Riots?

The Geoduck Union released the video footage of the Valentine's Day riots here on campus. Here are some of the comments students gave CPJ (Cooper Point Journal) writers about the riots:

"The melee that occured gave Evergreen a bad name" Jimi Sharp.

"I think it's crap that Hip Hop Congress had to come out at 3 a.m. to clean up. People didn't think about who had to clean up" Serena Powers.

"Impressive display of white privilege on the part of the Caucasian students. The repercussions would have been different on a more ethnically diverse campus. The majority of the crowd was white" Sky Cohen.

"It's not fair to Evergreen cops to have reacted this way. It was ridiculous" Sean Parker.

In the Cooper Point Journal there was an article about the "Student Reactions to Riot" by Jason Slotkin. In it there is a quote from Alexandre Chateaubriand that I think sums up what I think about this business:

"I saw the vandalism on the CRC that said 'Welcome to Evergreen' with an anarchy symbol, and it was really frustrating to me because that's not my cause and I understand that it is some students' cause, but all of a sudden it was alll of us... And we have to continue talking and make it understood that there are 5000 students here who all have different voices and all have a different point of view on this."

Here are the videos the Union released. They're on Youtube, so you can enjoy them there as well.

The basic timeline for the idiocy is as follows:

9:30: Concert starts, there are volunteer security workers in attendance but aren't wearing identifying markers. Reports of activity begin which include marijuana use, fighting, inappropriate contact between male and female attendants.

11:00: Reports of dangerous activity begin to filter in.

12:00: one offender is identified and the Evergreen Police services is called, they respond within the hour, and Officer Meyers arrives and arrests and African-American man.

1:00: Suspect is identified and arrested but not charged. The Officer and suspect leave the building and are approached by 12 attendees who question the arrest. Meyers calls the Thurston County Police to the scene to take statements because it is against policy to take statements while a suspect is in custody.

1:30: More attendees gather around the Police car and begin to throw objects and kick the car, the Thurston police arrive and begin to clear the area using batons and pepper spray.

2:00: Meyers interviews and releases suspect. She is then hit with pepper spray. Two Officer's cars are immoble because of environmental or mechanical issues, one car is then abused and flipped.

2:30: Crowd disperses and the car is towed away.

3:30: Show organizers are left to clean the debris (glass and trash) along with students working in Housing until 5 or 6 in the morning.