No. There is nothing more obnoxious and idiotic than the way people act when one group of people throws a ball around a bit better than another group of people. Keep your parties on private property, thank you very much. Some of us would like to actually drive on the roads that we pay taxes for.
If it comes down to freedom vs. state locking down on it, then I would be on the side of the fans in the street. Whatever results that occur are the price for freedom. However, this is a reaction to a sporting event and not some type of revolt by oppressed people attempting to be heard. Just because they can do this, doesn’t mean they should do it. If people want to raise their kids to be assholes, they have a right to do that and end up with kids who think its normal to act like complete idiots over a stupid game. Anything with large numbers of people adds to the likelihood of animalistic behavior even when the intention was simply to have a good time. In summary – I have a general dislike for the police much like Jimmy Dore because of my experience being harassed by them for years. However, I also have a general dislike for dumb jock assholes too. So I don’t have a problem watching too equally offensive groups of people fighting it out in the streets. Actually, it would be marvelous to hand out weapons too all for a fair chance and televise it live on HBO so people can watch them fight to the death. The ultimate asshole showdown. FREEDOM IN ACTION. LIVE.
It comes down to who should have manners. If a group comes together to protest because the participants are not being heard individually, then that’s something that we should be vigilant to protect.
A large group of partying sports fans are in no way oppressed people who need to march in the streets to express themselves. In fact, sports is all people talk about and argue about every minute of every day and on and on and on and on. If people devoted as much time as they do talking about sports to more important issues, there might be less need for the minority of people who are paying attention to real problems to feel that they need to resort to protesting. So if people think they can party spontaneously in public then hopefully they have been taught manners. Large numbers of people usually act like animals and for partying sports fans that is not acceptable given that have so many other options to express themselves as a group and individually. If you don’t see the difference, then maybe you’re an idiot or have been spoiled and don’t understand oppression.
All those giving examples of their street parties… that is irrelevant. Those are foreseen events in which people operating traffic would have prior knowledge.
The fact is, obstruction of streetways and roads slows down healthcare services.
In St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, we have a party in the street every year, on a major commuting road. The road is shut down, and everyone (who bothers going to work that morning) knows to find an alternate route. There is heavy police presence, and they have never pepper sprayed anyone.
A couple of years ago, violence erupted, and the police cancelled the whole event. They have warned us that they’ll do it again if they have to. But everything is well-planned and arranged in advance.
In Boston, the major highways are shut down on both sides of the Charles River every Independence Day, and a quarter million people party in the streets. The trains run on peak schedule. If you decide to drive on that day, it’s your own damn fault.
Hell yeah, the OSU fans should celebrate in the streets! But the authorities should prepare for it appropriately.
Agree with this comment , from a safe distance I see American cops spraying your citizens as though they are insects, and you still think this is the land of the free?
No. I am sorry they cannot unless there is a police protection for “the rowdy in the street” party.
When Germany won the World cup, people have partied in the street. It was one particular street (at least in my city which is one of the most crowded) and police closed the street for cars at every enterance. If this is the situation then yeah go crazy.
Otherwise, even if you win the damn “hyperthetical” world war |||, you can not put people in danger. Besides of danger who decides that event is important enought to rowdy in the street,.Can people do that after national swimming championship too, what abt state chess champion, why not ?
Posse Comitatus says the military can’t be used on the streets against citizens. When the police show up with armoured personnel carriers and assault weapons, looks more like Posse Come-and-get-us…..but they were students celebrating afterall. When you only have a hammer…everything looks like a nail.
this is again such a typical extreme American reaction by the authorities to a situation that happens all around the world, I expect this from the Saudis, but sadly the last few years this behavior by the police has become to go to in America
maybe the US’ slogan should be “Order” instead of “Freedom”
Giving up freedom for security is increasingly the wrong answer – even in ‘mundane’ situations like a football game. This stuff is important. Yes, the citizens of a free society should be able to gather in THEIR streets and celebrate. Period.
(Ana is, in all else, Amazing & my Hero!)
So, Anna lets put the argument this way. What about parades or police officers funerals, or other larger scale events (public or private) lets say Shane concerts maybe, these all cause traffic issues and is why all Fire and police have several routes to get to different parts of every city. This was also a public event known ahead of time. Are traffic problems okay for thing you enjoy but not others. By the way I am not a sports fan or watch sports myself.
The fires sounds like you heard there were fires and then found out the cities fire departments reported 71 fires for the city that night and then said see they were starting fires, but there is no evidence showing any of those fires were caused by the fans and students, or were in an area to slow down emergency services response, but you are using them in your argument as if they are already known facts. Please you don’t work at fox news. I’m not saying if there were fires or not caused by the student, I think there were. My issue were how you used poor info for your arguments. Knowing how college students and especially fraternities can behave. I am certain there were fires in barrels and on couches in frat house lawns. It gets colder than 50 degrees (your dieing point) in Ohio in the winter.
Last thing is you are grouping all the students and fans together. Thousands of people were at that game and celebrating afterwards. If fires did occur is was a only a select few that did it. Are we to say no one is allowed to freely assemble and celebrate because of the actions of a few, I thought we as a people were trying to move away from that Idea.
Ana is right. Why does celebrating have to involve blocking traffic? Why do sports fans need to piss on someones cornflakes in order to have a good time?
When Ana was on Joe Rogan’s podcast he made the case that purposely blocking traffic to protest was irresponsible and could lead to people getting killed by preventing or delaying emergency vehicles from getting through. It seems like that may have resonated with Ana and it should because it is a reasonable argument.
Seriously, what if every group decided to block traffic whenever they wanted to celebrate something important to them? The Roads would be unusable. Also, lets keep in mind that it is ILLEGAL to block traffic. Remember when Krystal Ball said that NSA surveillance was OK because we could trust Obama. Cenk made the case that we are a nation of laws and not of people. Now, Cenk is saying, “well, I think people be allowed to block traffic to celebrate so fuck the law.”
look here Ana, you must see the way the party animals see it as. They love their football and love their school. it’s like watching your family win the Jackpot. Of course people are going to celebrate just like any person would.
Yeah, college students celebrating in the streets is the logical equivalent to self-proclaimed radical Muslim fundamentalists/terrorists threats to western society. I don’t recall hearing about any beheadings in the streets of Ohio. (*Worst* case they may have beheaded a stuffed animal of the opposing team’s mascot.) It’s OK to block off streets and traffic if it’s a “Race for the Cure”, or a bicycle race, or a parade, or political protest — but God forbid a handful of streets around a college get shut down for a couple hours at 10PM so that college students can celebrate a team win…. Sheesh…. Calm down kids. You’re at a “ten” — we need you at a “two”.
Difference between protest and this is really nothing. Usually, protests are planned so that police can provide adequate protection to both sides and set up a situation for safe congregation. If one million people randomly appeared in the centre of a small town, they would have to be dispersed. Such as it is, that is why they needed to be cleared.
I understand that people want to celebrate in the streets but when there are people getting heart and fires being started and the paramedics and the fire trucks want to get through its not easy when the street is literally blocked. Of course because the injuries were minor its not a big deal but if someone were to die because of the fires or otherwise, it would be a much more serious thing that the roads were blocked and the cops didn’t do anything. The paramedics have to treat emergencies the same way whether they are minor or not. Obviously pepper spraying everyone was extreme and completely unnecessary but it wasn’t wrong for the police to try and get everyone of the streets for the emergency vehicles. I have to say i am completely on Ana’s side for this even though I don’t think it is wrong to celebrate a win, but when the police and fire department are getting calls about fires and injuries is it really so preposterous to think that the cops would want to get people off the middle of the streets and disperse the crowd a bit because it’s getting out of hand. Sure setting up a blockade would help but would that mean that inside the blockade arson and vandalism is OK? No its not so when there is an ambulance and a fire truck get the hell of the middle of the street. Obviously the police weren’t prepared enough and they could have definitely avoided using pepper spray and done something a little less extreme but their goal wasn’t wrong at all.
You’re having a totally different argument in your head, one that most people would agree with. The question was not “should people vandalize and start fires during a party?” or “should the cops use pepper spray to disperse the crowd?”
The question is “should they have had a rowdy party?” and if the answer to that is no, then it has to be enforced in some way. Then the question becomes, “how do you enforce it?” How do you account for freedom of expression and assembly? Do you deny people the right to have a party because of the possibility it might get out of hand?
Maybe that crowd needed to be dispersed, maybe it didn’t. 89 fires sounds like a lot, but it’s weird that we haven’t seen anything like that on video. Maybe it’s media bias, but surely in this digital age someone captured it somewhere.
Fair enough, people see a huge difference between assembling for protest and assembling for a party.
How do you differentiate and enforce in a way that does not impact the ability to assemble for peaceful protests? If the Police crack down on one, they can crack down on the other using similar precedent. How do we pick and choose when civil rights like freedom of association/assembly and expression/speech apply and when they are too dangerous or too much of an inconvenience?
If the standard is “people should not have rowdy parties in the street” I think that goes too far and could be interpreted too broadly.
I fail to see the difference between the partying in the streets and a parade, public demonstration, or protest. Are people not allowed to protest in the streets?
Ana, using that same logic, should mass protests/rallies such as the ones against the war in iraq/charlie hebdo. Also be not allowed as they cut off street access for fire/ambulance services.
planned or unplanned they both cause the same result. I agree that destruction of public property is wrong. But there has to be circumstances in which things like this can occur.
A rally or mass protest is something with a purpose, and are for the most part non-violent. This was just a bunch of drunk assholes being destructive, so I see a huge difference between the two. Ones worth the trouble, the other is just a bunch of idiots.
This wasn;t intended to be a protest. It was a spontaneous celebration. You clearly do not live in a college town – or at least not one with a huge sports program. It’s *very normal* for everyone living in the dorms to pile into the streets around a college after any huge game, especially a championship. It’s not all “drunk assholes”, it’s a bunch of college kids who are excited about their team winning… Sometimes they go too far with the street partying – but I don’t recall ever seeing an event that warranted tear gas or rubber bullets… These are college kids celebrating a game, folks…. That’s it.
Lets see, Protesting to bring about social change vs. drunkenly causing property destruction because some team you’re not on just got more points than another team you’re not on. You’re right. They’re completely equal.
I never said they were equal. The point is you clamp down on one then you open the possibility to clamp down on the other. The reality is that there is very little difference between the examples. Protesting is not always peaceful and celebrations are not always rowdy. Both situations block the streets and cause unsafe conditions to some degree. Besides there are people that don’t want to see that social change and they could use the example of cracking down on one situation as an excuse they can use to crack down on the other. I like to call it authority creep.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree because I feel there’s a huge difference between the two. Of course all protests aren’t peaceful, but most are. The “celebrations” only purpose it to keep whipping everyone up into a frenzy until things do get out of hand. Like I said, just go to a bar.
I have to agree with Trevbo85. Protests are supposed to be loud disruptive and inconvienent for the rest of the public otherwise no one would pay attention to them and nothing would change ever. They sometimes even resemble celebrations its dangerous precedent to let the authorities determine what is constitutionally protected and what is not.
It was at midnight on a Monday night. The students were blocking the way of the two cars that wanted to go down High Street in those 20 minutes. Cenk is right.
I live in Ohio and couldn’t give two shits about this stupid ass game, and sure as shit don’t want to deal with a bunch of drunk rowdy assholes who think they now have permission to set fires, block roadways, and just generally be assholes, all because of some stupid sports victory that had absolutely nothing to do with any of them. I’m with Anna all the way.
Well, of course you’d have that opinion if you don’t give a crap about the *local* team that won the national championship. However, when your local team wins a *national championship* there are A LOT of people that have vested tons of emotional energy in every game leading up to the championship. Stop being such a curmudgeon, and let the LOCAL people who actually have *pride* in their college celebrate for a FEW hours once every few years (or for most college towns a national championship is a once a decade or two [if ever] event).. I live in Raleigh, NC where college basketball reigns supreme (Duke, UNC, NC State are all within ~25 miles of each other). We’ve seen MANY college championship celebrations, and some certainly go too far (including overturned and burnt cars) – however, police don’t break out the teargas and rubber bullets. Our entire area is to an extent defined by these three colleges, and the students that go to them *expect* to be able to party in the streets whenever a ‘big game’ is won – let alone a championship. The police, politicians, and residents all know and accept this. If things changed and reactions to games were treated as “police state” situations it would greatly diminish the attractiveness of the colleges in general, and klll the whole energetic scene here., which would result in much larger negative economic impact than those few cars that get trashed every decade, or the frustrations of those who don’t care for basketball who have to tolerate a couple closed downtown roads and lanes at 11pm….
Ha, vested tons of “wasted” emotional energy. Nope. Shut’em down. Happy the team that you didn’t do a single solitary thing for other than yell like an idoit got more points? Great, go to a bar and celebrate. Leave my property alone. And I guess those poor colleges will just have to find a way to rip more money off from somewhere else.
It is the responsibility of the city to be prepared for this type of celebration if they are in the championship game. This is not something that just started happening last year. For years these types of celebrations in the streets have happened in every single city that has won the championship. Couches, dumpsters, tires and sometimes even cars are set fire to. Clear the block of these things, set up an area for the people to party in, make a blockade and keep everyone inside this area. At 3am, start with a line of policeman in the middle of the area and clear everyone out walking towards the outside of the area. This works. I have seen it. This city seemed to have been blind to what was about to happen here. The police were not prepared nor was the area that this celebration took place. Do not try to control this situation with unnecessary force as it will only make matters much worst. Its gonna happen whether they want it to or not, the best way to handle it is to prepare for it.
Ana gets pissed about anything related to sports – especially if it might impact her ability to get to a dance club, or her home, or park her car… In this situation, she probably doesn’t realize that the streets that were closed down were a small handful of streets in and around the college *itself*. It’s not like they shutdown the highways….
Comments
No. There is nothing more obnoxious and idiotic than the way people act when one group of people throws a ball around a bit better than another group of people. Keep your parties on private property, thank you very much. Some of us would like to actually drive on the roads that we pay taxes for.
Yes the fans should party and the police should redirect the traffic around.
Let them party!!
Sometimes freedom is dangerous, but you can’t just shut down life!
If it comes down to freedom vs. state locking down on it, then I would be on the side of the fans in the street. Whatever results that occur are the price for freedom. However, this is a reaction to a sporting event and not some type of revolt by oppressed people attempting to be heard. Just because they can do this, doesn’t mean they should do it. If people want to raise their kids to be assholes, they have a right to do that and end up with kids who think its normal to act like complete idiots over a stupid game. Anything with large numbers of people adds to the likelihood of animalistic behavior even when the intention was simply to have a good time. In summary – I have a general dislike for the police much like Jimmy Dore because of my experience being harassed by them for years. However, I also have a general dislike for dumb jock assholes too. So I don’t have a problem watching too equally offensive groups of people fighting it out in the streets. Actually, it would be marvelous to hand out weapons too all for a fair chance and televise it live on HBO so people can watch them fight to the death. The ultimate asshole showdown. FREEDOM IN ACTION. LIVE.
It comes down to who should have manners. If a group comes together to protest because the participants are not being heard individually, then that’s something that we should be vigilant to protect.
A large group of partying sports fans are in no way oppressed people who need to march in the streets to express themselves. In fact, sports is all people talk about and argue about every minute of every day and on and on and on and on. If people devoted as much time as they do talking about sports to more important issues, there might be less need for the minority of people who are paying attention to real problems to feel that they need to resort to protesting. So if people think they can party spontaneously in public then hopefully they have been taught manners. Large numbers of people usually act like animals and for partying sports fans that is not acceptable given that have so many other options to express themselves as a group and individually. If you don’t see the difference, then maybe you’re an idiot or have been spoiled and don’t understand oppression.
All those giving examples of their street parties… that is irrelevant. Those are foreseen events in which people operating traffic would have prior knowledge.
The fact is, obstruction of streetways and roads slows down healthcare services.
In St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, we have a party in the street every year, on a major commuting road. The road is shut down, and everyone (who bothers going to work that morning) knows to find an alternate route. There is heavy police presence, and they have never pepper sprayed anyone.
A couple of years ago, violence erupted, and the police cancelled the whole event. They have warned us that they’ll do it again if they have to. But everything is well-planned and arranged in advance.
In Boston, the major highways are shut down on both sides of the Charles River every Independence Day, and a quarter million people party in the streets. The trains run on peak schedule. If you decide to drive on that day, it’s your own damn fault.
Hell yeah, the OSU fans should celebrate in the streets! But the authorities should prepare for it appropriately.
Agree with this comment , from a safe distance I see American cops spraying your citizens as though they are insects, and you still think this is the land of the free?
No. I am sorry they cannot unless there is a police protection for “the rowdy in the street” party.
When Germany won the World cup, people have partied in the street. It was one particular street (at least in my city which is one of the most crowded) and police closed the street for cars at every enterance. If this is the situation then yeah go crazy.
Otherwise, even if you win the damn “hyperthetical” world war |||, you can not put people in danger. Besides of danger who decides that event is important enought to rowdy in the street,.Can people do that after national swimming championship too, what abt state chess champion, why not ?
I would compare this to hooligans at soccer games it can cause a lot trouble .
Posse Comitatus says the military can’t be used on the streets against citizens. When the police show up with armoured personnel carriers and assault weapons, looks more like Posse Come-and-get-us…..but they were students celebrating afterall. When you only have a hammer…everything looks like a nail.
this is again such a typical extreme American reaction by the authorities to a situation that happens all around the world, I expect this from the Saudis, but sadly the last few years this behavior by the police has become to go to in America
maybe the US’ slogan should be “Order” instead of “Freedom”
Giving up freedom for security is increasingly the wrong answer – even in ‘mundane’ situations like a football game. This stuff is important. Yes, the citizens of a free society should be able to gather in THEIR streets and celebrate. Period.
(Ana is, in all else, Amazing & my Hero!)
So, Anna lets put the argument this way. What about parades or police officers funerals, or other larger scale events (public or private) lets say Shane concerts maybe, these all cause traffic issues and is why all Fire and police have several routes to get to different parts of every city. This was also a public event known ahead of time. Are traffic problems okay for thing you enjoy but not others. By the way I am not a sports fan or watch sports myself.
The fires sounds like you heard there were fires and then found out the cities fire departments reported 71 fires for the city that night and then said see they were starting fires, but there is no evidence showing any of those fires were caused by the fans and students, or were in an area to slow down emergency services response, but you are using them in your argument as if they are already known facts. Please you don’t work at fox news. I’m not saying if there were fires or not caused by the student, I think there were. My issue were how you used poor info for your arguments. Knowing how college students and especially fraternities can behave. I am certain there were fires in barrels and on couches in frat house lawns. It gets colder than 50 degrees (your dieing point) in Ohio in the winter.
Last thing is you are grouping all the students and fans together. Thousands of people were at that game and celebrating afterwards. If fires did occur is was a only a select few that did it. Are we to say no one is allowed to freely assemble and celebrate because of the actions of a few, I thought we as a people were trying to move away from that Idea.
Ana is right. Why does celebrating have to involve blocking traffic? Why do sports fans need to piss on someones cornflakes in order to have a good time?
When Ana was on Joe Rogan’s podcast he made the case that purposely blocking traffic to protest was irresponsible and could lead to people getting killed by preventing or delaying emergency vehicles from getting through. It seems like that may have resonated with Ana and it should because it is a reasonable argument.
Seriously, what if every group decided to block traffic whenever they wanted to celebrate something important to them? The Roads would be unusable. Also, lets keep in mind that it is ILLEGAL to block traffic. Remember when Krystal Ball said that NSA surveillance was OK because we could trust Obama. Cenk made the case that we are a nation of laws and not of people. Now, Cenk is saying, “well, I think people be allowed to block traffic to celebrate so fuck the law.”
look here Ana, you must see the way the party animals see it as. They love their football and love their school. it’s like watching your family win the Jackpot. Of course people are going to celebrate just like any person would.
p.s. Ana is Smokin!
OH, well I guess it is ok to break the law if it is very important to you.. I think you’ve been drinking the Anjem Choudary kool-aid.
Yeah, college students celebrating in the streets is the logical equivalent to self-proclaimed radical Muslim fundamentalists/terrorists threats to western society. I don’t recall hearing about any beheadings in the streets of Ohio. (*Worst* case they may have beheaded a stuffed animal of the opposing team’s mascot.) It’s OK to block off streets and traffic if it’s a “Race for the Cure”, or a bicycle race, or a parade, or political protest — but God forbid a handful of streets around a college get shut down for a couple hours at 10PM so that college students can celebrate a team win…. Sheesh…. Calm down kids. You’re at a “ten” — we need you at a “two”.
Difference between protest and this is really nothing. Usually, protests are planned so that police can provide adequate protection to both sides and set up a situation for safe congregation. If one million people randomly appeared in the centre of a small town, they would have to be dispersed. Such as it is, that is why they needed to be cleared.
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I understand that people want to celebrate in the streets but when there are people getting heart and fires being started and the paramedics and the fire trucks want to get through its not easy when the street is literally blocked. Of course because the injuries were minor its not a big deal but if someone were to die because of the fires or otherwise, it would be a much more serious thing that the roads were blocked and the cops didn’t do anything. The paramedics have to treat emergencies the same way whether they are minor or not. Obviously pepper spraying everyone was extreme and completely unnecessary but it wasn’t wrong for the police to try and get everyone of the streets for the emergency vehicles. I have to say i am completely on Ana’s side for this even though I don’t think it is wrong to celebrate a win, but when the police and fire department are getting calls about fires and injuries is it really so preposterous to think that the cops would want to get people off the middle of the streets and disperse the crowd a bit because it’s getting out of hand. Sure setting up a blockade would help but would that mean that inside the blockade arson and vandalism is OK? No its not so when there is an ambulance and a fire truck get the hell of the middle of the street. Obviously the police weren’t prepared enough and they could have definitely avoided using pepper spray and done something a little less extreme but their goal wasn’t wrong at all.
You’re having a totally different argument in your head, one that most people would agree with. The question was not “should people vandalize and start fires during a party?” or “should the cops use pepper spray to disperse the crowd?”
The question is “should they have had a rowdy party?” and if the answer to that is no, then it has to be enforced in some way. Then the question becomes, “how do you enforce it?” How do you account for freedom of expression and assembly? Do you deny people the right to have a party because of the possibility it might get out of hand?
Maybe that crowd needed to be dispersed, maybe it didn’t. 89 fires sounds like a lot, but it’s weird that we haven’t seen anything like that on video. Maybe it’s media bias, but surely in this digital age someone captured it somewhere.
http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2013/01/alabama_bcs_rout_of_notre_dame.html
Went to Alabama, and the above link shows the correct way this is handled. Use it, Cenk! USE IT!
Fair enough, people see a huge difference between assembling for protest and assembling for a party.
How do you differentiate and enforce in a way that does not impact the ability to assemble for peaceful protests? If the Police crack down on one, they can crack down on the other using similar precedent. How do we pick and choose when civil rights like freedom of association/assembly and expression/speech apply and when they are too dangerous or too much of an inconvenience?
If the standard is “people should not have rowdy parties in the street” I think that goes too far and could be interpreted too broadly.
I fail to see the difference between the partying in the streets and a parade, public demonstration, or protest. Are people not allowed to protest in the streets?
Ana, using that same logic, should mass protests/rallies such as the ones against the war in iraq/charlie hebdo. Also be not allowed as they cut off street access for fire/ambulance services.
planned or unplanned they both cause the same result. I agree that destruction of public property is wrong. But there has to be circumstances in which things like this can occur.
A rally or mass protest is something with a purpose, and are for the most part non-violent. This was just a bunch of drunk assholes being destructive, so I see a huge difference between the two. Ones worth the trouble, the other is just a bunch of idiots.
This wasn;t intended to be a protest. It was a spontaneous celebration. You clearly do not live in a college town – or at least not one with a huge sports program. It’s *very normal* for everyone living in the dorms to pile into the streets around a college after any huge game, especially a championship. It’s not all “drunk assholes”, it’s a bunch of college kids who are excited about their team winning… Sometimes they go too far with the street partying – but I don’t recall ever seeing an event that warranted tear gas or rubber bullets… These are college kids celebrating a game, folks…. That’s it.
Lived in a “College Town” for four years when I went. Have been to Ohio State many times. Nope. Go to a bar.
Who are you to say that their celebration didn’t have a purpose? Also, who are you to say one event is more important than the other?
Ha ha. Who are you to ask me who I am?
Lets see, Protesting to bring about social change vs. drunkenly causing property destruction because some team you’re not on just got more points than another team you’re not on. You’re right. They’re completely equal.
I never said they were equal. The point is you clamp down on one then you open the possibility to clamp down on the other. The reality is that there is very little difference between the examples. Protesting is not always peaceful and celebrations are not always rowdy. Both situations block the streets and cause unsafe conditions to some degree. Besides there are people that don’t want to see that social change and they could use the example of cracking down on one situation as an excuse they can use to crack down on the other. I like to call it authority creep.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree because I feel there’s a huge difference between the two. Of course all protests aren’t peaceful, but most are. The “celebrations” only purpose it to keep whipping everyone up into a frenzy until things do get out of hand. Like I said, just go to a bar.
I have to agree with Trevbo85. Protests are supposed to be loud disruptive and inconvienent for the rest of the public otherwise no one would pay attention to them and nothing would change ever. They sometimes even resemble celebrations its dangerous precedent to let the authorities determine what is constitutionally protected and what is not.
It was at midnight on a Monday night. The students were blocking the way of the two cars that wanted to go down High Street in those 20 minutes. Cenk is right.
I live in Ohio and couldn’t give two shits about this stupid ass game, and sure as shit don’t want to deal with a bunch of drunk rowdy assholes who think they now have permission to set fires, block roadways, and just generally be assholes, all because of some stupid sports victory that had absolutely nothing to do with any of them. I’m with Anna all the way.
Well, of course you’d have that opinion if you don’t give a crap about the *local* team that won the national championship. However, when your local team wins a *national championship* there are A LOT of people that have vested tons of emotional energy in every game leading up to the championship. Stop being such a curmudgeon, and let the LOCAL people who actually have *pride* in their college celebrate for a FEW hours once every few years (or for most college towns a national championship is a once a decade or two [if ever] event).. I live in Raleigh, NC where college basketball reigns supreme (Duke, UNC, NC State are all within ~25 miles of each other). We’ve seen MANY college championship celebrations, and some certainly go too far (including overturned and burnt cars) – however, police don’t break out the teargas and rubber bullets. Our entire area is to an extent defined by these three colleges, and the students that go to them *expect* to be able to party in the streets whenever a ‘big game’ is won – let alone a championship. The police, politicians, and residents all know and accept this. If things changed and reactions to games were treated as “police state” situations it would greatly diminish the attractiveness of the colleges in general, and klll the whole energetic scene here., which would result in much larger negative economic impact than those few cars that get trashed every decade, or the frustrations of those who don’t care for basketball who have to tolerate a couple closed downtown roads and lanes at 11pm….
Ha, vested tons of “wasted” emotional energy. Nope. Shut’em down. Happy the team that you didn’t do a single solitary thing for other than yell like an idoit got more points? Great, go to a bar and celebrate. Leave my property alone. And I guess those poor colleges will just have to find a way to rip more money off from somewhere else.
It is the responsibility of the city to be prepared for this type of celebration if they are in the championship game. This is not something that just started happening last year. For years these types of celebrations in the streets have happened in every single city that has won the championship. Couches, dumpsters, tires and sometimes even cars are set fire to. Clear the block of these things, set up an area for the people to party in, make a blockade and keep everyone inside this area. At 3am, start with a line of policeman in the middle of the area and clear everyone out walking towards the outside of the area. This works. I have seen it. This city seemed to have been blind to what was about to happen here. The police were not prepared nor was the area that this celebration took place. Do not try to control this situation with unnecessary force as it will only make matters much worst. Its gonna happen whether they want it to or not, the best way to handle it is to prepare for it.
I love you ana but party in the streets is always the right answer
Ana gets pissed about anything related to sports – especially if it might impact her ability to get to a dance club, or her home, or park her car… In this situation, she probably doesn’t realize that the streets that were closed down were a small handful of streets in and around the college *itself*. It’s not like they shutdown the highways….