Cheers, no tears
Tear gas, 'Riot' declarations absent from Final Four celebrations; police point to shift in strategy since '05
By Kyle Feldscher (Last updated: 04/07/09 11:51pm)The arrival of spring and deep NCAA Tournament runs by the MSU men’s basketball team used to be signs of impending disturbances in East Lansing. However, police and university officials are hoping two celebrations within the last week they deemed as “peaceful” might signal progress in their efforts to improve a reputation tattered by riots in years past.
Despite a total of about 80 arrests following MSU basketball games Saturday and Monday, area police said they are satisfied with the behavior of most revelers who took to the streets to celebrate the team’s Final Four win over Connecticut and championship game loss to North Carolina.
Minimal damage occurred around East Lansing, police said, despite 12 fire-related incidents reported immediately after Monday’s game.
Loud and proud
In the first few minutes after MSU’s win over Connecticut on Saturday, hundreds of fans sprinted from the Cedar Village apartments to the corner of Cedar Street and Waters Edge Drive. The crowd peaked at about 2,000 people.
A similar scene took place Monday night after the team’s loss to North Carolina. About 1,700 people ignored below-freezing temperatures to celebrate a successful Spartans season.
“Our students did behave well, and they, for the most part, were responsible for their actions, which is what we’ve been harping on all along,” Capt. Kim Johnson of the East Lansing Police Department said.
Johnson said approximately 22 percent of those arrested following Saturday’s game were MSU students, a decrease from the 2008 Cedar Fest riot, during which about half of the 52 arrests were MSU students.
“(We are) a little disappointed in the standpoint that, after a good season, some small fires are started for no apparent reason,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the majority of reports he saw from the 12 fire-related incidents were to property less than $50 in value. Johnson said police are still compiling an estimate of total damage.
MSU’s campus also had a relatively quiet night Monday, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said. She said she received one crime report but had not had the chance to review it as of Tuesday afternoon.
A view from the other side
Following Monday’s game, celebrations in Chapel Hill, N.C. led to crowds of more than 45,000 people in the streets, with numerous fires, people climbing street signs and light poles, and beer spraying through the crowd. But despite the much rowdier atmosphere, police made just two arrests.
Johnson explained the discrepancy in arrests as a difference in strategy.
“Every community is responsible for coming up with a plan, and theirs might have been, ‘Let it go and let people do what they do,’” Johnson said.
“Our plan was to hold individuals accountable for their behaviors. … We’re pretty happy with our numbers.”
Planning and strategy
After post-Final Four celebrations in 2005 resulted in a disturbance in which many said police used excessive force, East Lansing police revised its crowd control strategies.
Instead of treating a large gathering as a single problem, police began targeting individual offenders, only arresting those who blatantly break the law.
The change in policy came after a review commission was formed to investigate police actions and make recommendations for future crowd-control efforts.
Among the recommendations was greater use of technology in identifying specific individuals, delaying use of riot gear as long as possible and creating escape routes for injured and arrested individuals.
Roy Muhammad, owner of Detroit-based Courtesy Crowd Control Inc., said
having a sense of the area being protected is key to keeping large crowds under control.
“The thing to do to make things easier is to have a good layout and where you can push the crowd in which direction,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad said making police presence known also is key. He said knowing police are on hand usually is enough to deter people from acting out.
That strategy was in full use this year, with police in and around the crowd in Cedar Village interacting with revelers, snapping photos and arresting offenders.
And the jovial mood of this year’s crowd might have worked in the favor of police, Muhammad said.
Healing a black eye
After making it through a Final Four weekend without a single tear gas canister deployed, administrators and East Lansing officials praised students for their behavior.
MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon issued a statement on the university’s Web site thanking students for celebrating peacefully.
“We have often said that Spartans celebrate with class, and that is exactly how we did it this year,” Simon said.
East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis said the work done by community groups to change the way celebrations occur is paying off.
“Understanding what constitutes responsible behavior and what constitutes otherwise is a very responsible step the city has taken, and it’s been responded to by students,” he said.
Staff writer Jeff Kanan contributed to this report.
Originally Published: 04/07/09 11:34pm
spartyalum
04/07/09 11:44pmhttp://www.dailytarheel.com/multimedia/video/video-franklin-street-the-celebration-1.1646328
chapel hill cops must be way cooler than the ELPD…
Matt
04/08/09 12:47amIf that UNC celebration linked above happens at State we’re on the front page of CNN for the next few days getting bashed by everyone. The 21 arrests was already one of the top headlines on cnnsi.com all day today, which is quite ridiculous in comparison to what happened at North Carolina last night
Josh
04/08/09 8:00amAs of yesterday, there were only 2 arrests related to the UNC riot in the video above. East Lansing Police give us the bad reputation.
Mike
04/08/09 8:09amI tend to agree with everyone here. I got the chance to see cedar fest last year, and the 2005 “riots.” Neither was as outrageous as that chapel hill video.
'90 Alum
04/08/09 8:54amI just watched that video. If that was not reported by the mainstream media, that is ridiculous! If that had happened at G.R and MAC, we would have been crucified. I live in Cleveland and there was a small paragraph about State and nothing on UNC.
Congrats to those who showed restraint and congrats to the men’s b-ball team. GO GREEN GO WHITE
David
04/08/09 10:13amTwo items: a) I would be interested to see how the mercury in the thermometer correlates with the Cedar Fest mayhem and past Final Four “celebrations.”
b) EL had to suffer through annual (sometimes 2X per year) Cedar Fests, with each one getting worse. That is why the ELPD cracks harder. Does UNC riot every year? (Not a rhetorical question…I really don’t know.) If this only happens when they win it all, then I can see how the community would turn a blind eye.
'05 Alum
04/08/09 10:13amWhat happened in Chapel Hill shows how corrupt and oppressive the East Lansing police are. The EL police should be held accountable by the media, almost all of the arrests made in EL are to acquire funding from a revolving door of the “plea and pay” policy and/or the result of a police force that has serious hard on for violating the constitutional rights of students.
YOU JUST DON'T GET IT
04/08/09 10:30amI actually attended UNC-Chapel Hill. IMHO, the real reasons why UNC-Chapel Hill has fewer problems:
1. The student honor code â dating back to 1795 AD â is authentic. Cheaters and other bums are prosecuted by fellow students and kicked out. It is real, it is serious, it happens.
2. Police do NOT tolerate any violent crap from drunken idiots, student or otherwise.
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Leah
04/08/09 10:38amASMSU doesn’t have control over who signs a lease in Cedar Village, nor do they have control over the visitors of residents. It’s not a university owned property.
powder blue hater
04/08/09 10:48am‘YOU JUST DON’T GET IT’ just proved how much they don’t get it and how full of themselves they are (see 1795 AD and their honor code garbage). Lets try ~75% of arrests are non students and there is 10+ years of well documented heavy handed EL police tactics. This person is UNC’s shame.
YOU JUST DON'T GET IT
04/08/09 10:49amAlso — N.C. takes a much-harder stance on crime. Sentences are longer than Michigan’s — twice as long.
As for ASMSU — yeah, I know it is joke. At Carolina, student government is a much-bigger deal.
Easy to make excuses, to blame others.
Lot harder to actually stand up and make something happen. That’s what makes Carolina, a leader. And MSU’s graduation rate (within six years) 67%.
YOU JUST DON'T GET IT
04/08/09 10:52am“ .. Lets try ~75% of arrests are non students and there is 10+ years of well documented heavy handed EL police tactics.”
Dear Sissy-boy,
Like I wrote — blame all your sissy-boy problems on everyone but yourselves.
No wonder GM is failing, with progeny like this.
Res ipsa, fool.
Hmmm
04/08/09 11:21amHere’s a brilliant idea: DON’T BREAK THE LAW.
Imagine, all those police actually arresting people who break the law. Why they gotta be so harsh on your mellow, man?
And who cares whether the NC police were softies last night? MSU has a reputation for crybabies who can’t celebrate like human beings, and whine when the cops come to bring order. Until Cedar Village doesn’t look like a warzone after a sports event, the ELPD is going to keep doing its job.
'05 Alum
04/08/09 11:38amRes ipsa? Progeny? We must have a first year law student on our hands. Interesting stance since there were numerous fires, people climbing trees and causing other property damage in Chapel Hill. This looked like a pretty typical MSU celebration, so much for that “honor code” b.s., only difference, two arrests. Its pretty clear that the only difference is the law enforcement strategy. Also UNC is not Harvard, get a clue, I just looked up their graduation rate, a “stunning” 83%.
it's just so sad
04/08/09 11:53amThe only think UNC is a leader in is the most boring fall sports season (gotta love that ACC football). As for their ‘honor code’, you’re not UVA and you never will be. The reason the UNC cops were so lenient is that there is nothing of worth in Crapel Hill to protect. And thanks for the clarification, I thought UNC was founded in 1795 BC.
GO GREEN
04/08/09 1:04pmWhy are the UNC fans acting like their riot was classy, like some sort of wine and cheese party? As a MSU student, I could care less that you guys riot, you won the championship, so you deserve to have some fun. But just don’t act like your fires in the street and spraying of beer is somehow classy, and whenever anyone else does it its trashy.
YOU JUST DON'T GET IT
04/08/09 1:22pmInteresting stance since there were numerous fires, people climbing trees and causing other property damage in Chapel Hill.
Any police cars turned over?
F NO.
God, MSU has some really stupid undergrads. Good for ESPN.
THEY JUST DON'T GET IT
04/08/09 1:39pmIn reading the last few posts, it has become quite clear ‘YOU JUST DON’T GET IT’ is the cream of the crop among UNC students: misinformed, spiteful, and generally pissed they had to live and go to school in North Carolina. Even winning a national championship couldn’t subdue the shame and anger this poor person feels for having rooted for a ‘tar heel’ (which isn’t an ugly goat thing after all) and a team that uses powder blue so prominently (please take off that ugly sport jacket roy). GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT, COP CARS WERE OVERTURNED 10 YEARS AGO AND HAVEN’T BEEN SINCE THEN. p.s.
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yea...
04/08/09 1:53pmJust so it’s clear… the last time a police car was turned over during a “riot” at MSU was nearly a decade ago. Let’s not start comparing apples to oranges.
Johnston
04/08/09 1:57pmHaha, NASCAR and cigarettes. Classy.
You Just Don’t Get It = NC Trailer Trash
Um....
04/08/09 2:27pmwho cares what someone from UNC says in regards to MSU, East Lansing, Detroit or Michigan??? He obviously cant make any educated comments on the topics since im assuming he has no affiliation with any of it…hes just trying to stir the pot so dont do him the justice of a rebuttal
Rick dees
04/08/09 2:39pmWe need to have a regulated party with musicians and tear gas included. Tickets at $35 per person and each student is allowed to burn something. Also please consider legalizing weed that will keep everyone inside. Also let’s bring back Bilbos and Bagel Fragel. The riots were less frequent when you had these two restaurants. So let’s reveiw riot prevention: weed, fragels and hobbit stix with tomato sauce.
Jake
04/08/09 2:42pmIf you have the recipe for bilbos whole wheat pizza crust please post it here.
Sniff Sniff
04/08/09 5:24pmI smell….BACON!
Townsend
04/08/09 6:16pmAs much as I rag on MSU students for rowdy behavior, I have to say in light of Chapel Hill’s 2 arrest: What’s up with that!? I’m beginning to see MSU Student’s frustration at what is apparently is some of the more Gestapo tactics of ELPD… Even that comment by ELPD’s Capt. Johnson that “(here) we expect accontability,” gives me chills. I really don’t think UNC kids are any different from ours.