I am writing in regards to the police actions this weekend against MSU post-loss crowds. I am sick and tired of all the people out there vilifying the MSU student body.
As I was walking across campus on my way to class Wednesday, I was utterly appalled to see a melee near the Administration Building on the banks of the Red Cedar River.
Life without a familiar computer is no cakewalk. I learned that lesson the hard way recently, after a small brush fire in my PC fried my motherboard, hard drive and possibly my flux capacitor. Unless it was homework time on my roommate's computer, I was forced to end my compulsive away-message-checking ways and find a new hobby.
Here's the scenario: You're walking home from the game, a little upset about the loss, but not enough to light a couch on fire.
I see that Lee June has made statements to The State News about this past weekend's riot-turned-civil disturbance.
Congratulations are in order for the student groups that have campaigned diligently for almost five years in an attempt to get MSU to join the Worker Rights Consortium.
As I sit down to think and write about Saturday night's events, the familiar lines of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Who'll Stop the Rain?" keep replaying in my mind. Frontman John Fogerty's line, "Clouds of mystery pourin'/Confusion on the ground," typify the experiences of soldiers who went to war in Vietnam and faced enemies they couldn't find and gases they didn't understand.
I can only speak for what I saw at M.A.C. and Albert avenues Saturday night and not at Cedar Village.
It's apparent no East Lansing City Council members were around to personally witness the tear gas attacks police officers launched against peacefully celebrating students following the MSU men's basketball team's loss to the University of North Carolina on Saturday.
MSU plays in the Final Four and people celebrate, but then cops attack. Just as they've always been, the East Lansing Police Department and other local cops are still anti-student, anti-youth thugs.
The editorial "Excessive force" (SN 4/4) is right on the money.
According to East Lansing ordinances, "assembling or acting with four or more other people for the purpose of engaging in a riot, or being nearby and remaining there with intent to riot, is illegal" ("Experts: Police used tear gas legally" SN 4/5). Unfortunately, the police got to decide if my intent was to riot, when it actually was showing MSU spirit and navigating the maze of blocked-off streets to get home. Can I make assumptions, too, and say the four or more officers assembled outside on Saturday were intending to riot?
The Tar Heels out-gunned and out-finessed the MSU men's basketball team in the second half on Saturday, but they never broke the team's spirit.
Following the basketball game on Saturday, my friends and I decided to go to another friend's house to visit and continue celebrating in a reasonable, responsible manner.
Coffee is the simple, everyday beverage that provides that much-needed boost of caffeine for getting through morning classes or late-night study sessions.
As an alumnus, it disturbs me to wake up on a Sunday morning, turn on the computer, and be greeted with headlines on every news site about the "riots" at MSU following the loss to North Carolina.
Your editorial requesting an apology from area police for using force is both misguided and baseless ("Excessive force" SN 4/4). If anyone should apologize, it should be The State News for such an overstated and overly dramatic editorial position.
Quoted from page 2A of The State News from April 4: "Large groups of people gathering in the roads and on sidewalks is illegal, police said" ("Police, student actions disputed"). I will confess that my knowledge of the law is limited to what I've read in, well, the U.S.
When I first read the news of the pope's death on an away message Saturday, I immediately felt a sense of loss and relief.
In the wake of multiple institutional e-mails cautioning against it, after weeks of speculation on whether or not it would occur, and in light of spoken warnings from professors, a riot did not take place in East Lansing this weekend.