Students and residents in East Lansing have little time to cope with the heart-breaking costs of war in Iraq as Sunday's juvenile melee on and near campus has left the community mulling the cost of a worthless riot.
Despite budgets burdened by the state's broken economy, MSU and East Lansing officials say they are willing to pay up to $2,500 in rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of participants in Sunday night's riot.
While it's not clear to us or university and city officials where the reward money will be collected from, their conviction to aggressively punish those involved in illegal activities Sunday is understandable. Rioters caused about $40,000 in damage during their rampage, most of which incurred on campus. Such activity has no place and is unwelcome in this community.
In the same vein, however, law enforcement officials are out of line in asking media to come forward to provide photo and video footage of the riot. As in 1999, The State News will not, and other media should not, turn over unpublished documents to police. As the state Supreme Court rightfully ruled in the case brought about from a similar request four years ago, the press is not an extended arm of the government.
We stand firmly against the actions of the nearly 2,000 students who embarrassed this university and caused destruction to the property of their fellow students. Those responsible should be punished accordingly. However, media outlets cannot compromise their integrity by aiding the departments they cover.
Law enforcement agencies have access to their own filmed footage of the melee and detectives have access to published images. It is up to police to conduct their own investigations.
By the time the sun rose on March 28, 1999, students and community members were stunned and ashamed at the events of the previous night. Many people worked to ensure such random havoc would never be wreaked in this city again.
But it seems the sad reality is that we underestimated the lack of historical memory in a community that sees the nearly full turnover of its 44,000-plus student body every four to five years.
Too many people come to this university saying they were lured by its party atmosphere. These are often the students who don't know the difference between good fun and a riot.
On Friday night, thousands took to the streets of East Lansing in celebration. While there were a number of arrests, the events of that night were tolerable. After all, we had a reason to party and, for the most part, those who did were responsible about the festivities.
But Sunday was another animal. There was no reason for the chaos that occurred. Sunday's riot now stands to cost the community more police and fire protection than it would have lost previously by tacking a riot bill onto an already difficult budgetary situation.
