Even the diffident Amherst Bulletin has, after all these years, finally gotten it!
About the only thing missing in today's scorching editorial is an illustration borrowed from Vlad the Impaler with students heads on display at the former Frat Row -- the main gateway to UMass, and with streets like Fearing, Phillips and Lincoln Avenue, Ground Zero for rowdy, unsocial, dangerous out-of-control partying (like it's 1999).
As we discovered on 9/11 with the horrific destruction of the Twin Towers or the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi 4 days in to a grueling 31 day battle, symbols are vitally important in war.
The bucolic -- some would say bumpkin -- college town of Amherst, named after a British general, and the flagship of higher education in a state renowned for academia, UMass/Amherst, need to declare war on rowdy student parties.
And they both need to stop taking prisoners!
30 comments:
I call on all my students, the 99% who behave, to boycott the town of Amherst. The town's attitude is like Vietnam. Rather than drawing a line and containing the partying to one area, the town has come to carpet bomb wide swaths, hitting both friendly, behaved students, as well as
The US "lost" Vietnam, but not in an enforcement sense. The same can be done with Amherst. Let them hit the bad parties, the one with 400 students, but enough of the stereotypes and enforcements.
Actually I've been doing the math over the past month so I'm now down to 95% of the students (who behave.)
And if the town could survive a call for a boycott over not flying the commemorative flags on 9/11 they sure as hell can survive one now from a Cowardly Anon Nitwit like you.
Cesar Chavez would be so proud (yeah, sarcasm)!
Hmmm ... there is mention of an "officer" who has been out for three weeks. There is another mention of a "female officer" who broke up a fight.
Sad to see in 2012 that a woman can't be on the police force and be considered just an "officer" - which she is.
I always call her "officer."
Although I do believe when I covered the incident two weeks ago, I referenced her gender.
I think the reason why it's mentioned is because women genetically have less upper body strength than men.
And in a physical confrontation THAT can make a difference, since you do not want police officers using their sidearm as an equalizer.
Any cop -- male of female -- will tell you their number one weapon is a "voice of authority" and a blue uniform.
And quick back up, which fortunately she had that night.
If 95% is an accurate statistic, then I am the Holy Pope. Not to mention you're a journalist, a man of (few) words, not numbers...
As a mathematics fellow, I did an extremely rough percentage. The last arrest log published (Aug, 2012) shows a bit over 50 arrests. I, to prove your ridiculousness of your claim, will double that to 100 arrests (the log is from a quiet month and also doesn't include sensitive arrests, such as rape and murder. I'll include those as I am sure you believe UMass is the unique source of such things too). On top of that I did not even bother removing the arrests of town residents, as I am sure you believe these residents would not commit such crimes if UMass did not exist; Amherst is perfect after all.
1,200 arrests a year. Hell, let's say that, despite the town reverting to its stone age status during the summer, those darn kids hold some parties and 300 more arrests are made. 1,500 arrests total. A stunning 6.25%. That is including all arrests of Amherst citizens as well as the doubled rate. In reality it is far less, likely around 2-3%, and likely are repeat offenders.
As for the boycott, I still do to this day. After planting the flags (which I was called a anti-gay slur for doing so by a group of townfolk), I continued contributing to the town in hopes of reverting the stereotypical image. I even helped with several volunteer cleaning up all parks after the snow storm (we weren't allowed to clear roads due to insurance reasons, but 4-6 DPW workers were freed for other priorities due to our efforts). Not once was this mentioned by you, nor anyone in the thankless town. It should also be noted that 1 Hampshire, 1 Amherst, and 11 UMass students were the only volunteers who showed.
Men may be superior to women when it comes to upper body strength. But women have many assets, too, that make them superior to men. It is sexist to say "female officer" if you omit the word "male" in other accounts.
Personally, I think if a male suspect assaults an officer that is female, emphasizing gender is appropriate. Richard Marsh
Agreed! And it was a "college aged youth."
I too will "wield a big stick" and if the Amherst Bulletin ever darkens my mailbox again, it is they who will be arrested.
After this editorial, I don't want to hear anything anymore, you can all go straight to h***. Heaven forbid we have anything resembling due process or anything.
What people don't realize is that this is how the Holocaust happened.
"What people don't realize is that this is how the Holocaust happened."
Actually, Ed, I think most people do remember that "kristallnacht" refers to all the broken glass from beer bottles thrown at German police officers trying to break up an extra-rowdy seder. That's how the Holocaust began.
What was it that you got your doctorate in, exactly? Knuckleheadedness?
Larry --- as to boycotting Downtown Amherst, I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with the SCOTUS Case of NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. and the larger issue of the "Black Cap" boycott.
The boycott will be effective when the parents don't let their daughters work downtown -- without the waitresses, there is no bar/restaurant business downtown, and everything else is driven by that.
You already have bottles flying before the cops even get out of their cars -- a bottle will put a cop (or soldier) in the hospital, a rock will put him in the morgue and at the risk of being racially insensitive, there is a reason why cobblestones were called Irish Confetti in the late 19th Century.
Do we remember what George Santana said about learning from history? As one proudly of Irish descent, does the term "Bloody Sunday" not mean anything to you? Did the tactics of the British Army work well?
And the other thing that routinely happened back in the 1970's and I honestly am surprised not to see happening yet again is young thugs retaliating against homeowners who complain about them. I am waiting for a fuselage of bottles (or worse) through house windows at 3 AM -- such things have happened in the past.
Hey, whatever. I am all for restoring Lake Hitchcock.
Actually, Ed, I think most people do remember that "kristallnacht" refers to all the broken glass from when an identifiable group of people were publicly considered to no longer be human. Kinda like the status of UM students in Amherst -- and yes, I make no distinction between the status of Jews in Germany circa 1935 and UM students in Amherst circa 2013.
But there is one other little problem, the National Socialists actually won a fairly fair election and had Jewish votes -- if you look at the pre-Holocaust population of Germany, Jews had to have voted for Hitler's party.
Now why would Jews have voted for Hitler? Simple -- he had promised to end the rioting and to get the Communists under control, which he did by killing them all. Hitler was a politician who delivered exactly what he promised, it is just that the Germans didn't quite realize what it was he was promising.
And in many cases, be careful what you ask for as you well might get it.
Kristallnacht only occurred because the street thugs knew that they would get away with it. That what they were doing would be considered socially acceptable (as was what happened in LA 20 years ago, or in New Orleans during Katrina, and I fear at some point during a real riot in Amherst).
Do not forget that the Nuremburg Laws were passed in 1935 -- and that Kristallnacht occurred in 1938, over 3 years later, and it neither occurred in a vacuum nor was the actual start of the Holocaust, which arguably started at least in 1933 with the Nazi's coming into power.
Not that one ought to be confused by the facts...
For what it is worth, back before UMass shut down the Minuteman newspaper, I requested and was told the number of arrests that the UMPD makes a year - I think the figures were for 2010 and 2011 although am not quite sure and it was about 1000 per year.
At the time UMass had about 5000 student judicial offenses per year, of which about 4000 were minor first offenses.
Both statistics are, of course, quite dated. Good luck getting updated ones though....
Well i was at the last two major disturbances at Townhouse apartments and the cops estimates of 2,000 students at each sounds about right.
And don't forget the PuffersPond incident last May, which also involved at least 1,000. And the Meadow Street riot last year, also over 1,000.
A few more entries should not be about students. I think probably a few more things have gone on. That are of interest.
I'll try posting this again, though the gestapo shut it down the first time it seemed.
About 60 students were arrested in August. Nearly doubling that to 100 (August is a slow summer month) makes for an average 1,200 arrests a year. Adding an additional 300 arrests, just for good measure, brings that to 1,500. Or 6.25% of UMass's population.
This is before removing the arrests not relevant to UMass students. So in reality about 4% of campus is arrested in total. If someone wants to stratify the data for non-drinking related reasons (such as outstanding warrants or traffic violations) they would find the amount is even lower.
In summation; UMass is on par with the average population, and Larry should not do math.
Actually I did publish it the first time. Any of the cops will tell you that on any given weekend over the past month they could have made ten times the number of arrests if they had the manpower -- I mean people power.
Of course Larry, the statistic you would really like to get would be the number of lawsuits filed against the university and/or its employees. I hear that number is way, way up and that the university is quietly settling them as quickly as they are filed.
Larry, do you remember when the DDR collapsed and the night the Berlin Wall came down? That is where the combined Town/Gown is at right now and everything is imploding.
Worse, people like me -- and I otherwise am a "law & order" moral conservative -- no longer either support nor respect the police that are out there in that caldron. I keep asking myself "isn't there some way that everyone out there can loose -- and there is, the bubble is gonna get popped before it even has a chance to burst.
History teaches us that the clearest sign of the impending collapse of any regime is an inexorable increase in the level of coercive means needed to maintain order - to the point where one of two things happen -- either the level of repression required exceeds the moral sensitivities of those expected to employ it and they refuse, and/or the sheer numbers become such a logistical nightmare to the state that it ceases to be able to function.
The East German troops would shoot the occasional person climbing over the wall, but they weren't going to start machine gunning entire families. The 55 MPH speed limit became a joke in the 1980s when it became clear that there was no way the few cops could stop everyone.
And that is where Amherst is right now. Have fun....
Any of the cops will tell you that on any given weekend over the past month they could have made ten times the number of arrests if they had the manpower -- I mean people power.
And do you understand why I am comparing the fall of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik to the impending fall of the Republic of Amherst.
And the singular police department can't have a plural "people power" -- it has to be "personpower" as it is under a unified command.
And by the way, the word "person" contains the word "son" which is equally sexist, so in order to be Amherst-Correct, the APD has to have sufficient "perdaughterpower" which it ain't gonna have.
Have you ever heard the expression "bailing against the wind" -- or better "p***ing into the wind" (the female officer might not understand the latter, but ought to be able to infer a meaning from it)
Ed, do they have visiting hours where you are at? I'm really amazed you can use the computer at the nurse's station so easily and for so long.
This is a response for Tom McBride, the same guy who wrote in the Bulletin:
“I’m responding to a story a while back about a former treasurer of the teachers’ union for the Amherst-Pelham Regional School district pleading not guilty to charges she embezzled union dues. If people steal from where the money is, maybe the teachers’ union has too much money.”
Mr. McBride, do you have any clue that the money stolen was union member’s retirement money that was supposed to be passing hands to the retirement board. For you to reason, (there’s a stretch) that because someone stole that money the union has too much money is faulty logic.
If I were to steal your retirement money from the organization that provides it to you, would you say the organization has too much money? If I were to steal from the bank where you keep your money, would you say the bank has too much money?
If you answered yes to those, then you truly are in a world outside of reason and rational thought.
If you answered no, then please explain how someone stealing a union’s money means the union has too much money.
The country is in a tough spot, so let’s beat up on the teachers. After all, they’re filthy rich.
What world do you live in?
I’m a union member and I’d be happy to roll back my wage to what it was in 1984. My only request is that everyone one else roll back the cost of everything to 1984 prices. Roll back gas, bread, milk, everything. Roll back your wage and your retirement.
No? Gee I wonder why.
I see the picture now. If the united states could just break the teachers’ unions, then everything will go back to way it was in the 1950s. Your wife won’t speak up until spoken to, we’ll have 75 kids in every classroom. Everything will be just perfect.
Ok, Mr. McBride. Don’t forget to send us a postcard back here on earth, whenever you land.
"I’m a union member and I’d be happy to roll back my wage to what it was in 1984. My only request is that everyone one else roll back the cost of everything to 1984 prices. Roll back gas, bread, milk, everything. Roll back your wage and your retirement."
The only thing rolling back are my eyes.
But thanks for the comment.
Dr Ed Cutting, for someone who says they want nothing more to do with Amherst, you sure spend alot of time talking about it. Or should we say obsessing about it?
Stormin Norman, keep in mind that not all students that misbehave are arrested. Your calculations are flawed.
Ed...your proposal to restore Lake Hitchcock is a non-starter because of the red tape involved. Permits, impact statements, PERC tests and all the rest of it would keep the Mass DEP and Army Corps of Engineers busy for centuries.
You will have to content yourself with the Quabbin.
I am sure that the number of towns folk who misbehave are an equally high percentage, but they are not arrested either. My calculations are not flawed, as perhaps their "misbehavings" are not arrest worthy. Besides, I gave a luxurious margin of error to prove my point with an extra 300 arrests per year.
I guess it goes beyond just your calculations being flawed.
You sir, are flawed.
I'm just a product of my environment... in this case, the town of Amherst.
Not to mention I thought journalists were men and women of "integrity." What is with the ad hominem attacks on this blog? I did a rough calculation, giving a luxurious margin of error that proves that UMass's population is far better behaved than claimed, and somehow I am flawed...
Proved only in your, flawed, mind.
It does appear that one or more people are going to have to get killed at one of these super-parties for the problem to be taken seriously by anyone at the University.
Someone or more will have to be sacrificed.
In the meantime, we are going to be scolded in the Bulletin for not being nice enough to students.
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