3 Students walk barefoot
11 The first baseman hits
7 Preventative measures
15 Body art is seen as
news Shoeless for shoes
sports A good day for Knight
to support TOMS cause.
three home runs.
opinion Preemptive strike
made things worse at Springfest.
life Tattoo taboo
creative to some, trashy to others.
Serving James Madison University Since 1922
Vol. 86, No. 50 Monday, April 12, 2010
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‘War Zone’
Robert Boag / the breeze
Residents Work To Clean Up After Saturday’s Riot
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Linwood H. Rose President
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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.
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After Saturday afternoon’s events, JMU President Linwood Rose e-mailed an official response to students on Sunday. Dear Students:
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President Linwood Rose left no questions regarding his response to the JMU community via e-mail on Sunday evening, addressing those students who attended Springfest. “Your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation,” Rose said. He plans to
handle similar situations even more seriously in the future. The aftermath of Saturday’s block parties consisted of more than 30 arrests, a stabbing, extensive property damage and injured police and partygoers. The Harrisonburg community has not experienced a riot this serious in 10 years, when civil disobedience units responded to a crowd of more than 2,000 students
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By Kaleigh Somers and Matt Sutherland The Breeze
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David Casterline / the breeze
More than 200 police officers were called to the area Saturday evening.
Shards of glass, heaps of cans, crushed boxes and forgotten Solo cups littered the streets and lawns of Forest Hills townhomes Sunday morning. Tired residents and workers came out to clean up the debris left from Saturday’s block party. Senior Chris Collichio, a resident of Forest Hills who attended Springfest the last four years, has never seen anything like this. He remembers participating “back when it was nice.” Collichio’s house is at the far end of the block from where the tear-gassing began. The gas forced students down to his end of the street. With police also at that end, his house and the cars surrounding the parking lot provided easy targets for many scattered students to throw rocks,
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By Rachel Dozier The Breeze
1 University Outpost 2 Exxon 3 Texaco 4 dumpster fires
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Police Use Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets to Disperse More Than 8,000
GRaphic By Nataliya Ioffe / the breeze
The incident took place on Village Lane in Forest Hills townhomes.
he said. “My car, a silver BMW, has a rock that went straight through the window,” Collichio said. “That car right there got elbowed [through the back windshield]. That’s not even a rock there; someone just smashed that one. Our house see Aftermath, page 4
Past Springfest Problems: It’s been 10 years since one of JMU’s parties got as out of control as Saturday’s Springfest. On Aug. 25, 2000, riot police broke up a back-to-school party of about 2,000 people in the Forest Hills townhouse complex. An article in the Aug. 28 issue of The Breeze reports a three-hour standoff that led to 20 arrests and numerous injuries. At midnight, police used a bullhorn and public address system to order the crowed to disperse. The crowd refused, and the article reports that police gave partygoers 30 minutes to leave. About half were said to leave. Approximately 35 officers in riot gear dispersed tear gas and pepper spray. For two hours, the article says the crowd threw rocks, glass and board and residents. Two dumpsters were also lit on fire. The situation calmed around 3 a.m. Several cars in the complex’s lot were damaged, including a Harrisonburg police car. JMU President Linwood Rose organized a Community Coalition to look into the riot and prevent such actions from happening again. Rose made a statement published in The Breeze on Sept. 18, 2000 saying: “Something is wrong when a university president goes to bed at night worried about whose parents might need to be called the next day because their son or daughter was injured, assaulted or arrested.” The coalition recommended examining the university’s judicial system, offering more alternative activities for students and finding a more effective way for students and police to work together. On Sept. 23, 2000, some students calling themselves the Young Democratic Socialists also protested Harrisonburg Police Department, in part for the actions officers took at the riots. — staff reports
n For more photos of Springfest, page 5 or breezejmu.org
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