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Hardly a quiet riot

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Donning riot gear and deploying tear gas for the first time in more than three decades, police quelled a riot that erupted when the annual Halloween celebration on State Street turned violent.

Bottles thrown from within the estimated 65,000-strong pack of partiers in the direction of police sparked a confrontation that evoked images of the Madison war protests of the 1960s, said Lt. Cameron S. McLay of the Madison Police Department.

“This was the first time since anti-war demonstrations that Madison police have deployed tear gas in a crowd-control situation,” said McLay, who could not recall a Halloween incident on par with the events of Saturday, Nov. 2. “Crowds used to be bigger in recent years, but never did it turn violent toward police as it did Saturday night,” he said after the riot.

By the time the tear gas cleared, 16 people had been arrested and around a dozen State Street businesses’ storefront windows were smashed, leaving students and police among the injured.

Police, however, were not quick to blame University of Wisconsin’s student body, despite its history of actively challenging civil authority.

“By and large, I think most of the people were not problematic, particularly people from Madison,” said Captain Bill Housely of the Madison Police Department. “It’s folks from out of town looking for trouble.”

So what’s next?

Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, said he is confident police presence on State Street will be boosted for future Halloweens.

“I think the police will advocate a crackdown on Halloween,” said Powell, who thinks bars might be in the crosshairs of police looking to control alcohol-fueled crowds before they coalesce by working closely with State Street businesses to examine potential fuses for this year’s melee.

“They’ll probably try to do something that restricts access to bars. Police have been active in getting State Street businesses and others included in the discussion of, ‘How the hell did this happen?’”