TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Madison in an Uproar! Hundreds Arrested in Halloween Revelry

Madison in an Uproar! Hundreds Arrested in Halloween Revelry

Associated Press News Wire (ap@telecom-digest.org)
Sun, 30 Oct 2005 22:20:54 -0600

A weekend of Halloween celebrations popular with college students
resulted in more than 400 arrests in Madison, WI, and police used
bursts of pepper spray early Sunday to break up crowds of revelers.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz suggested canceling the annual gathering. The
downtown party near the University of Wisconsin-Madison attracts
college students from across the Midwest, and has turned chaotic in
the past. Last year, 455 were arrested.

"Every year there's a certain group of people who come hell-bent on
starting fights with police and other citizens and we can't seem to
shake that," Cieslewicz said. "The only way to end it is to order
State Street shut down, every business, for a couple of nights."

Police used officers on horseback early Sunday to move chanting and
beverage-tossing revelers off State Street, a mile-long stretch of
bars, restaurants and shops. The pepper spray was used after cups
filled with beverages and ice were thrown or poured on officers.

Most arrests were for alcohol-related offenses, including underage
drinking, said Lt. Pat Malloy. He said the local detoxification center
was filled to capacity and some people had to be taken to emergency
rooms.

There were 269 arrests overnight and 178 the night before, Police
Chief Noble Wray said. "I wonder what Sunday night and Monday night
will bring us?" he asked.

The university had taken steps to control the chaos this year,
prohibiting visitors from dormitories and warning Big 10 and other
Midwest schools that students shouldn't come. City officials and the
university have said most of the problems are caused by out-of-town
visitors.

Elsewhere, police in Athens, Ohio, home of Ohio University, made 95
arrests at a Saturday night Halloween block party. Police described
the crowd as belligerent but smaller than previous years. Forty-eight
of those arrested are college students, officers said.

One man was stabbed in the hand and a woman was injured escaping from
an attempted rape, Athens police spokesman James Mann said.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And Lisa Hancock wondered out loud a
couple days ago if Halloween celebrations had gotten out of hand. In
Detroit, I presume they are still burning down buildings over the
Devil's night commemoration. I know that by comparison it made our
Neewollah/Octoberfest events of the past week look like a Sunday
School outing. Madison seems to get this trouble ever year also. I
know our police here in Independence were busy, but nothing I guess
like Madison, WI or Detroit. PAT]

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