Rioters feed a fire with furniture and debris late Friday in the intersection of 14th Avenue and Ferry Street in Eugene. The riot lasted into the morning.
Posted on 10/03/2002 8:57:22 PM PDT by Glutton
Thirty-five people were arrested early Saturday during a campus-area riot in which gasoline was used to light fires that were then stoked with signs, furniture and even a golf cart.
After repeatedly ordering the crowd of mostly young people to disperse, officers from Eugene police and the Lane County sheriff's office used tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the riot.
Six women and 28 men were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with police, Eugene police spokeswoman Pam Olshanski said. Another man was jailed on charges of attempted theft and assault after he allegedly attacked an officer and tried to take his gun from his holster, Olshanski said.
Residents first called police just after 11 p.m., telling dispatchers that "several hundred" people were flooding the streets at the intersection of East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street, Olshanski said. But by 12:45 a.m., when about 40 officers stepped in to break up the crowd, the gathering had swelled to about 1,500 people.
Olshanski said she didn't know how many of the rioters were students attending the University of Oregon, which begins its fall term on Monday. She said, however, that "there were certainly a lot of young people involved in the riot."
Many residents of the west university neighborhood, dubbed "the college ghetto" by 14th Avenue resident Annie Dimond, were startled by the scene.
"All of a sudden everybody came rushing into the street," said Dimond, 22, who called police about 11:30 p.m. to report that fires were being set in the street. "It sounded like a crowd cheering at a football game at Autzen.
"There's things going on all over the world to protest about, but this was just about being drunk and stupid."
Dimond, speaking late Saturday morning on her front porch, said that when officers first arrived, they just watched as revelers ripped out street signs and threw them into a bonfire set in a traffic-circle planter at 14th and Ferry.
"I told them I was frightened for my safety, but they said, `We're outnumbered,` " Dimond recalled.
Olshanski said "several units" of Eugene officers responded to the calls immediately and observed the riot while waiting for help to arrive.
"They didn't intervene," Olshanski said. "The officers could see the fire and the large crowd there, but they're not stupid. They took an observer position and called in the Crowd Control Team" of Eugene police officers and sheriff's deputies.
The first officers to respond to the riot videotaped the scene, and further arrests could be made as a result, Olshanski said.
"Without a doubt, they'll take steps to identify all those who are identifiable on the tape," she said. "This is not the end of the arrests."
Some rioters carried gas cans as they moved through the crowd and set additional fires. Others threw clothes, furniture and other debris onto the largest fire at 14th and Ferry.
Olshanski said officers witnessed people actually throwing themselves into the flames that reached up to 20 feet high, catching their clothes on fire.
"They jumped right into the fire and had other people stomp them out," Olshanski said. "There was one fire being set after another, and people were using anything they could find and throwing it into the flames. There was debris everywhere."
At one point, a man drove a golf cart into the flames as others continued to throw debris into the blaze.
Six additional fires were set at other intersections as rioters moved west along 14th and 15th avenues. Olshanski said that because some people carried gas cans during the uproar, officers diverted the crowd away from campus and Sacred Heart Medical Center, Olshanski said.
Ferry Street resident Kellen Terrett, 19, a UO sophomore, said things "got scary" at 14th and Ferry about 1 a.m.
"The flames kept getting bigger and bigger and it kept getting rowdier and rowdier," he said. "For a while there, it didn't seem like it would ever stop growing. You wouldn't expect 40 or 50 cops to be able to stop something like that."
Terrett helped put out a trash bin fire in an alley next to his home, and at one point tear gas "came billowing into the house."
Olshanski confirmed that beginning about 1 a.m., officers fired multiple canisters of tear gas as well as rubber bullets in order to break up the crowds.
Officers were continually pelted with debris as they moved into the crowd. Eugene firefighters, escorted by police, also had to dodge bottles, bricks and rocks as they worked to extinguish the fires, Olshanski said.
Police managed to clear the streets of all rioters by 3 a.m., but officers stayed on the scene until about 5 a.m. The Oregon State Police's Mobile Response Team arrived to help with extra patrols after most people had left the area.
Springfield police helped cover the rest of Eugene while officers concentrated on shutting down the riot, Olshanski said.
Eugene Sgt. Derel Schulz said police were aware that the weekend would include "more gatherings than usual" because students are returning to town, but the riot caught them by surprise.
"We didn't have any indication there would be any kind of problems," Schulz said. "It was a much bigger deal than the last one."
The last one was on May 31, when about 500 people gathered in the streets just west of campus and hurled bottles and rocks at officers who showed up to end the disturbance. In that incident, eight officers suffered minor injuries and windows in three patrol cars were smashed out. Police arrested 11 people.
Schulz said numerous police cars were dented by thrown items on Saturday, but no officers were injured.
Anne Leavitt, the UO's associate vice president for student affairs, said school officials were disappointed by the riot, especially considering that it came so soon after the May melee.
"We're very distressed and startled to know that there are people in the community who would return to that after the destruction caused last May," Leavitt said. "We consider this behavior dangerous and irresponsible and hope people don't have a sense that this is how you behave here. We don't want these types of events to characterize our weekends."
Leavitt said university officials will do what they can to work with involved "citizen-scholars" and let them know what is expected of students who attend the UO. The university's conduct code does not allow administrators to punish students for such behavior that takes place off campus.
All those arrested were taken to the Lane County Jail.
Police charged Christopher Edward Gillis, 26, with first-degree attempted theft, first-degree attempted assault, assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and interfering with police. He is accused of attacking an officer from behind near the corner of 14th Avenue and Alder Street and trying to take his weapon, Olshanski said.
Police didn't release the names of the 34 people charged with less serious crimes. Schulz said his department wasn't adequately staffed on Saturday to compile a list of all those arrested.
September 30, 2002
Police cite 55 in riot aftermath
Eugene police handed out 55 citations Saturday night and Sunday morning in the west university neighborhood near where a riot broke out in the streets one night earlier.
Eight officers and a sergeant from the Eugene Police Department focused on the neighborhood throughout the night, making sure area parties didn't get out of hand, Eugene police Lt. Pete Kerns said.
Kerns said individuals were cited on suspicion of being minors in possession of alcohol or having open containers while in public. Kerns said about 90 percent of all those cited identified themselves as University of Oregon students.
Police made just one arrest during the night. A man who was seen leaving a party in a car was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Police arrested 35 people late Friday and early Saturday in the blocks surrounding East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street during a riot involving an estimated 1,500 people. Rioters set a total of seven fires during the melee, and one man was arrested after allegedly trying to take an officer's weapon.
October 1, 2002
Police get help from UO to identify rioters
By GREG BOLT The Register-Guard
University of Oregon officials are helping police identify students who took part in a weekend riot off campus and say any who are guilty should pay the full price.
"We anticipate more arrests, and we believe some of those will be students," said Anne Leavitt, vice president for student affairs. "We won't be asking for any leniency or special consideration, because this is the worst kind of hooliganism. We want it fully sanctioned."
Campus leaders strongly denounced the melee, which began Friday night in the west campus neighborhood and escalated into a bonfire-fueled riot involving about 1,500 people. Many of those involved are believed to be college students, although university and police tallies differ.
UO President Dave Frohnmayer, who is traveling out of state, issued a statement Monday condemning the rioters and pledging the university's cooperation in preventing any reoccurrence.
"The events near campus this weekend leave me appalled and dismayed," Frohnmayer said. "These actions disrupted and endangered the lives of students and residents of the west campus neighbor- hood. Such behaviors are absolutely unacceptable."
But he also noted that the university's student code of conduct doesn't allow it to sanction students for behavior that takes place off campus. The university began a review of the conduct code last year - before the recent riot and a smaller one last May - that could allow sanctions for off-campus behavior in the future.
Leavitt said the university is taking the riot seriously and will dish out what penalties it can, in addition to whatever is meted out by a court. Besides helping identify rioters from police videos, Leavitt said she will contact the parents of each student charged to "ask for help getting (the student) to understand the seriousness of their behavior."
She also plans to meet with each of the charged students to tell them personally that the university condemns their actions.
On campus, students also denounced the episode. Many used the same word to describe it.
"To me it's just pure stupidity," said Audrey Desjarlais, a bachelor of fine arts student. "I don't understand that mentality at all. It's pointless."
"I think it's stupid. I don't think it's appropriate behavior," said Shaun Cook, who works in the Erb Memorial Union and plans to enroll next term.
"It was a bad thing, because as far as I can tell there wasn't any point to it," said freshman Zachary Miller. "It was just college students being stupid."
But students weren't so concerned about the riot tarnishing the university's image.
Some said the same thing happens in other places and think it's a matter best addressed at the city level.
"I don't really see it being a university problem," said graduate student Sarah Siegrist. "I think it could have just as easily happened in Corvallis or any other university town."
Student body president Rachel Pilliod said the riot caught a lot of attention on campus and that student leaders want to work with the administration and the community to address off-campus problems.
The melee casts a poor light on the university and its students, she said, but pointed out that only a very small number of students were involved out of more than 20,000 at the UO this term.
"It's going put us all in a negative light that's undeserving for most University of Oregon students," she said.
Just how many UO students were involved remains unclear. Of the 35 people arrested after the riot, Eugene police said 27 were UO students, while the university said only 15 were enrolled.
Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey called on the university to sanction students, possibly by suspending them from campus.
He said he understands it's difficult for the UO to govern students off campus, but that the penalties available through the courts aren't enough.
Interfering with police, the most common charge filed against those arrested, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
First offenses in such cases typically draw probation or a lesser penalty such as several days in jail, community service or work on a sheriff's road crew.
If the university can't take action, Torrey suggested it should help the city pay for the extra patrols that will be necessary to prevent future incidents.
"This is costing the taxpayers of Eugene a sizeable amount of money," he said. "Not only for the event Friday, but for the patrols we're going to have to run in the university area between now and November, when it usually gets too cold and people start to stay inside."
Leavitt said that after Friday, she's leaning toward supporting revisions to the student code that allow the university to penalize students for things they do off campus. But she said any such change must clearly define which types of activity come under the code.
Even so, that kind of change is likely to spark debate. Chris Loschaivo, director of student judicial affairs, said that while some on campus support such language, many others strongly oppose it.
And changing the student code, most of which dates back to the 1960s, is time-consuming.
The committee working on the revision must agree on changes before holding hearings and then get the approval of both the University Senate and Frohnmayer.
Leavitt said it could be spring term before the process gets that far.
Other large public universities have begun looking at similar changes in their student codes, for similar reasons, Loschaivo said.
"Friday's behavior is not unique to Eugene," he said. "It's happened at Maryland, it's happened at Ohio, it's happened at Michigan State. It's starting to happen all over the country."
For now, Leavitt said the university will work with the city and neighborhood to develop ways to prevent future incidents.
In the short term, that means trying to reach west university residents directly with pamphlets and other material explaining the consequences of illegal behavior and offering information on appropriate ways to celebrate.
"We'll help any way we can," she said.
Another link:
Riot patrol tops police to-do list
I rode my bicycle down Franklin, a mile away on the night of the riot, and the tear gas there was so strong, I had to walk my machine as my eyes were teared out.
I knew better then to actually go up to the scene of stupidity, as having stubbled into a campus "We are drunk, and will not take it anymore!" riot, and it scared me how out of control and violent people were.
I am tired of this attitude of geting drunk and then tearing up the city. The taxpayers are out over forty thousand dollars, and the university says they cannot dicipline as this happened off campus.
Perhaps some changes in that policy is in order.
Also, the university is a "party" campus. Cannabis is of excellent quality and plentiful, and there are scores of people more then willing to buy alcohol for any minor asking.
The attitude of campus and for that matter Eugene at large needs to change. This riot meant several hours that no other part of Eugene had police protection, and the officers patrolling the next day were supposed to be off that day, or they had worked night watch.
That is a personal burden on thes men and women they do not need.
Fire Democrats, Hire Republicans !!
GWB Is The Man !!
Snuff Saddam, NOW !!
Death To all Tyrant's !!
The Second Amendment...
America's Original Homeland Security !!
Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!
Molon Labe !!
Rioters feed a fire with furniture and debris late Friday in the intersection of 14th Avenue and Ferry Street in Eugene. The riot lasted into the morning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.