In most cities, Halloween involves cutely dressed small children and pillowcases full of candy.
But East Lansing is different world. Here, Halloween is a time when college students hit the streets dressed in revealing costumes on their way to bars and house parties, at times leaving police with a damage-control mess.
“Most of the time (Halloween) is the thing where you take the kids out trick-or-treating — but not here,” said Capt. Jeff Murphy of the East Lansing Police Department, or ELPD.
But because of cold weather, the holiday’s placement in the middle of the week or a combination of both, the nights have been relatively quiet so far.
Friday and Saturday activities left ELPD surprised and with little to do, as party-related arrests reflected activity on an average away-game weekend in East Lansing — not a weekend before one of the holidays many students spend weeks planning for. ELPD only made a total of 11 minor in possession arrests Friday and Saturday, three disorderly conduct arrests and three open intoxication arrests, according to a release. Murphy said he doesn’t expect Halloween night to be out of control, either.
“If Halloween falls on or near a weekend, it is usually quite a bit more busy than a midweek,” Murphy said. “I’m sure we’ll be more busy than a normal Wednesday night, but I’m sure we won’t be as busy as we would be on a Saturday night.”
Murphy said cold weather and classes could sway students to stay in on Halloween night. Still, ELPD will have extra officers working Wednesday night in case partying gets out of hand.
Although many of the parties that required police involvement last weekend were Halloween parties, Murphy said the night supervisor for ELPD did not feel the parties were especially wild for a Halloween weekend.
In a previous interview, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said MSU police usually don’t handle Halloween parties because most of the celebrations take place in the city.
Elementary education sophomore Camaryn Self — who went out last Friday dressed as a red Solo cup and last Saturday dressed as a ballerina — said because Halloween falls in the middle of the week this year, she’ll probably wait until the weekend to continue celebrating. Self said she does not expect the rest of the celebrations to be as busy as last weekend.
“Last weekend seemed like the official (Halloween) weekend,” Self said. “It kind of seems like Halloween is over.”
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