Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeRecent Michigan State riot not a big surprise
April 4, 2005 —
Before this past weekend's NCAA Final Four games, there were rampant jokes about whether or not the Michigan State student body would riot if the Spartans pulled off the improbable and won the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship. After all, the students rioted in 1999 after losing to the Duke Blue Devils in the National Semifinals.
And that's exactly what they did, according to police. According to the State News, police estimated at least 4,500 students and fans gathered in downtown East Lansing and between apartment complexes in the Cedar Village area. Forty arrests were made as of 1:30 am yesterday morning, and six fired had been spotted. Police released approximately two dozen tear gas canisters into the two crowds. The students and fans, of course, criticized the move, claiming groups were not violent and the actions were premature. The police said they were being proactive, not aggressive in their attempts to break up the large crowds and send people home.
Simply put, the way the night went down should be no surprise to anyone.
As mentioned, MSU students and fans have rioted before, and probably will again. It is, however, quite the disappointment, for several different reasons.
MSU and East Lansing officials tried their hardest to get the message of celebrating - or lamenting after the Spartans blew a five-point halftime lead against the University of North Carolina - responsibly. Tom Izzo, the Spartans men's head coach and Joanne P. McCallie, the women's head coach, even sent out friendly thank-you e-mails to the entire student body. The e-mail thanked the students for their support, but also stressed the importance of celebrating with class. But apparently, the message didn't get through to the students and fans.
And that's sad.
By ignoring the advice and warnings from school and city officials and making idiots of themselves anyway, the rioters only further cemented MSU's reputation as a riot school. The fact that the message had to be sent out shows the worries officials had of this happening again, and sadly, it did happen again. It's unfortunate that the students that did act responsibly now have such a terrible stigma to continue to deal with.
On a broader spectrum, the behavior of the students also makes us students here at SVSU and students everywhere else look that much worse. And to keep with the underlying story here, that's unfortunate. We already have an irreversible reputation as a party-first, study-later generation, and the actions by those at MSU certainly do not help our cause at all. And that, one last time, is unfortunate.