Still miffed

by Badger Herald Editorial Board

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 22:59

The vast majority of the students on the University of Wisconsin campus were not here five years ago. Many were not even in Wisconsin. That being the case, it is understandable that the student body does not remember certain things that happened five years ago. Or didn’t happen five years ago.

On Saturday, May 3, 2003, an estimated crowd of 30-35,000 people celebrated the annual Mifflin Street Block Party. According to a Badger Herald news report two days later, “students milled on the sidewalks and street with open containers of alcoholic beverages.” The Madison Police Department arrested seven people that day, all in relation to disorderly conduct or battery. The year before, at a party with a considerably smaller estimated crowd size, they arrested only two. These years were not anomalies. Even at the notorious ‘96 party, which devolved into a riot, police made only eight arrests, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Fast-forward to 2008. The MPD arrested a whopping 438 people Saturday, topping their previous high for the fifth year in a row. It is a trend that is wholly unacceptable, and one that unfortunately has gone largely unnoticed by UW students.

What’s changed? Certainly, if the crowd size has been increasing in proportion to the arrest numbers, our concerns would be statistically misguided. But in fact, the opposite holds true. Crowd size has been on the decline since 2003. Police estimates for Saturday’s block party varied between 6,000 and 10,000 attendees.

Conversely, we would expect arrest totals to rise if the behavior of attendees has deteriorated. But there is little evidence of any kind to suggest that is the case. According to an MPD incident report from this weekend, the crowd was “mostly good-natured” and there were no major incidents. “The lion’s share” of the arrests were for alcohol-related offenses, the MPD reports.

That’s code, of course, for strict enforcement of a law against possessing open intoxicants on public streets. But whatever utility society gains from laws against open intoxicants seems to be rendered moot by the particular circumstances of a block party in a student-dominated residential neighborhood. It would be difficult to find a single person (resident or nonresident) in the immediate vicinity of the block party Saturday who did not tacitly consent to be in the presence of open intoxicants.

The police seemed to understand this in 2003; it is unfortunate that just a few years later — with no major incidents to trigger such a drastic policy change — they now so aggressively arrest, ticket and fine students for what is a textbook example of a victimless crime.

For more than a decade, Ald. Mike Verveer, whose District 4 includes Mifflin Street, has been a champion for a commonsense, relaxed policy for policing the event. After Saturday’s debacle, Mr. Verveer floated the idea of securing a sponsor for the block party in future years, indicating he would support an initiative similar to what the city has done to the Halloween festivities, provided no one charges admission for access to Mifflin Street.

The idea, as we understand it, seems to be that a sponsor could lend some legitimacy to the event (as it exists now, nobody steps up to apply for a block permit, thus making it an event not officially recognized by the city). The sponsor would organize appropriate security measures with the city and be accountable for any liability that could result. And the city’s official acknowledgement of a block party would pave the way for open intoxicants on the street.

We see no reason to object to a private sponsor stepping forward and taking some control in future years. If Mr. Verveer can use his influence to that end, we offer our tentative support. We do not, however, think securing a sponsor should be a prerequisite for relaxed enforcement of the law.

What no one wants to see happen is for this event to take a turn for the worse. A strong police presence will help guard against a repeat of 1996, but strict police enforcement of petty violations will not.

The spike in arrests began at the 2004 block party, about a year after Mayor Dave Cieslewicz took office and only weeks after Noble Wray assumed the position of acting police chief. It seems reasonable to conclude at least one of these two men is the main culprit. City officials owe students an explanation for this odious trend.