I’m not going to describe the Fountain Ave. incident that happened early Friday morning, because I pulled an all-nighter to work with the Wesleying team to keep the campus informed, and wrote enough about it there. Needless to say, if you haven’t heard about it, check out the blog.
I just watched Priya’s video footage of the assault, and I’m thinking now that this is much more complicated than I originally thought.
This video obviously doesn’t show how the hostilities began… but judging from the footage, it’s really hard to claim that there were many “innocent bystanders” who came into contact with the police that morning. It looks like a rowdy crowd of drunk students taunting the police, relentlessly swearing at them, and otherwise making a spectacle out of the entire situation.
Once this footage gets widely viewed, regardless of who’s in the right (if either party is), public opinion will not be friendly to us. The news reports have already spun it against us, and popular online reaction seems to be turning against students. But when this video gets out there—and once other footage, like P-Safe’s, gets out—I’m really worried that the shit will hit the fan. President Roth might have a lot more than just angry students to contend with… this would be a blemish on the reputation of the entire University, and a stain on the good names of all Wes students.
Almost certainly, the MPD’s tactics were unwarranted and inappropriate. They need to be held accountable. But it’s going to be really hard to convince people that we were innocent celebrators, when the footage makes us out to be a crowd of drunk, cursing, police-taunting rioters.
4 Comments
I completely agree. I’m really disheartened by the behavior exhibited in this video. From what I’d heard from other students who were there, they were painting a very different picture than this; I hope more videos come to light. If this is an accurate portrayal of the entire incident, I feel sad that I defended the student body’s behavior in the situation
It has been mentioned in media that Fountain Ave is Wesleyan property or a part of the campus. Keep in mind that it is a public street, therefore not part of the “campus”.
Roger, I still think of it as a part of “campus” even though it is technically public property. That said, I’ve never been one of those arguing that the street is private property; as far as I’m concerned, the police were never in the wrong for being there (though, as for what they did there… I don’t know yet).
I wasn’t implying that you had misreprested anything I was trying to make sure that the facts regarding Fountain are understood. As you say it is within the campus just like Wyllys Ave, but still public property.