In less than two weeks, the 400 and 500 blocks of West Mifflin Street will once again erupt in celebration at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party. Students will wake up early this first Saturday in May to enjoy local music, cheap beer and the company of a few thousand of their closest friends. Among the multitude of events will be house parties, beer pong tournaments and grill-outs. A grand ol’ time is expected to be had by all.

Unless, of course, you are one of the hundreds of students who — if the past five years are any indication — will be handcuffed in the middle of the street for a preposterously petty violation.

The number of police citations at Mifflin has increased every year for the past five years, topping out at 366 for last year’s party. Almost all of these were for underage drinking or open intoxicant violations, which usually cost already financially burdened college students more than $300 a piece. By the lace of your untied shoe — crossing from private property onto the city-owned sidewalk — you may be subject to a citation if you have an open can of brew in your hand.

This exercise of authority by the Madison Police Department is nothing short of absurd, given the streets are closed off for the block party. We urge the MPD to relax its enforcement of the open intoxicant law for the Mifflin Street Block Party, this year and every year thereafter.

The MPD would be wise to take the Mifflin Street Block Party as an opportunity to build rapport with students, not as an opportunity to ratchet up the number of petty citations that are given. To be sure, the block party does present some real public safety concerns, such as overflowing balconies and the increased risk of robbery in homes often left open to strangers. But if anything, this should be further reason to focus the energy of the police department on more pressing concerns than a harmless student enjoying a party.

Likewise, we would like to see the police department loosen its enforcement of the city’s noise violation ordinance, which is enforced if music is excessively loud. Residents of the two blocks of Mifflin Street and the surrounding area are fully aware — or should be — that for just one day of the year, there will be a raucous block party in their neighborhood. Recalling the city-sponsored concerts at this year’s Halloween festivities — with amplifiers and all, and at night — we believe the hypocrisy has gotten out of control and the ordinance should be enforced only with a heavy helping of common sense.  

To do business as usual would only place further doubt in the minds of students about the priorities of our city’s police department.