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Subdued atmosphere in E.L. after MSU loss; 21 arrested

By From staff reports Originally Published: 04/07/09 12:57am Modified: 04/07/09 11:54pm 20 comments

SAR_5232
State News photo The State News Reprints

Police supervise a mass of fans at Cedar Village after the Spartans were defeated by the Tar Heels in the championship game. The crowds dispersed by about 1:45 a.m.


Spartans celebrated somberly following the MSU men’s basketball team’s loss to North Carolina in the NCAA national championship game on Monday night.

A police-estimated crowd of about 1,700 people gathered in Cedar Village around midnight, shouting and celebrating in cold, damp weather.

By the end of the night, 21 people were arrested citywide on various charges, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said.

The Cedar Village-area crowd shrank significantly by 1:40 a.m., and the police asked all remaining people in the street to go home. The crowd dispersed within minutes.

Medical technology junior Ashley Allemon said the atmosphere was quieter than Saturday’s after the Final Four victory, and it’s a good thing people behaved.

“It gives our school a bad reputation with people throwing beer bottles and stuff,” she said. “I hope it’s more peaceful because we get looked down upon.”

The weather helped put a damper on what could have been a rowdy night, Wibert said.

“I’ve got to think that people are going to get cold, because it’s kind of bitter,” he said, adding that he didn’t see anything thrown in the air as of 12:10 a.m.

Temperatures in East Lansing were at 29 degrees by 11:53 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.

Not everyone hoped for a calm evening. Business junior Mike Blair wanted fans to let loose.

“I just want to see us go crazy tonight,” he said. “It’s always more fun when that happens. The police just need to lay off a little.”

Yet many still were glad to see the calm reaction among their peers, while still exuding pride in their Spartans team.

“People are celebrating smarter and better than what anyone had planned for,” advertising senior Chea Tyrrell said. “The loss was disappointing but we played hard and made it to the championship.”

Agricultural industries sophomore Kevin Onweller agreed.

“Most of us are just excited we got this far, nobody expected us to do this,” Onweller said. “This is just MSU students being proud of who they are.”

Downtown East Lansing also was quiet, with people filing out of bars and heading home. Crowds of police rivaled the number of people on the streets.

Criminal justice sophomore Andrew Rench said the game was all right, as he traveled outside Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, 360 Albert Ave.

“This was a good year, but it’s still disappointing,” he said.

Last updated 3:21 a.m.


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Commentary

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Kent
(04/07/09 1:32am)
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Some idiot set a couch on fire on Virginia Street…way to show class


Go Green
(04/07/09 7:23am)
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Glad most of the students didn’t get hooked into the people who only went out to try and riot- and there were some. Idiots will always be idiots, but we’re not. It was a great season and thank you to the team and of course, Tom Izzo, for leading us and showing the world what we can do- often in spite of and in the face of everyone’s expectations.

Go State!


Home Brew
(04/07/09 8:27am)
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Good time! Would have enjoyed a victory more to go with my fine wine and cheese party. By the case mind you…


Pat
(04/07/09 10:00am)
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Agreed w/ Young Alum. I’d rather he end up serving me my french fries through a drive-through window as that is what he deserves. Or cleaning toilet bowls.


PPTPW54
(04/07/09 10:18am)
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Embarrassing quote from Mike Blair. Usually kids start growing up a little bit by their junior year in college…


Steve
(04/07/09 10:23am)
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When I conduct job interviews with prospective employees like Mike Blair (if he/they ever get that far) they react like a deer in headlights when I ask questions about what they did on such and such a night when MSU (or whatever university they are from) won or lost a big game. They are too stupid to believe that employers care about such things, but we do.


Ferndale Alum
(04/07/09 11:22am)
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It’s idiots like Mike Blair that give MSU a bad rep and get the police involved in all student gatherings near Cedar Village. I’m not totally defending ELPD & MSU PD, but what do students expect them to do when people are hanging on signs, street lights, breaking branches off trees, and throwing stuff into the crowd? Do they really expect the police to stand by and watch, or not show up at all?

If there was a night when 1500-2000 students gathered in the area, and there was honestly no riot activity like mentioned above, and this became a new trend of students not acting like total dipsh**s when they get together, the police would eventually back off.


Ed T
(04/07/09 11:24am)
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Geez, let up on the poor kid already.

Maybe he needs to learn a little common sense, but it doesn’t sound like he was one of people who got arrested last night.

Those are the morons whose future just got a lot cloudier.


DL
(04/07/09 12:16pm)
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What a dumb thing for Mike Blair to say. Does he know that his quote will forever roam the internet? If a future prospective employer happens to google Blair’s name, he will stumble upon this asinine quote. Smart, Mr. Blair, very smart. Good luck with your job search.


Poop
(04/07/09 12:18pm)
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Bah, Mike Blair (fake name) gives our school its white-trash reputation.


DW
(04/07/09 12:25pm)
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How come 2000 students assemble in East Lansing and 21 get arrested. Yet in Chapel Hill, 30,000 assemble, 10 people are hospitalized, 28 are treated by paramedics, dozens of fires are set, multiple displays of nudity, and only 2 people get arrested. In East Lansing that would be a riot not a celebration. Yet in Chapel Hill, not one canister of tear gas.

The Chapel Hill students were doing the dame thing that East Lansing does, yet the way the police responded to it kept things under control.


Townsend
(04/07/09 12:52pm)
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I think it was irresponsible for the SN to quote Mike Blair. I’m all for open journalism (and anti censorship) and balanced reporting but, frankly, all the idiocy spouted from a student like Blair will embolden other fools like him to cause trouble… The SN didn’t have to give him a platform.

Kudos to the student-posters for the generally levelheaded posts and recognizing how damaging Blair-like activities are to the reputation of OUR fine University.


Brian
(04/07/09 2:54pm)
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I agree with DW I just read the article in the “Daily Tar Heel” UNC school newspaper and they had 45,000 people that celebrated in the streets, tore down street signs, public nudity, setting fires, public drunkeness and according to the article no one was arrested – what???

Did I read that right? The problems with MSU student are the police. The police at UNC were not in Riot gear like they are at MSU. EL police provoke the disturbances….unbelievable…read the article


Are you Serious?
(04/07/09 7:14pm)
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http://www.dailytarheel.com/multimedia/video/video-franklin-street-the-celebration-1.1646328


msu student
(04/07/09 7:47pm)
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no where in Mike Blairs quote did he say he wanted us to go crazy, tear down stop signs, set objects on fire and have girls flash the crowd. He simply said, go crazy, people are allowed to go crazy while still maintaining a decent celebration, thus having “more fun that way”

I was at cedar village saturday and monday i thought the police did a very good job maintaining the crowd, those who deserved to be arrested were, and those who didnt deserve it were not. however I did see a girl get pulled down from somebodys shoulders by the police for no reason at all, her shirt did not come up, she was not acting beligerant and was not throwing any objects, so maybe thats what he means by “back off” and let us have some fun


sparty12
(04/07/09 8:40pm)
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at the “celebration” in chapel hill i saw it reported that only 2 people were arrested…in el over 80 students were arrested this past weekend with (gasp) no riot…something is wrong here…not only were the crowds in el drastically smaller but they were wayyy more peaceful…the local media, elpd and city of el continue to mishandle celebrations…the one that took place at unc looked worse than any “riot” at msu (not including 1999) and nobody was tear gassed, flash banged or arrested for flashing(like cedar fest last year)…while i dont condone any of the above behavior there are obviously more effective ways of dealing with student celebrations that dont tarnish the schools reputation…local media runs live coverage from cedar village before students even gather, lsj.com has numerous videos of kids being arrested and all this gives the state and national media wrong impressions…our university has taken an unnecessarily reputation hit due to claimed riots over the years…cnn ran reports of the 1000 kids who gathered in cedar village last night while mentioning nothing of the mass celebration on franklin street…the city and local media need to stop hanging msu’s reputation out to dry by letting every final four turn into some spectacle

Headlines read:
MSU Riots…UNC Celebrates
MSU burns couches…UNC lights bon fires
Something is wrong with this…

RANT OVER


student
(04/07/09 9:56pm)
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I seriously don’t care how many students get arrested. The police that worked this weekend handled everything with class and respect. If a students or an outsider that came to EL for the weekend and thought this would be another destructive party and got arrested, I am glad. If he didn’t get arrested, I hope he does in the future.


Another MSU Student
(04/07/09 11:55pm)
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Face it.. because of MSU’s “reputation”, whenever an event like this occurs there will be cops with riot gear and tear gas. It will take years for this to change. UNC won’t have a police force with that kind of action because basically their students are ALOT smarter than MSU students and are more responsible for their actions. So don’t compare the two schools. It’s like trying to justify why it makes sense to give a 5 year old child a knife to hold because his older brothers know how to handle one. You can’t.


confused
(04/08/09 9:28am)
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so the point in the post above is that UNC kids are smarter than msu kids and thats why they are allowed to tear up their city??? they looked like a normal group of 18-22 year olds celebrating a victory but i sure didnt see any smart behavior in that unc video


Dont be Confused
(04/09/09 12:25am)
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Look closer.