For years, Halloween on State Street has been a tradition. We are endlessly entertained by each other’s costumes, from drunken guys in thongs hanging on branches to a guy dressed up as Mary Katherine Gallagher from “Superstar” making out with a tree. We are more excited about Halloween on our campus then we were at the age of seven trick-or-treating. But this Saturday night, Halloween on State Street was nearly a war zone.
I walked into the Herald last night to work on sports layout, when our design editor, Heidi Olsen, asked me how my Halloween was. We chatted about my weekend — Hatters on Thursday to overcrowded house parties on Friday and back to Hatters at 8 p.m. Saturday.
“Was State Street for you as crazy as it was for everyone else?” asked Heidi. I didn’t go to State Street, I said. I spent my after-bar being trampled on in line at Ian’s, completely clueless about what was going on at the same time only a couple blocks away. Heidi informed me of the riots, the vandalism and tear gas as my eyeballs rolled out of their sockets. I was so disappointed I missed the entertainment, but at the same time so happy of my decision to stay with my roommates and friends instead of participating.
I am embarrassed for the University of Wisconsin. We were displayed on national news as a mob of unruly, uncontrollable, drunken college students who thought it would be funny to throw concrete blocks and flaming objects at paramedics and policemen who were trying to escort a bleeding, unconscious college student into an ambulance.
But, hey, the police were the ones who provoked this violence, say some students who participated in the rioting and, quite possibly, the looting and destruction of private property.
But were they? Yes, the police should have been more prepared. Why the Madison Police Department decided to send out 40 cops to State Street Saturday night versus the 150 it sent out Thursday night, only God knows, but obviously it wasn’t a smart move.
Everyone knows the largest Halloween celebration will be Saturday; it has always been Saturday, Our campus population triples during Halloween weekend, when almost every University of Wisconsin student has at least one friend up, who brings another friend, who brings another friend.
But how can someone say that a police officer provoked these riots, provoked the looting and provoked kicking in windows of local shops? How can someone say that a police officer provoked him or her to steal a stop sign that could have caused an accident the following morning?
How can someone say that since he or she could not walk to his or her apartment on State Street the riots were acceptable and the cops were on power trips? It is scary and seems unnecessary that in order to calm those on State Street the cops had to use riot gear, pepper spray and tear gas, but honestly, they were looking at your safety, as well as their safety.
Junior Peter Chmielewski agrees, stating, “A lot of the articles have been ridiculing the actions the police took, but in my opinion, when thousands of people are destroying property and injuring students and officers alike, they need to resort to these measures. Those students who live on State Street and needed to get home should have realized that the officers had much more important things to do than to escort each one of them home.”
So who is to blame? The police? UW students? Out-of-towners? Thursday night there was no destruction. Or was that because we had triple the cops? Alcohol? Increased agitation from a longer Halloween? (Although, I think if anything more students were Halloween-ed out than riled up.) Whose fault was it?
Simple — the people who were completely out of control and don’t know how to behave themselves are at fault. The people who think it is necessary to be destructive to have a good time. It takes only one person to start something and only seconds to have hundreds follow.
I know a lot of students are against the fact that the students were at fault. But when you have a business on State Street in a few years and your store is looted and glass bottles are pelted at your windows during the Halloween celebration by college students, you tell me that the cops are to blame for not watching your store, not the innocent college students who did it.
So, what happens next Halloween? Now there are going to be more cops, more tickets for underage drinking, more blockades and it’s going to suck. Thanks to those who have ruined the fun for everyone.
Nina Balistreri ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in strategic communication