On Tuesday, David Hogburg of Cornfield Commentary had this post asking:



"Do me a favor and read the Des Moines Register’s account of the Veishea riot that occurred over the weekend at ISU. Is it just me, or does the story come off largely as “it was the fault of police”?"



Well it's official, David - it isn't just you. The Register has gone from hinting to explicit accusation with Erin Crawford's column today, "Who's to blame for Veishea violence, riots?"



The article begins:



"Student reaction in the aftermath is far more provocative than the $40,000 in damage the rioters created. What happened at Veishea was the result of a few hundred people behaving horribly. What students have to say about it indicates a red-alert level of antagonism between students and the police and school administration.



Students were critical of their schoolmates and their inappropriate behavior, but they saved their harshest words for police, who they said overreacted with frightening actions. . . Sunday morning's events were bizarre and destructive. But for these young adults, there's a line between drunken stupidity and malicious activity. And, for whatever reason, they don't think students crossed that line. They think police did."



Well, duh. I've been to many beer parties, both of age and underage, and the partiers never think the police acted fairly in breaking up the event. It's always "Totally bogus, dude." Sometimes they are correct. More often than not, their perspective is perhaps slightly skewed. Police force is a sliding scale that is supposed to be proportionate to the situation. Look at the situation here. According to this earlier story in the Register:



"About 100 police, state troopers and sheriff's deputies used tear gas, pepper spray and batons against a mob that broke windows, set trash fires, and threw rocks and bottles after officers broke up an off-campus party about midnight. No serious injuries were reported. . . About 350 people were at the party. . . After officers dispersed the crowd, it moved toward Welch Avenue, the stage for clashes between students and police during past Veisheas. 'People in the area began yelling and chanting, "Riot, riot," ' Police Commander Jim Robinson said. The crowd, some hurling bottles as well as insults, quickly swelled with Welch Avenue bar patrons to an estimated 1,000. 'While this was going on, officers were being pelted with bricks, concrete, rods, cans, coins and other items,' Jaeger said."



So you have police officers responding to community complaints about a party, which they are very obligated to do. They find 350 - 400 people at the residence, and ask them to disperse. Instead of going home or splitting up to separate parties, they go back to the 'ol riot center from past years, where they join the after-hours bar crowd and begin throwing rocks, sticks, bottles, concrete, and other items at the police, who are now outnumbered by about 10 to 1. They begin chanting "Riot, riot," and screaming insults at the officers. Just seriously sit back and picture yourself in the officers' shoes at that moment.



Can you feel a slight sense of panic? Do you understand, given crowd mentality, the potential for danger here?



So how did the officers respond? They shot tear gas into the crowd to disperse it. No, they didn't ask them to politely go home. They'd tried that, remember? But neither did they panic and shoot anyone. In fact, there were no serious injuries reported from police "attacks" or otherwise.



So how did the students respond? Did they go home? Did they stage a protest? File complaints against the department? No, they attacked local businesses.



There was considerable damage done, $40,000 by Ms. Crawford's own admission. Other details were noted in the AmesTribune story here: "Most commercial business owners carry insurance policies with high deductibles to keep premiums low. Crawford is relieved that rioters broke only one of the store's 10 windows. He estimates repair costs will reach $2,500. Pizza Pit and Welch Avenue Station owner Tom Northrop estimated his costs at $5,000 to $6,000. Rioters did $500 worth of damage to Mayhem Collectibles, $1,000 to Leedz Salon and an estimated $2,500 to US Bank. The Tribune was unable to contact Taco Bell, a business that sustained extensive external damage."



Okay, tell me how the police shooting you with tear gas somehow forces you to break a window at the Pizza Pit? Remember, that's the central premise of all this: it wouldn't have "gotten out of hand" if the police hadn't fired the tear gas. It's easy to slide past so much behavior with that phrase "gotten out of hand."



You mean the police forced you to pick up that rock/stick/bottle and attack a window?

The police made you inflict thousands of dollars in damage to a business that had nothing to do with the tear gas, the police, or the situation?



Oh, please.



As David Yepsen said in his column: "We read where some students want to "dialogue" about what happened. Dialogue? What's there to discuss? Laws were broken, people injured and property damaged. Instead of thinking of themselves as "victims," students need to learn real-life lessons in personal responsibility."