UPDATED: Party On Fountain–Wesleyan Undergrads Clash with Cops

Posted on May 16, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Dye

Dude, who invited the cops? After Middletown cops showed up to bust up several end-of-year Wesleyan University parties that had spilled out onto Fountain Avenue, things got a little crazy, resulting in five student arrests and landing at least one Wesleyan kid in the hospital after being bitten by a police dog. According to student-run blog Wesleying, the cops used pepper spray, pepper balls shot from paintball-like guns, Tasers, and police dogs to subdue the crowd of over 200 students who ignored police requests to “move along.”

Two students will appear before a judge today on charges including inciting a riot, assaulting a police officer, and marijuana possession. University president Michael Roth was on the scene within hours and is sitting down today with students who witnessed the events to get their side of the story and make sure proper action will be taken. Check out more coverage of the events (plus one student’s account of what went down) after the jump.

Wesleyan students are no strangers to having police show up to ruin the fun, but many are outraged by what they consider to be an excessive response on the cops’ behalf. According to our anonymous tipster at Wesleyan, “It seemed like a big gap between the force and the force warranted. It wasn’t an aggro party. There have been aggro parties in the past, and nothing was done then. They broke them up without having to do something like this.” Other seniors are bummed by the shadow the incident has cast over Senior Week festivities.

The Wesleyan Argus will be compiling a special edition about last night’s events.
The major TV news networks were all over the scene, getting accounts from cops responsible for busting stuff up. WFSB quotes Sgt. Scott Aresco as saying that the pepper spray was only a “last resort,” although student Derek Silverman told WTNH, “I don’t know what the tipping point was, maybe time, too much time on scene and the kids weren’t responding.”
The silver lining to the cloud hanging over New Haven? Hopefully we can look forward to the resurrection of Wesleyan rap “Party On Fountain” (thanks, Stereogum!).
UPDATE: A first-hand account from Wesleyan senior Amanda Baumgart:
“It was basically like every end-of-the-year block party; there was a live band in someone’s backyard at like 10 until Public Safety asked them to disperse, which they did. The party moved over to the other end of the street, a couple big house parties all mingling together in the street. Compared to most parties like that that I’ve seen it was pretty tame…The news reports of 300 students are pretty absurd. By around 1 am there was a unmarked Public Safety car, and two p-safe officers were standing next to it, on the outskirts of the party, just filming people, which they’ve been doing lately for some reason…Even though they weren’t really trying to break up the party I guess they got overwhelmed because then they called MPD and the state police. Six police cars showed up (plus ten more later).

“Students responded the way they always do when police show up to break up a Wesleyan party - you know, it’s none of their business, what are they doing there, etc. I think people were getting pissed off and maybe too much in their faces, the fight song was sung, but reports of those 5 guys inciting a riot are ridiculous. I left pretty soon after that; I could tell you things I heard but I wasn’t there - k-9 unit, rubber bullets, pepper spray, my friend got tased and arrested etc.

“People are piiiiissed. There are banners up outside eclectic saying things like, “DO YOU FEEL SAFE NOW?” and the more to-the-point, “FUCK THE POLICE”. It seems like Roth and the administration are trying to distance themselves from the police’s actions. Roth showed up on fountain last night to say something to the effect of, “We know you’re angry but now is not the time to do anything about it”, and he’s holding office hours all day so people can tell them how they feel about it or something.”

“I do wish they’d stop using the word ‘melee’.”
According to Wesleying, the Wesleyan Student Association will be holding an all-campus forum at 4 p.m. today to discuss last night’s events, taking the place of the originally scheduled “divestment meeting.” That’s great, but when will we ever get a chance to air our grievances about divesting?

We’ll let you know when we hear more!

(Sources: Wesleying, WTNH, WFSB. Photo courtesy of Becky Ehrlich.)

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One Response to “UPDATED: Party On Fountain–Wesleyan Undergrads Clash with Cops”

A Wesleyan Senior’s First-Hand Account from Fountain Ave. : theprereq.com on May 16th, 2008 4:58 pm

[…] Rashida Richardson describes her encounter with police at last night’s Wesleyan bust-up: […]

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UPDATED: Party On Fountain–Wesleyan Undergrads Clash with Cops

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