Riots Erupt at ‘College Beach Weekend’ Events
Spring is in the air and college students are swarming resort areas for spring break activities.
The College Fix has compiled reports on two events that went beyond wet-shirt contests and volleyball tournaments:
Tens of thousands of college students descended on Virginia Beach over the weekend for an event called “College Beach Weekend, 2013.” But it wasn’t all fun in the sun. Local merchants say the crowds started to get out of hand late Saturday afternoon. By nightfall, police say there were multiple reports of assault and gunfire as the crowds spun out of control and began to riot.
“I was scared to death,” said Denise Gordon, a manager for 18th Street Seafood Bar and Grill.
Though all those incidents happened late at night, Gordon said she’d noticed “rude, obnoxious” behavior around her restaurant much of the day. Fearful, she closed the restaurant at 8 p.m., two hours earlier than usual for a Saturday.
Gordon then said she called for security to help employees get to their cars after closing.
“It was so crazy, I don’t even know how to describe it,” she said.
Read the full story here.
Meanwhile, in Fort Collins, Colorado, a similar college party-turned-riot occurred. Like the Virginia Beach party, it was organized via social media.
“The Facebook group kinda started it. About 530 kids said they were going to be going,” said student Alexander Brown.
That number quickly doubled in size.
“It was chaos it was fun. It was a good time. But it definitely got out of hand real quick,” says Michael Chavez.
“There was a crowd of damn near 1000 people,” adds Chavez.
Some students say the party was peaceful until local police returned with riot gear.
Police fired tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets into the crowd.
More on the Ft. Collins episode here.
Seems like everybody wants to riot these days. Whose going to pay for the cleanup? We at The College Fix would like to know: What did you do last weekend? What? No rioting?
Comments
From what I’ve read elsewhere, I got the impression that many people who are not college students showed up.
Be hard to sort the violent and the non-violent and see how many of each were students and non-students, considering how few were arrested.