The Badger Herald

OPINION & EDITORIAL

For Halloween festival, end justifies the means in city’s eyes

Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.

Also by Robert S. Hunger:

Sen. McCarthy not just another peace freak hallucination (December 14, 2005)
Robertson goes off deep end again (January 15, 2006)
Political freedom necessary in university classrooms (January 23, 2006)
Debunking myth of Madison liberalism (September 1, 2005)
Public financing of elections wrong (January 31, 2006)

by Robert S. Hunger

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

When Madison groggily woke up Sunday morning, there was no news footage of rioters breaking windows, no hastily constructed bonfires burning out of control and no large scale fights. What the city did see, however, were police blinding revelers with pepper spray, blockading bar exits and permitting their equestrian friends to cover State Street with their ungodly smelling excrement.

Simply put, the Madison Police Department — in conjunction with virtually every law enforcement agency this side of the Louisiana Purchase — terribly overreacted. And rather than apologizing to partygoers for police actions reminiscent of the Madison of yesteryear, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz took a page from "The Prince" and hinted at declaring marshal law for next year's celebration, all the while congratulating the police on a job well done.

It's a good thing Mr. Cieslewicz was not on State Street anytime after 1:30, for had he been present he would have had the bruises and cuts to prove it. Had Mayor Dave asked a random police officer where he could get some late night food, he would have been beaten with batons, but not the kind that sparkle in Memorial Day parades. Had Mayor Dave lived on State Street, he would have been refused entry. And even better yet, had Mayor Dave attempted to save a helpless soul from being trampled by one of the many horses charging down the street, the Madison Police Department would have thanked him with a big serving of pepper spray to the face.

In planning a response to the Halloween festivities, Mayor Dave, Police Chief Noble Wray and other city officials appeared convinced of the imminence of a Saturday night riot. It was this mindset that allowed police to act without any fear of reprisal and deliver punishments that far outweighed the crime. Apparently the city conveniently forgot that Halloweens prior to 2002 were widely peaceful and went along without any major controversy.

Yes, the crowd mocked the police and chanted "We want tear gas!" But does this truly justify the use of force on behalf of the police department? Should police not be held to a higher standard than the average citizen? The crowd was chanting, not looting. The slogans that covered State Street for a short while came from a combination of the liberal use of tear gas over the past several years and the department's pre-Halloween threats to deal with the revelers in kind.

And yes, projectiles were hurled at police. However, the objects flying through the air were not Molotov cocktails nor were they even glass bottles. Instead, revelers threw plastic cups and ice cubes at the over-zealous cops, and the officers' response would put even Hammurabi to shame.

While police officers employed all means necessary to disperse the non-violent crowd on State Street, they took the opposite approach and barricaded the doors of bars, preventing any bargoer from leaving the establishment. This was obviously an effort to control the number of individuals on State Street itself, but it is wholly inappropriate. The state should have allowed bars to stay open all night; that way there would not be a rapid influx of drunk partiers to State Street and the cops would not fall under such strict scrutiny.

The city's decision to forcibly prevent individuals from leaving bars sums up where the city's view on Halloween in Madison truly lies: the end justifies the means. The city was willing to do virtually everything in their power to prevent windows from being broken, bonfires from being started, and fights from being provoked. As we all know, the police took a preemptive strike at the revelers, and none of their fears materialized. But then again, we haven't exactly found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

To be fair, Friday night and Saturday night prior to 2 o'clock, the police acted in a responsible manner. Arresting individuals for public intoxication and urination or for sporting glass beer bottles is well within their power and elicits few complaints.

However, when police act in an unrelenting and brutal fashion to prevent a riot is when the line needs to be drawn, and Mayor Dave not only toed the line, he obliterated it. It is disappointing that a mayor who has championed many critical causes has modeled himself after Bill Dyke and Richard J. Daley rather than Paul Soglin.

Robert S. Hunger (rhunger@badgerherald.com) is the editorial page content editor and is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.

Feedback

Show all comments

Hide anonymous comments

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 8:05am):

Did you notice that Hizzoner is so eager to shut down the bars and ban smoking, but does nothing about rising rents that drive local merchants out and instead bring in more and more sandwich shops and Chipotle, which despite being deliicious is not open past 11 because parent company McDonalds is "family-friendly?"

Party rankings + Mifflin + Halloween make the Cieslewicz-Wiley nerd squad angry. While they aren't antiabortion right-wing nutjobs, they do see the school's reputation as a party school as a detriment to their needs, whether it is to bring in big businesses to open stores or big business to give the engineering department research grants. The 40,000 students are simply tuition buckets. Perhaps Mr. Cieslewicz would be happier running Salt Lake City and Mr. Wiley should marry Susan Crowley and take over BYU.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 12:13pm):

I am a UW-Madison Alumni and I find it extremely disappointing that Halloween has turned into this. Some of my greatest memories of that town is how much "crazy" fun you could have but as long as you were respectful you didn't get in trouble. Why do others who are not UW-students have to come and ruin it for others. What is wrong with people these days? These are not Madison students who are causing problems it those who travel to be apart of this wonderful school for the weekend. Funny thing is those of us who are students were smart enough to get in so we are smart enough to not cause trouble. The Madison police were always one of the calmest police I know, accept when I got caught with my fake ID but even then they just gave me a slap on the wrist. I guess my point being is all you non-Madison students, stop coming to OUR school and ruining all the fun. Come and enjoy but don't be sh-t heads about it!

Sara Gittings (November 1, 2005 @ 1:13pm):

I'd like to see some pictures or some genuine accounts of police brutality. Show me one person who was sent to the hospital on account of being cracked in their head with a baton, and not as a result of being a fall-around drunk idiot. What people, meaning this writer and apparhently the entire editorial board, fail to recognize is the hypocrisy in these criticisms of the mayor and the Madison Police Department. We (mainly students I might add) elected Mayor Dave to do the job. He governs this city, and represents the people's best interests. When an event based solely around regulating huge crowds of intoxicated morons carries a tab of over $350,000, no it is not a success. So many complain of the mayor being anti-business, but maybe one should stop and think that taking measures to prevent property damage to actually save the community tax dollars and public dignity is a good thing for the city. Granted, many students and obviously out-of-towners do not spend much time worrying over the fate of the City of Madison. Hey, we're only here because of the university, and if I want to get drunk and start a bonfire in a city garbage can, no one can tell me I can't. Besides, it's not my garbage can. Right?
On the subject of police going above and beyond reasonable force, since when is it okay to throw ANYTHING at a police officer, or throw punches at a horse? Way to further slap residents (and taxpayers) in the face, assaulting those who are trained to protect you even when you're being a drunk a-hole.
The excuses offered by this writer for attendees of the event on Saturday are pretty shallow and lack any comprehension of what Halloween is--an event that has gotten out of hand, not because of brutal police or a stick-in-the-mud mayor, but because so many students and thier guests feel that anything goes when more than too much alcohol is involved. It sounds like people need to own up to what they do, instead of pointing the finger at those who try to hold them rightfully accountable. Just because things didn't go as bad as they have, or could have, doesn't prove that students are being any more careful. It shows that planning on the part of the City of Madison to prevent a repeat of 2002 was more than appropriate for the situation.
But if you disagree and insist on the event going on as it has, maybe you should start paying for it. Charge a cover at every State Street entrance, require I.D., or employ a volunteer police force to regulate irresponsible idiots. (Yeah, I didn't think so). Or maybe we can just eliminate the regulation all together and see how many sobered up students want to climb over broken glass and trash for their hangover burrito on Sunday afternoon.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 1:15pm):

Damn, you hit everything on the head. The police jumped the gun this year and of course the city justifies their actions no matter what. I especially agree with the suggested no bar-time policy on Saturday night. Without the massive congregation filing out of the bars at the same time, crowd control would be considerably easier. Not to mention, animosity toward the cops would be reduced because people would not be forcibly shoved off of State Street. People could leave as they please, and I believe this could make the event a whole lot more peaceful for revelers and for the police. The growing tension every year between the police and Halloween partiers needs to be reduced. Something different has to be done to stop this or next year's celebration will have an identical outcome or worse.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 2:30pm):

"Marshal law"? Come on Badger Herald, you're better than this.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 3:01pm):

Anonymous #2:

I (also the author of the first comment) am also an alumnus who attended this weekends festivities. You are missing the point. Yes, many from out of town are unruly, but the institutional problem here is a mayor that does not recognize the history of the traditions that have evolved in Madison over the past 30 years. Mifflin and Haloween evolved out of the spirit of the 1960's. Now, some people (including the founders of this paper!) would like to forget those years, but to the city of Madison those times were formative in the progressive culture that this place is so famous for. Instead, Hizzoner wants to shut down State Street to destroy the tradition and the REPUTATION OF MADISON. This is also why Mifflin was originally scheduled last year at a date when it would conflict with exams.

Chancellor Wiley and Mayor Cieslewicz have repeatedly wished that the "binge drinking culture" of the school would go away, and that state street would be safe for chain stores, the oveture center (which students cannot afford to patronize) and nothing that would inflate the social reputation of the University. Unfortunatley, the appeal of a world class education COMBINED WITH the "party" culture of Madison is exactly why so many people of high calibre come to this place. The same "drunken morons" that Hizzoner and Wiley E. Coyote would want to get rid of happen to be future ALUMNI DONORS and VISITORS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THE LOCAL ECONOMY.

Next time I get a solicitation from the University, I'm going to wipe my butt with it until the Powers that Be recognize that there is a reason that I enjoyed my time here, and if they destroy the culture that made Madison so memorable for me, why would I want to support them?

Andrew Feinberg
Class of 2005

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 3:07pm):

Great article, rob.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 3:40pm):

The important thing is that nobody got hurt. If one person had been trampled by the mob or store front windows broken in and looted the townspeople would be in fits as to why the police didn't do anything.

All my run-ins with the police have been peaceful and for the most part they have a good sense of humor. Just don't expect them to be officer friendly when the shit's hitting the fan, get out of their way and let them do their jobs. If you're in a mob and chanting "We want tear gas" and throwing things at the police you're a complete idiot and you deserve the tear gas.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 4:28pm):

Fortunately now all the non-UW students will stay away from Madison as I am sure they all read the UW school newspaper.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 7:07pm):

Why is the cost of policing this weekend constantly cited as proof that Halloween in Madison is a failure? By that definition, the Halloween was a failure before it even started, since those police had already been allocated. Also, even if the money is spent for a "public drunk" as the mayor called it, so what? It is a once in a year event, that I would bet brings more money into the city than it costs. There were an estimated 100,000 people on state street and chances are good they spent much more than $3.50 a person on food and drink this weekend.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 7:43pm):

I don't understand I was at state street, and in Madi dras, u don't see pepper spray and riot gear toting police.

Anonymous (November 1, 2005 @ 8:09pm):

This is mostly in response to the comments made by Miss Gittings. True, Halloween has always caused problems because of the influx of out-of towners coming to raise hell. It cost tax payers a hell of a lot of money and blah blah blah. But there's definitely a line in police dealing with the out of control drunks who are actually causing the problem. However, I think we all saw on the news how police were spraying whoever was on the streets with pepper spray. Some were innocent bystanders who happened to be just walking home to a friend's apartment or were walking away and BAM got sprayed. Keep in mind that not everyone on state street on Halloween is a so-called drunken idiot hell bent on causing a riot. True, a police officer doesn't deserve to have anything thrown at them and the poor horses being forced to be a part of the event don't deserve abuse. But I really didn't hear about horses getting punched. And does throwing an ice cube really deserve pepper? Does chanting a stupid chant because you're drunk but not breaking the law in anywar deserve pepper spray? I think Rob fully understands Halloween causes problems and does not say the problems are caused by city officials. The problems adressed in the article are about finding a balance between apropriate bar time, how much police force is needed to control the crowd but not brutalize innocent bystanders, and how to deal with an overcrowded college town on the drunkest two nights of the year. I don't know about you but I don't want to be caught in the cross fire of pepper spray for being in the wrong place at the wrong time or get cracked across the back with a club. Have you read the shout-outs?