Last weekend’s celebrations at Cedar Village were unexpected but also far from outside the norm after a big MSU victory.
They were also far from harmful.
East Lansing police were on site and ready to control the crowd before things even started.
They made some arrests that were certainly warranted. Setting fires and throwing bottles are dangerous acts that could result in serious harm.
But the ELPD also seemingly made arrests which, to The State News editorial board, appeared to be overreactions.
A handful of students were reportedly arrested, not just for setting fires or throwing bottles, but also for throwing bagels.
“The disorderly conduct ordinance prohibits throwing objects in a public street or sidewalk,” ELPD Lt. Steve Gonzalez told the Detroit Free Press earlier this week. “I guess what you want to stress with that is while throwing a bagel in and of itself is not a very dangerous act, and it’s certainly kind of benign in nature, but what we saw with that is when people started throwing the bagels it became a crowdwide thing to do.”
The fact that a police lieutenant would openly agree that throwing bagels is “not a very dangerous act” makes us believe the ELPD is overstepping their bounds by making arrests for something which is relatively harmless.
A disorderly conduct charge could potentially ruin a student’s life. To have a black mark like that on your record could easily have a negative effect on an individual’s chance to get a job or get into a school they want to attend.
Those charged were rumored to face possible eviction from their apartments and even the possibility of expulsion from MSU.
While the individuals who were burning things and throwing dangerous objects certainly deserve to be punished, bagels are not dangerous. The likelihood of someone being injured by a thrown bagel has to be pretty minuscule.
Punishing those students in a similar fashion to those who actually were putting others in danger is a serious overreaction.
Hopefully both the courts and MSU will look at each of these cases on an individual basis. Even taking mob mentality into account, it is not worth ruining a student’s life over throwing a piece of bread.
