not on partying…and I think that the best thing about MSU grads is that we’re competant, but not full of ourselves, and yes we do know how to have a good time….that is one thing that people always get so annoyed with at U of M, is how full of it they are.

and for some of the people and their spelling in these blogs, I understand there isn’t a spell check, but people are using the wrong versions of to, too, and two, or there, they’re, and their…..it is definitely a good thing that minimum wage has increased recently, because anyone with spelling like that on a resume won’t be getting hired by anyone, except maybe The King, or Ronald McDonald.

also….can people stop saying that the police are to blame for this riot? Can anyone give me a logical explanation as to why the cops would want a riot to break out? So they can use their use toys? That is BS. It makes them look bad to have riots during their service….it makes them look like they don’t have any control and can’t maintain order in the city. Do I think the police are perfect? No, but c’mon…no one wants crap like this to happen on their watch.

To TAB:

I agree wholeheartedly with you. Why? I was asked the following question in an interview on Monday: “Were you a part of the Cedar Fest riot on Saturday night?” It made me cringe to hear that question come toward me. I am serious that this rioting, civil disturbance, etc. needs to stop. I would hate to be the one being asked or even asking the question if I or someone else was involved in any of the riots on campus. Throwing bottles, glass, other projectiles, even God forbid a stop sign at the police or anyone is totally unacceptable.

Do I agree with suspensions from all state-funded schools for two years? YOU BET I DO! Why do I say that? Well, you are representing the university/college that you attend and these riots damage the reputation of our great institution. Why else do employers ask the questions that I mentioned earlier? I love this place more than anyone would know, but it is depressing to see this take place. If I had a say, you should be permanently banned from MSU or whatever university you attended. That will make you wake up and smell the coffee.

Learn to behave like adults. If you do, more people will respect you, especially permanent residents of East Lansing.

I have one question to ask everyone: What was the point of throwing stuff at police, receiving tear gas and damaging the reputation of MSU?

How about for community service they get to clean the Red Cedar and the trashed up areas of East Lansing? That would be a great way to teach a lesson.