Say what you will about the raucous at Michigan State this past weekend; unless you’re stating that this is a complete embarrassment you’re dead wrong and potentially a complete buffoon. Scratch that, you are a complete buffoon. As a former Michigan State student myself I am beyond ashamed.

The riot this past weekend does not find its roots in any celebration of athletic success nor does it find its roots in celebration of academic success. Something tells me these folks weren’t assembled to celebrate last semesters selection to Dean’s List. Just a hunch. No this riot finds its roots in the belief that an event that was banned in the City of East Lansing in 1987 should be reincarnated. Hey! If it was a bad idea 21 years ago and there were serious issues then what in the world makes you think it is a good idea now?!? To give you an idea of how bad it truly was here is a video depicting the events of this past weekend’s melee (note: vulgar language and acts of violence are prevalent in this video):

Since when does the assemblage of 3,000 to 4,000 students, a majority of whom are probably more than inebriated, make sense in a non-controlled environment? It’s not like this is the first time there have been issues in the Cedar Village area after all; recent memory alone should serve notice to that. The following information was taken from a Wikipedia entry dedicated to MSU riots

• September 6, 1997: 500 partygoers in the Gunson Street neighborhood confronted police, throwing bottles and damaging police vehicles.
• May 1, 1998: An estimated 3,000 students protesting the ban on alcohol at Munn Field tailgate parties resulted in police firing tear gas at the crowd.
• March 27, 1999: Following a loss by MSU’s basketball team to Duke in the NCAA Final Four, thousands of students and non-students (estimates range from 5,000 - 10,000 people) gathered around the Grand River Ave. area of East Lansing. Eventually this mass of people rioted; breaking windows, overturning cars, and starting bonfires in the streets. Local police called in reinforcements from as far away as Howell, MI to help quell the unrest and utilized tear gas and riot gear to control the crowds. By the time local law enforcement regained control, over $150,000 in damage had been done to the campus and surrounding city.
• April 2, 2005: An estimated 2,000 students and non-students took to the streets immediately following the men’s basketball team’s loss to UNC in the final four, causing an estimated $8,275 in damage to the city of East Lansing and costing area law enforcement an estimated $190,389 in expenses. The April 2 event was marked by accusations of police abuse and mismanagement. Though large segments of the disturbance were documented on video, no specific acts of violence were seen until after tear gas was launched at the students.

The issue here seems to be that there is a culture of rioting at MSU. It has been said that some of those present at the melee were chanting, ‘tear gas us, tear gas us’ as if this was some rite of passage. That by somehow being tear gassed in a riot on Cedar St. is some sort of throwback to the past.

It is time for Michigan State University, the City of East Lansing, students, and the citizenry to find the means to ensure this rioting ceases completely. I am not overwhelmingly concerned with what dialogue needs to take place just that it does take place. Ohio State took significant actions following the riots of 2002 after the football Buckeyes defeated Michigan to head to the BCS Championship Game. I haven’t heard of couch burning in Morgantown for some time either.

The fact of the matter is this - in a little more than 10 years there have been 5 significant disturbances in East Lansing. While it might be said that the revelers for the most part are not Michigan State students this certainly doesn’t excuse the behavior of those who do call themselves Spartans and find themselves amongst the chaos. One Spartan being arrested during these types of disturbances is one too many and all involved must take the action necessary to ensure that if there is a next time that the number of arrests of MSU students equals zero.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Michigan State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.