The events described within the following blocks of text are from
an actual police news release from the 1996 SIUC Riots. The above phot is
from the Daily Egyptian Online site, and I'm using it before asking. I hope
that's cool with them. I want you to know that while I was present at the
riots, I did not participate in any illegal activities, except being present.
As a result of being present, I was maced directly in the eyes once, tear
gassed many times, herded from place to place, threatened by police and
fraternity brothers and hit on by drunk women. I only support the last one.
Anyway, the text in normal print is from the police account, and the bold
text is my additions to the whole thing so it becomes a bit more truthful
about what really happened.
For more info, go to The Daily Egyptian
and read the archived Oct. 29 issue. It's a Monday issue. There are many
good articles there that you can learn from.
Shortly after midnight on Sunday morning (think: late Saturday night)
police began to receive reports of persons tearing down street signs in
the West College, West Cherry and Beveridge Street area of the city. Several
street lights were also reported knocked out. (No parking signs, stop
signs, any thing on a post was thrown into the street).
At approximately 1:15 am persons were observed chanting and entering the
downtown area on foot. (I was one of these people. When I got there,
cops were already in full riot gear waiting) Shortly thereafter, these
persons gathered with others already collected in the downtown area and
once again closed South Illinois Ave. Exact totals are not available, but
the crowd was estimated to be larger than the night before. (I guessed
it was about 400 people in the area, maybe 50 of which were in the street
doing actual illegal things. The rest were like spectators.)
Almost immediately (15-20 minutes, tops) observers saw and heard
bottles being thrown and broken in the street. Police moved into the area
and established police lines in order to prevent the destructive movements
of the mob from the night before. (This is a total lie. They herded the
crowd into a residential area where they let them destroy anything they
wanted. This is also a mainly student residential area.) To prevent
injury to the officers from the bottles being thrown, the police were wearing
protective visors. (And those big clear shields, jackboots, and mace
canisters.)
The police officers were immediately pelted with full bottles and beer cans
which conmtinued for approximately 10-15 minutes. (This seems accurate
enough. Of course, they fail to mention the officers who had black broomsticks
which they used to "disperse" the innocent crowd standing by the
sidewalk, most of whom were sober and not throwing anything. These people
had very little freedom of movement, not wating to take to the street, but
unable to run toward police on sidewalks either.)
The police then ordered three times for the mob to disperse or mace would
be used (I heard no warning, but it was kinda loud). The crowd ignored
the warnings and continued to throw objects and surge (more of a crawl,
since they kept getting beat up) towards the police line. At that point,
police released pepper gas into the mob and they dispersed for a short time.
The mob then returned to the street, continued to throw objects and the
police had to mace them several more times. (They got mace happy.)
Police then began to get pelted by bricks, rocks, chunks of concrete, bottles
and cans. A large mob still remained in the street and continued to shout
obscentities. ("Fuck the police," basically). Police then
used tear gas to disperse the mob after they again ignored warnings to disperse.
Some of the mob moved west on College back into the neighborhood (most of
the crowd went here, the people in the street stayed mostly.) Others went
South on Illinois (the Strip) Ave. breaking windows in approximately
8 businesses as they ran. (I find this deplorable. The businesses help
the students, and I see no reason to hurt them. Rosetta News, which is a
wonderful small store, was put under considerable financial pressure because
of riot damage. That should never happen.) Police received no reports
of looting.
The mob again confronted officers at College and University throwing bricks
and bottles. (This is the student residential area, where they let rioters
destroy all they wanted.) Officers used tear gas and eventually the
mob was dispersed and calm returned to the area by 3:30 am.
Three police officers received injuries during the incidents when they were
struck by bricks and bottles. One officer was also kicked. All were treated
by medical authorities and released.
Police made at least 27 arrests including the following charges: 10 Reckless
conduct, 7 Damage to property, 5 Obstructing persons in the roadway, 2 thefts,
1 resisting arrest, 1 public possession of alcohol (surprises me a lot!),
1 false ID.
(Well, here's what they didn't tell you. During the time when the "mob"
was dispersed to College and University, I saw a freshman girl be maced
by a vop at point-blank range. She was approximately 110 lbs. I didn't see
that she was a police threat, only that she made the mistake of dropping
her purse and trying to pick it up. She (an asthmatic) was left gasping
for air in a parking lot by the police, but I helped her up and out of the
way of the "surging mob." I was maced for doing so.
I was then herded into the residential district. All attempts to leave the
area were unsuccessful until about 3:30, because the cops were everywhere.
At some point in time, I was accosted by a frat-boy who called me "a
hippie faggot tree-hugger who didn't have anything to do but pierce his
body" and I was threated to be beat up. I was wearing a Halloween costume
of all-black clothes, and a bunch of fake piercings. I called him a "stupid
fucking frat-boy," picked up a beer bottle, and held onto it just in
case. I never saw him or the rest of the Sigma Pi frat-boys again.
The cops were still around. They threatened everyone, and made me go onto
someone's porch and stay there. I didn't know whose porch it was. Anyway,
I went to leave, and the police saw me and asked for ID. Well, I had just
seen them club a kid who tried to walk on the sidewalk alone on his way
to Thompson Point, so I decided running was the best option. I was chased
for one block, and I was way faster. I go to Thompson Point at 4:00, and
went to bed breathless.
My viewpoint is that the riots are the fault of the students and police
together. The police want to be macho men and hurt us, but the drunk students
had no business smashing windows. The next weekend, the crowd which gathered
on the Strip was peaceful, and showed what we can accomplish without the
help of police. Had they not been there, not much would would've happened,
I suspect.)