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Game weekend busy for police, fire department

October 16, 2011

While driving around downtown East Lansing Saturday night, East Lansing Fire Marshal Bob Pratt came across something a little out of the ordinary — a college-age woman performing a traditional Polynesian fire dance on Abbot Road.

Pratt spotted the woman after going on one of the more than 60 runs made by the East Lansing Fire Department’s paramedics Saturday.

The East Lansing Fire Department responded to calls almost non-stop beginning at 12:01 a.m. Saturday on through the early hours of Sunday and had paramedics on hand at Spartan Stadium during MSU’s football game against the University of Michigan.

Although the fire dancer got away with a warning, many students and fans were not so lucky as more than 40 were transported to Sparrow Hospital because of alcohol poisoning or other alcohol related complications, Pratt said.

But Pratt said the number of students who abuse alcohol in this manner is a small fraction of the students at MSU, and many of the worst perpetrators are the people visiting for the weekend.

“Any big college is going to have a lot of people out, and a certain number are going to do stupid things,” he said. “That gives the false perception that all (students) are doing stupid things, and that’s not necessarily the case.”

East Lansing police Sgt. Scott Wrigglesworth said although there was an increase in activity throughout the city, there were no out of the ordinary incidents.

Michigan State Police troopers and the Ingham County Sheriffs department assisted by patrolling the streets, but aside from a few vandalisms on Grand River Avenue storefronts, most arrests and citations were alcohol-related, Wrigglesworth said.

“It was a typical football weekend for the most part,” he said. “Most arrests were for alcohol offenses likes open (intoxicant), minor in possession (of alcohol) and drunk and disorderly (conduct).”

The MSU Police saw quite a bit of activity before and during the game, MSU police Sgt. Paul Kuchek said, but things died down once the game was over.

Kuchek said the department even sent a few officers to assist the East Lansing Police Department after the game.

“There was nothing really noteworthy — no murders or robberies,” he said. “It was all just simple assault and batteries, a few larcenies and a few reports of counterfeit tickets.”

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