Fear the Turtle
Posted on 03/30/2002 11:27:46 PM PST by hole_n_one
Police Clash With Students After Maryland Wins in Final Four
Published: Mar 31, 2002
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Police in riot gear and riding horseback fired pellets into a crowd of hundreds of celebrating Maryland basketball fans early Sunday, hours after the Terrapins advanced to the national championship game.
Several fans were hit with pellets that contained a white powdery substance that burns the throat when breathed. Some students on the scene said police used pepper spray to break up the crowd. Heavy rain around 1 a.m. forced many people to leave the scene.
About 10 people broke into a police car and stole flares that they later lit and threw at officers, who did not immediately respond. Other fans ripped up street signs and paraded them around an intersection near the University of Maryland campus.
A trash can was set on fire in front of a row of stores and people began throwing bottles and wooden benches at two police cars. Some crowd members used a metal newspaper bin to shatter the window of a Subway sandwich shop.
Officers used guns with red laser scopes to fire the rounds whenever someone from the crowd threw a bottle in their direction. An unidentified officer on the scene said police were shooting pellets with smoke that can cause some throat irritation.
"Everything is fine, everything is under control," said a Prince George's County police dispatcher who declined to give her name. She would not say what methods police used to control the crowd.
Solly Granatstein was shot with a pellet and sported a welt near his right eye with white powder around it.
"I was just standing on the side of the street when I was shot," he said.
Police on horseback moved in to try to disperse the crowd around midnight, and several horses knocked some fans to the ground. Officers closed a two-block section near the university after hundreds of cheering fans poured onto the street following the game.
On campus, about 500 spectators turned out at Cole Field House to watch a televised feed of Maryland's 97-88 win over Kansas. They rushed the court as the game's final seconds ticked away.
The victory secures Maryland a spot in Monday night's national championship game against Indiana.
University police and Prince George's County police were out in force Saturday to prevent a repeat of the bonfires and damages that followed Maryland's semifinals loss to Duke last year.
AP-ES-03-31-02 0209EST
Last year, your team loses, so you proceed tear up everything(that isn't yours) in sight and act like an a$#.
So this year your team wins and goes to the chamionship game, and you tear up everything of value that somebody else paid for in sight and act like an a%$.
Fear the Turtle
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