H 78°, L 57° | Tomorrow: 
H 67°, L 50°
University of Wisconsin Police responded to calls on two consecutive nights as Madison’s winter wonderland was transformed into a massive snowball fight outside Sellery and Ogg Halls.
After approximately 200 UW students, comprised primarily of residents from Sellery and Ogg, slung snow across Dayton Street late Monday night, they battled again on Tuesday.
A Tuesday Facebook event advertising the second fight drew a much larger and less cooperative crowd than on Monday. Police tried multiple times to prevent the unresponsive combatants from crossing the street to attack each other with snowballs.
At around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, a Big Ten Network semi-truck was directed to block the road, pushing back several participants and allowing police to disperse the crowd.
“It’s unsafe for everyone that’s around here for them to come out here on subsequent nights,” UWPD Sgt. Ruth Ewing said. “It is a waste of our time when trying to be productive to stop other things that are going on.”
It was unclear if any citations were distributed on Tuesday, but some house fellows from Ogg were threatening students with write-ups from University Housing.
According to UWPD Sgt. Jason Whitney, the Monday blizzard barrage caused complaints as well, resulting in the arrest of one UW student who received an underage drinking citation.
“One person ended up getting cited for underage drinking based on his aggressive behavior, and there were no injuries,” Whitney said. “He was engaged in the snowball fighting, but that was not the reason he received the citation.”
According to Whitney, having a snowball fight is legal in Wisconsin, but when snowballs are thrown at property or cars in the road, citations can be written. It was complaints of these illegal actions that triggered the police response.
“There was a point where a cab drove by and a bunch of people threw snowballs at it,” UW sophomore Konrad Krebs said. “The cabbie wasn’t pleased and got out to chase an individual into the Ogg yard.”
Krebs said it was incidents like these which resulted in Monday’s attempt by UWPD to block off Dayton Street to prevent more cars from being hit by the onslaught of snowballs.
Beside the complaints and single arrest, there was also some hostility between members of the two residence halls involved in both fights.
UW sophomore Bill Buecksler recalls patrons of Ogg chanting “norovirus,” in reference to the recent outbreak of the illness that likely started in Sellery.
Other than the complaints and the single arrest, Monday’s fight, which was “bigger than the Battle at Thermopylae,” according to Buecksler, did not get too out of hand for how big it was. However, Tuesday’s fight, which was bigger and more violent, causing more reason for concern.
Whitney said Tuesday afternoon if Monday night’s events happen again, UWPD would have to get University Housing and the Offices of the Dean of Students involved. Whitney was not in the office Tuesday night.
The organizer of the Facebook event, which had 601 confirmed guests, is attempting to sell shirts commemorating the battle.
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Your numbers are off. There were well over 200 people there, and there are photographs to prove it.
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�It is a waste of our time when trying to be productive to stop other things that are going on.�
Agreed. So don’t.
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Oh man, what an awesome night to be in the southeast res halls. Being out there, slinging snow and forgetting all about finals- that’s what I want more of from college.
It sucks that we wasted almost an hour of at least six UWPD officers’ time, but these things happen. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t tear gas us.
It was good to see people telling others not to hit the cops or the cars. Smart move so as to not give the cops any reason to beat the shit out of you.
But overall, only 200 people? No way, more than that, man. Were you even there?
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Wow. MAPD hard at work again. I really hate snowball fights and think the law should step in to put an end to them. Rediculous.
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Haha! Go Underclassmen! Wish we had pulled that off.
-Super Senior
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I think this is overall harmless, but (of course) there are a few children who ruin it for the rest. Still, I can’t help but laugh at this—
“The cabbie wasn’t pleased and got out to chase an individual into the Ogg yard.”
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It’s a snowball fight… police should stop other things, like crime.
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I drove by this event and there had to be at least 6 or 7 cop cars there… maybe a few of those should of been patrolling to stop homicides, bar fights, and things that cops are actually supposed to protect the public from…
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If it’s legal, why did they make us stop? If they were worried about cars, then block off the road, but you can’t stop us from doing a legal activity.
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never knew a consensual snowball fight would cause such a hullabaloo. maybe we should worry about things that matter, instead of running around funpolicing.
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�It�s unsafe for everyone that�s around here for them to come out here on subsequent nights,� UWPD Sgt. Ruth Ewing said. �It is a waste of our time when trying to be productive to stop other things that are going on.�
THEN FIND SOMETHING BETTER TO DO, LIKE DEVOTE MORE POLICE RESOURCES TO CATCHING THE MURDERS RUNNING AROUND MADISON!
the mpd needs a primer in resource management. when you are using your resources for one thing, you cannot use it for another.
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That was great, and yet again the Madison Police are trying to ruin a good thing. They were even telling us they had “better things to do,” THEN GO DO IT!
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that sounds awesome, way to go
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i love how the city of madison has last time i checked 1 person to address the gang issues in the city, but we can easily find 6 cops to stop a snowball fight.
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Sorry to the badger herald reporter that I hit. It was just a bad throw, and I’m sorry.
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While it is legal to have a snowball fight the results are typically not (throwing at cars, getting physical).
Once again everyone thinks that UWPD and the MPD are not doing their jobs by policing this event. The fact that they had to block off the road so cars weren’t pelted with snowballs says something. If it wasn’t occurring ACROSS a street then I doubt the police would’ve become involved.
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The cops even said it was a waste of their time, so why the hell were they there?
Maybe next time they’ll have to call in a SWAT team, or even Dog
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Take it easy PO PO…. Same crap different situation…. maybe they could have the “party police” go out and issue citations, while they are wasting more money and time - And to think that they wasted so many squad cars when they could have been out patroling or at the very least doing what they usually do - nap time anyone?
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As an alumnus this story brought a smile to my heart. It is sad to see the UWPD has not lightened up one bit since my tenure in Madison.
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The police were merely responding to complaints called in against the snowball throwers, which they are required to respond to and address.
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Fine, well find someplace seculded for the next one then if the cops are going to spaz about it.
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hey, Michigan tech set the record for largest snowball fight at 9000 people, who says we try to beat that?
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impeding traffic and throwing snowballs at moving vehicles is not a legal activity, they were there to address those issues, and a few people always ruin all the fun for the majority. Sounds like all but one were able to have a good time before it got carried away.
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The cops here are a joke. Why don’t they go deal with the real crime like OH I DON’T KNOW THE HOMICIDES ETC?!
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It’s sad the the police can’t remember that they were young once and threw snow balls at friends and what not. Is this what happens when you get old? Is old where fun goes to die? single tear……
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GOD FORBID WE GET HIT IN THE FACE WITH SNOW!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Ok guys we get it. you had a snowball fight. You’re the coolest people ever. When we have to direct all of our police force to help a bunch of stupid kids not get killed, that’s when we have homicides outside the Crave.
I fully support the police in this situation. Think about what you guys would all be saying if something bad actually happened and the police hadn’t been there? Grow up and realize they are doing their job. If you guys still think they shouldn’t have been there - Move to Cuba.
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I am glad to know that 911 dispatch center can send cops out to stop a fight. That really makes me feel safe. However, they can’t send police out to people being murdered like Zimmerman? This city has their priorities messed up. It appears as though they are more worried about a snow ball fight which is perfectly legal. Rather than people calling 911 to stop real crime like assaults, beatings, muggings, murders, etc…
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The record for a snowball fight (according to Guinness World Records), is around 3,475. There is already a facebook group planning a snowball fight after winter break and they plan to have 4,000 people.
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Oh my GOD, you guys, there were cars getting SNOWBALLS thrown at them?!? Snowballs are like bullets, motherfuckers. I hope the police were wearing Kevlar. I bet if you threw a snowball at 95 miles per hour and packed it soooo tight that it didn’t disintegrate into white fluff on impact, there’s a whole 2% chance it might break a window or something. You heathen freshmen should be ashamed of yourselves.
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That’s just stupid. unfortunately, it’s not just this campus where people are completely over the line PC, it’s every campus across the country. The universities are so concerned about offending one person that has no intelligence or sense of humor at all that they take it out on everybody else that just wants to have some fun every now and again. To anybody that thinks it was justifiable to bring police, I want you to know that you are bringing down our society with your bullshit and should just walk the other way when you see people doing something fun that for some unknown reason you think is offensive.
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That’s just stupid. unfortunately, it’s not just this campus where people are completely over the line PC, it’s every campus across the country. The universities are so concerned about offending one person that has no intelligence or sense of humor at all that they take it out on everybody else that just wants to have some fun every now and again. To anybody that thinks it was justifiable to bring police, I want you to know that you are bringing down our society with your crap and should just walk the other way when you see people doing something fun that for some unknown reason you think is offensive.
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what a joke. pretty immature if you ask me…. screaming profanities and throwing snowballs. way to represent the state of Wisconsin well. If you wanna do that, do it away from a street so the saftey of drivers on the road isnt threatened
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protect the automobiles!
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The UW Police were there due to calls complaining about the pedestrians in the street. The calls came to the UW Police dispatch, not the Dane County 911 center. It was UW Police who responded, not Madison Police. UW Police are not investigating any murders and currently only have 1 robbery unsolved they are still working on. Would you rather have them not show up when people call for small things? Police don’t get into situations with 200 (or more) people with one officer to monitor things. its not safe for them, and nor should they have to. Had the students stayed out of the road, they most likely wouldn’t have been there at all. Grow up or move back to Bum*#&# Wi where you came from.