Shortly after the Spartan’s Elite Eight win, MSU police Capt. Kelly Roudebush was surfing social media at home when she noticed something curious — videos of bagels flying through the air at Cedar Village.
MSU police Twitter blows up over bagel tweet
Seeking to make sense of the absurdity, Roudebush, who operates the MSU Twitter account, took to the department’s account and posed the question, “Guys, what’s with the bagels?”
The tweet was a hit. As of Monday it had garnered more than 2,500 retweets and 2,000 favorites. Of those whose attention the tweet caught was a user who gibed at the post, to which Roudebush showed that police too have a sense of humor.
When @TannerTweeted replied to the tweet, saying that celebrators used bagels because they “ran out of doughnuts,” Roudebush offered this witty remark: “Well, that’s a crime in itself.”
Some users were skeptical of the department's initial tweet, as police presence in Cedar Village at the time was anything but lighthearted — law enforcement forces arrested four and later charged them with a disorderly conduct violation for throwing bagels during the celebration Sunday.
User @socpsych91 asked, "If they were donuts would you be as mad?"
But Roudebush dismissed any bitterness in the question, saying that she posed it out of curiosity.
Using humor to engage with students and community members is important to police outreach efforts, because it gives a law enforcement agency a personable face, Roudebush said.
“It’s good to have a good rapport with your community, and joking here and there is a good way to do that,” she said. “Want to make people know we’re approachable.”
The post-game tweet Sunday yielded the university police’s Twitter account nearly 700 new followers, she said.
Other officials, such as Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, also took to Twitter to provide humorous remarks on what is sometimes referred to as “bagelfest2k15.” Calley tweeted, “What did the bagels ever do to you?”
Whether bagels being tossed after sports wins is to become a new tradition at MSU or if it’s just a strange occurrence remains unclear, but Roudebush said she prefers baked goods being tossed about more than furniture being burned in the streets.
“I would love for them to switch out the couch burnings for bagel throwing, that’s for sure,” she said. ”(It’s) much more wholesome.”
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Roudebush said her favorite bagel is blueberry with plain cream cheese.
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