NEWS
Officials discuss Halloween
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Also by Aubre Andrus:
- UW prepares for Halloween (October 20, 2005)
- City prepares for Halloween (October 20, 2005)
- In-Depth: State Street's balancing act (September 1, 2005)
- In-Depth: Destination: class (November 3, 2005)
Related Stories:
- Weekend sees halfhearted Halloween celebration (October 28, 2002)
- MPD planning for Halloween crowd on Oct. 31 (October 8, 2002)
- ASM hears ideas about best ways to improve celebration (November 18, 2004)
- Officials prepare for next Halloween (May 7, 2003)
- Police 'will not take sole ownership' for Halloween Riot (December 6, 2002)
by Aubre Andrus
Friday, September 24, 2004
In a continued effort to prepare for Madison’s Halloween celebration, the Associated Students of Madison and the Madison Police Department discussed crowd-control activities and proposed safety measures at a Downtown Coordinating Committee meeting Thursday night.
Matt Rink, co-chair of ASM’s Halloween 2004 Campaign, said he is working on planning events for Halloween weekend during both the day and night in hopes of keeping crowds under control.
“We are looking into launching a sort of political campaign to protect our campus and to police our friends and make sure they don’t get out of line,” Rink said. “We want to make sure no one else ruins Halloween for us.”
Rink said he is also looking into setting up two food courts on State Street to sell food at a reduced cost. The food courts would be located at Library Mall and at the intersection of Gorham and State Streets. After midnight, the food will cost no more than $1, he said.
“Low-priced food will help counter the negative effects of drinking,” Rink said, adding the location of the two food courts would also spread out the usual State Street congestion.
ASM has been working with the Greater State Street Business Association to allow children to trick-or-treat on State Street with their families during the day. Hayrides will also be running down Langdon Street and State Street, according to Rink.
Rink asked fraternities and sororities on campus for assistance with the family events.
“The Greek System has been very helpful,” he said.
Even with efforts to make Halloween safe, Madison Police Department Captain Luis Yudice expressed his concern during the meeting over the riots that have occurred in previous years.
“We want to set a tone for the event,” Yudice said. “We want to be able to welcome people but also discourage people from engaging in unlawful conduct.”
According to Yudice, the Madison Police Department will increase the number of officers and introduce horses on State Street. The police will also focus on reacting faster, but not overreacting to any problems that may occur, he added.
“The problem we see is a lot of people go to house parties early on and then around 10 [p.m.] we see streams of people coming onto State Street from all directions, like streams flowing into a river,” Yudice said.
Although there was extensive property damage last year, no policemen or students were injured, Yudice added.
The police department plans on three nights of partying and also plans on enforcing a designated ending time each night.
Although a designated ending time will be enforced, on Saturday night partiers will turn their clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings Time, allowing bars to stay open until 3:30 a.m. instead of the normal 2:30 a.m.
Yudice acknowledged that the presence of large amounts of alcohol, a large number of people, and the sense of anonymity provided by Halloween can be a dangerous combination.
“The bottom line is this: it’s still an extremely risky event,” Yudice said.
Anonymous (November 2, 2004 @ 7:12pm):
Just wanted to add how i feel madison handled halloween 2004 horribly. In almost all the cases i witnessed, the police- mainly the rioit police only provoked students. Their liberal use of tear gas and maze only added to the situation.... I know im not alone here, but i think for just one day a year, the police can ask calmly and quietly to leave the streets.. Doing this in a matter that respects the students and their friends gives no one a reason to be angry. Instead of the pointless violence, i just dont understand why the county cant respect people out past 2:30. They only knew that tear gasing and terrorizing would create way more of a problem than it would stop. Madison gets such a bad reputation, even though its a great city, mainly because of the incompatience of those incharge. For once, i would just like to see those incharge act respectiably..... I was out there.. arrested after the rioit police knocked down a drunk friend and i tried to pick him up and get him out of the line of maze. I got a disorderly conduct ticket, not just an ordiance but this ones in criminal court.. Yes i thought it was stupid that people were lighting stuff on fire, but hell if everyone was left alone and allowed to dance in the streets than none of this crap would have happened, or if those idioits in charge could make an understanding plan for only night out of the year..... Something has to change, i just dont understand how the county can believe that pushing, tear gasing and mazing a group of 75,000 drunken college kids can do anything but create an even larger problem.
