AFD E2 arriving Amherst College late Saturday night
UPDATE Sunday morning
UPDATE Sunday morning
Had that fire occurred just two hours earlier, the response may not have been as well coordinated ...
Original Post:
After an invasion by many hundreds of UMass students to the posh grounds of Amherst College this evening to crash an unofficial Christmas party, with escalating incidents of mayhem -- pulling fire alarms, breaking windows, spraying fire extinguishers, and trashing an outdoor Menorah -- Amherst College PD called for reinforcements.
AFD Engine 2 on scene Crossett Dorm Amherst College
APD preparing to stage
Amherst Police responded in force. Amherst Fire Department was already on scene for the false alarm as well an overly intoxicated student. After a half dozen cruisers activated their lights, horns and sirens, the quad was quickly cleared.
APD and ACPD push crowd from south to north off the quad toward College Street
Amherst firefighter among the crowd
17 comments:
Ironic and disappointing. A few years ago it was common knowledge never to let an Amherst College group into your party; they used the cover of the crowd and anonymity to cause trouble.
I expected UMass to behave themselves better, not having the luxury of privilege.
So for those of you very very long time residents of Amherst is this kind of behavior getting worse or is it a cycle over the years ebbing and flowing with time. Is it that only now we have Larry's blog, to keep us more informed of those things we don't see at night. It all keeps looking worse but maybe it is really just another weekend??
I'm sure a "very long time resident of Amherst" would be happy to point out there is/was a tradition that on the night of the first snowfall a HUGE throng of UMass students would descend on Amherst College for a massive snowball fight.
But first snow was Friday night not Saturday, and I didn't see any snowballs flying last night.
Throwing snowballs is a bit different from throwing beer cans.
Having been on the receiving end of both during the Blarney Blowout riot, I figured it out pretty quickly.
This would explain it quite well:
http://nypost.com/2013/12/07/why-is-your-teen-crazy/
Yes the presumption is that college kids know better but their brains don't.
Obviously.
I looked at the link. Observation: all of this brain activity in teenagers has been going on forever. This mob behavior is relatively new.
Part of it is the ease of communication -- texting a party's whereabouts to 1,000 people in five minutes is possible.
Another part is "in the old days," when teens worked in a factory or stayed on the farm, there were fewer opportunities and more restrictions against this crowd behavior.
The colleges and universities, whether they like it or not, must be in loco parentis.
It could be worse. UMASS isn't the only school that has these issues. We just don't hear about the others but like it or not UMASS is no different than any other school. Part of the mob mentality is this generation called Millennials that were born after 9/11, don't consider anything safe and like their social media accounts, all feel safe together, but don't trust anyone outside of their "friends". That is a big part of the mob mentality:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/innocent-snowball-fight-u-oregon-drifts-ugly-snowmassacre-article-1.1541499
Walter Graff said, "Part of the mob mentality is this generation called Millennials that were born after 9/11, don't consider anything safe and like their social media accounts, all feel safe together, but don't trust anyone outside of their "friends". That is a big part of the mob mentality"
Uh, Walter, the college kids were born before 9/11/01. Are you saying that 12 year old middle schoolers are out rioting?
Just think of all the crazy shit that will go down when the Retreat is built. Can't wait!!
Surprised you didn't say "IF the Retreat is built."
I didn't say it correctly. They were also born before but 9/11 was a key element in their social development. Millennials (post Generation X) are associated with the beginning birth years from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
This generation of 18-20 something grew up and now communicates and socializes very much in a virtual world. Facebook, twitter, text, etc all contribute to their patterns of alternative socialization habits which involve being inclusive together and looking at the world outside of that group as unsafe.
There is much research on the subject and their social patterns and how 9/11 had a great deal to do with shaping the current generations mob mentality and lack of respect and overall trust for authority.
Thanks for the armchair psychology, Walter. You're a veritable encyclopedia of bullshit/knowledge.
"Thanks for the armchair psychology, Walter. You're a veritable encyclopedia of bullshit/knowledge."
LOL.
You should friggan talk.
I mean, with all that "self-love" and ha-ha Prozac pulsing through your rarefied blood stream, expecting anything other than an "entitled and better than you" response, especially to a man like Walter, would be sucker's naivete on our part.
Fortunately, it makes forgiving you possible.
But whatever man, you had the wherewithal to vote for big bad Barak Obama, TWICE!
For this, we are ALL
DEEPLY indebted.
I mean, maybe you ~really~ are
~that~ incredible?
Right???
Went to UMass in the 80's, things haven't changed much. One winter the snow came early enough that there was a post breakfast, lunch, and dinner raid on Amherst. Rather like the Hun descending on Rome. Good times!
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