I can only speak for what I saw at M.A.C. and Albert avenues Saturday night and not at Cedar Village. I watched students chanting and cheering in a large crowd by the Marriott at University Place, 300 M.A.C. Ave., for about 15 minutes with no police in sight whatsoever.

As soon as one guy lit a cardboard sign on fire in the crowd, tear gas was launched from every direction and the police moved in. From that experience, it seems to me that the police were there monitoring the situation (out of sight) and waited until they saw fire before exposing people to tear gas.

I think that the police acted out of the belief that they did not want Saturday night to end up like 1999 or 2003. They saw large crowds of rowdy students setting things on fire and responded the best way they saw to prevent the situation from escalating into something worse.

The police can never satisfy everyone. There will always be people that were "innocent bystanders" that got tear gassed. I was exposed to tear gas as well, but you don't hear me complaining. I made the choice to walk along Grand River Avenue that night and I knew that there would be tear gas, just like everyone else on Grand River. There's always going to be people that don't like what the police do, but I'd rather experience a little bit of tear gas than have East Lansing be known for another riot.

Carolyn Schulz
fisheries and wildlife senior