Block Party Riots...

[JustinG]

OK who did it?!?!?!?!? An WTF happened. Looks like a bunch of Dumbasses cant handle their alcohol and decided to throw shit at the cops and light some dumpsters on fire? IMO its been goin down hill every year, never went after sophomore year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wexfpL9yuII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NgPA-IcKKQ

[WRXtranceformed]

That was the craziest block party I've ever been to. There were a bunch of fights but for the most part everyone was just having a good time. I was DJing a party in the Manor when I see Ben and his girl come running by the window and tears are pouring down their faces. They were just on the hill watching when the cops started tear gassing people. Then, people just went ape shit. I think it was a combination of a seedy out of state crowd, the fact that Springfest got shut down the day before, and the tear gas on top of it that pushed people over the top. I don't know who originally struck first, but I'd imagine if the cops decided to use tear gas that the crowd must have done something.

Some pics I took.













People were basically ripping anything down they could find and throwing it on the fire. A bunch of people were throwing bottles and stuff at the state riot police. It took about 4 different rounds of tear gas to finally get everyone to leave the streets in the Manor. We saw a SWAT team roll by later as well. Pretty nuts!

[BLINGMW]

awesome

[Ken]

First of all HPD erred in not having ANY presence as they usually do. None. It was kind of like they let it go out of control with all intentions of bringing down the hammer like they did. There were no cops there to make sure you didn't walk into the street or anything, so people were everywhere. For the most part it was relatively calm, we may not know how it started but i'm guessing that the cops starting pushing people so some dumbass tossed a bottle and it all went from there. Even with the bottle tossing the tear gas was excessive. Not to mention the cop who just kept running in and out of the bushes on the hill just macing people. People had already started leaving when they got the blast message from JMU telling people to leave, maybe not a lot, but it definitely cleared out a bit.

One EPIC moment however:
One of the first few gas canisters must have landed next to a person with a very precise throwing arm. They threw it back and i shit you not that thing landed dead center of 6 cops who were not wearing gas masks. They hauled ass, it really was a perfect toss.

[TorinoCobra070]

I have a friend who was tear gassed while she and some other people were sitting on a porch doing nothing.... I think that there were a select few people who probably needed to be arrested (probably people visiting JMU) but they didn't need to tear gas thousands of students. The HPD never gets to do anything exciting so I think they got all pumped up and over did it. I mean, using tear gas on people who are just sitting on a porch??? that is pretty fucked up.

[HAULN-SS]

WTG current students..looks real good when you graduate from there to say "..you know, the school that has the rioting block parties"

[Ken]

WTG current students..looks real good when you graduate from there to say "..you know, the school that has the rioting block parties"

I'm assuming you weren't here in 01?

[CaptainHenreh]

I mean, using tear gas on people who are just sitting on a porch??? that is pretty fucked up.

Well, tear gas is kind of indescriminate, and mostly harmless.

No offense, but if your friends are "hanging out on the porch" when the tear gas 'nades start getting launched, well, I don't feel that sorry for them.

[JustinG]

yea dont feel sorry for anyone there who got gassed or pegged with rubber bullets. Good rule of thumb is, see cops, time to go home, or go inside and watch from the window.

[TorinoCobra070]

I mean, using tear gas on people who are just sitting on a porch??? that is pretty fucked up.

Well, tear gas is kind of indescriminate, and mostly harmless.

No offense, but if your friends are "hanging out on the porch" when the tear gas 'nades start getting launched, well, I don't feel that sorry for them.

Well considering this was several hours after the riot and in a different apartment complex, I'd say it was a little much.

[balactm]

i saw everything...i was delivering and got tear gassed, so eff all the students who started the rioting. and Ken, you're wrong. The hpd was present from at least 5pm til 3 in the morning. I talked with numerous officers. The reason the riot squad and SWAT were called from staunton and charlottesville was because hpd was standing guard trying to keep everything under control, but people started throwing beer bottles at them because they thought it would be "funny." there is a fine line between funny and stupid. and no, people did not start leaving as soon as they got the blast message. the cops were not pushing people just for the fun of it...it's not like they're crooked cops and just want to piss off all the students. the fact is that the students got realllly out of hand. I am actually kind of embarrassed to be apart of the JMU community after yesterday's events. I couldn't drive with my windows down because there was tear gas EVERYWHERE. and i watched a bunch of drunk college kids throwing bottles at the riot police after they kicked them out of forest hills manor. I also saw the riot police on the corner of port and devon guarding someone who had been beaten down by who knows who. I can't tell you how many people I delivered to, who had their doors kicked in, or their windows broken, or punched, or bottles thrown at them, and not by police, by other students. granted I'm still a little pissed off about being tear gassed while i was working and contributing to the community, while a bunch of drunk college kids were puking their guts out in our parking lot, and walking across port rd in the dark while cars were going 35 mph and then cursing at the driver for honking at them to get out of the middle of the road. weren't we all taught at the age of 5, NOT to play in the road???

[Jewels]

I mean, using tear gas on people who are just sitting on a porch??? that is pretty fucked up.

Well, tear gas is kind of indescriminate, and mostly harmless.

No offense, but if your friends are "hanging out on the porch" when the tear gas 'nades start getting launched, well, I don't feel that sorry for them.

Well considering this was several hours after the riot and in a different apartment complex, I'd say it was a little much.

You didn't make that clear in your first post.

[Ken]

No, not at all Taylor. Normally there are cops in forest making sure no one steps in the road. My brother and othe alumni were shocked at the lack of police presence and couldt believe it. I am in no way advocating the reaction/ riot but they completely let it reach that point and in that they failed. Miserably. I too am shocked and appalled at what occurred but what you also must realize is a solid 40% of those people were not from Jmu so do not stick Jmu students under the bus here. And yes people definitely did start leaving, hard to see tht from your car when you're not in the crowd.

[balactm]

No, not at all Taylor. Normally there are cops in forest making sure no one steps in the road. My brother and othe alumni were shocked at the lack of police presence and couldt believe it. I am in no way advocating the reaction/ riot but they completely let it reach that point and in that they failed. Miserably. I too am shocked and appalled at what occurred but what you also must realize is a solid 40% of those people were not from Jmu so do not stick Jmu students under the bus here. And yes people definitely did start leaving, hard to see tht from your car when you're not in the crowd.

somewhat true about eh 40%. but then again you have to hold someone responsible and considering it's held at jmu by jmu students, they are the ones responsible for their guests... we are all adults. yet we have this reputation of acting like children. and granted people started leaving but it took more than a text message for people to actually leave. and those that did leave, did the smart thing.

[CaptainHenreh]

Well considering this was several hours after the riot and in a different apartment complex, I'd say it was a little much.

Sorry, I'm just taking this as hearsay. "Several hours after the riot" (so that would be, what? 2am?) it wasn't just HPD, but Staunton, Cville, and the VSP. I know everyone's initial reaction is to say "fuck da po lice" but in this case, like justin said, you see the cops, you go inside. Or, I guess, you get teargassed.

[balactm]

Well considering this was several hours after the riot and in a different apartment complex, I'd say it was a little much.

Sorry, I'm just taking this as hearsay. "Several hours after the riot" (so that would be, what? 2am?) it wasn't just HPD, but Staunton, Cville, and the VSP. I know everyone's initial reaction is to say "fuck da po lice" but in this case, like justin said, you see the cops, you go inside. Or, I guess, you get teargassed.

true true..the riot was around 8 or so...it was just starting to get dark by the time they had pushed everyone out of FHM. they finally left the entrance to greenbriar drive around 3 am. i "heard" they used cx gas or something instead of tear gas, which is "apparently" worse. I put quotes because i don't know how reliable the source is.

lP.S. Ken and i have more or less come to an agreement, so i don't people to think we're trying to kill each other.

[TorinoCobra070]

Not sure if alumni have access to it so here is the e-mail sent to students today.

Dear Students:

Let me first acknowledge that many of you did not attend springfest on Saturday. To those of you who were involved, your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation. No one is opposed to some fun on a beautiful spring weekend, but public drunkenness, destruction of property, and threats to personal safety are unacceptable outcomes. Yesterday's events reflect poorly on your character and were demonstrable evidence of less than sound judgment.

As a university community, we care about our neighbors. Unfortunately, the events of this weekend do not demonstrate that concern.

To mitigate the negative consequences of these types of situations in the future, we will be conferring with students, property owners, law enforcement, including the Virginia State Police, government officials and others.

Linwood H. Rose
President

[Evan]

WTG current students..looks real good when you graduate from there to say "..you know, the school that has the rioting block parties"

I'm assuming you weren't here in 01?

yeah we made CNN that year :roll:

[Ken]

I think this is a fair summation:
- HPD should have had their normal presence, IMO it would have prevented this, but who knows for sure
- People (i refuse to say students) reacted in a godforsaken egregious manner; resulting in the necessary use of force. Again i still think this could have been avoided.

All in all, it's sad that such a great school is marred again with this kind of action. It seems as if the 01' riots had only just recently faded from people's memories and now it's occurred again.

[WRXtranceformed]

Honestly as much as it sucks and it really looks bad on the school, two points:

1) Like it's been said already, there were a LOT of people from out of state and that didn't even go to JMU at the block party. I don't think it's a coincidence that this year's party was like twice the size that it's ever been and so were twice as many douchebags there.

2) Stuff like this unfortunately is a negative part of the growing pains of becoming a big school. Riots and big parties that get out of control happen pretty frequently at a lot of big schools. The more students there are, the more shady friends will come in from out of town on the big weekends (especially with social networking sites). Hell they burn couches at Tech! UC Boulder had a yearly riot that came at the start of fall classes every year and the Denver riot squad always shows up and disperses people.

This doesn't make up or make an excuse for what happened, but it definitely helps explain it.