Channel 5 WOI had some poll results on last night, right after they read this year's story and showed video from 2004 at the same time. 30+ percent said it should be cancelled.
Veishea Problems? Welch?
- Thread starter danrog
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Channel 5 WOI had some poll results on last night, right after they read this year's story and showed video from 2004 at the same time. 30+ percent said it should be cancelled.
Confirms my hypothesis that 30% + of people are morons. 50 people is a normal weekend in a lot of college towns, especially when a lot of these people aren't even Iowa State students.
yeah but were those 30+% either students of ISU or citizens of ames? really, thats all that matters.
I was at Welch 1:15 attempting to get a super dog with my friends. The line was long so we went on our way home. There were a lot of people around Jimmy Johns and the corner by the fire station. Police were directing people around like prisoners. Attempting to walk home, the cops ran up to us, and threatened to mace us for no apparent reason. Other cops were walking around with mace cans held up in the air like they had something to prove. There was ZERO violence, other than what apparently happened at Kum & Go. The only people who were violent were the police!
There must have been 50 cops on that one corner alone. Here is my conclusion...Its VEISHA, and since it has a history of violence, lets jam the area with police "in case" something happens. A fight at Kum & Go could have been handled by 3 cops. Every other weekend...Homecoming, Iowa Vs. Iowa State, etc. there are barely any cops on a PACKED Welch Ave. Back to my conclusion....cops only make the matters worse. Yes people are drunk and do stupid things, but this is no different than any other busy weekend. In my opinion, people will only riot on Welch Ave. when cops abuse their power and don't know how to handle a big crowd.
That said, I have seen many police react very well to things during VEISHA. Earlier in the night I was at a party on Hunt St. and the cops stopped to send people back off the street and sidewalks. It was peaceful and no tickets were needed. I'm sure there was some underage drinking, but that is not the point here. People respect cops when they peacefully handle situations. Cops yelling, f-this, f-that to the entire crown on Welch...how mature and professional....I think we could safely put them in the same category as drunk college students.
Maybe we should just move Welch Ave. off campus too....just like every other VEISHA event.
If I were a business owner, I would be ragged at what happened that night! I would venture to guess over $25,000 was lost in revenue for all those business.
There must have been 50 cops on that one corner alone. Here is my conclusion...Its VEISHA, and since it has a history of violence, lets jam the area with police "in case" something happens. A fight at Kum & Go could have been handled by 3 cops. Every other weekend...Homecoming, Iowa Vs. Iowa State, etc. there are barely any cops on a PACKED Welch Ave. Back to my conclusion....cops only make the matters worse. Yes people are drunk and do stupid things, but this is no different than any other busy weekend. In my opinion, people will only riot on Welch Ave. when cops abuse their power and don't know how to handle a big crowd.
That said, I have seen many police react very well to things during VEISHA. Earlier in the night I was at a party on Hunt St. and the cops stopped to send people back off the street and sidewalks. It was peaceful and no tickets were needed. I'm sure there was some underage drinking, but that is not the point here. People respect cops when they peacefully handle situations. Cops yelling, f-this, f-that to the entire crown on Welch...how mature and professional....I think we could safely put them in the same category as drunk college students.
Maybe we should just move Welch Ave. off campus too....just like every other VEISHA event.
If I were a business owner, I would be ragged at what happened that night! I would venture to guess over $25,000 was lost in revenue for all those business.
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That is some horrible reporting by KCRG. Lets show highlights of the 2004 riot because Sunday was on the same scale.
If VEISHEA is canceled over this, there are going to be a lot of pissed off people. Not to mention all of the money it bring to Ames and the University. We are Iowa State, so I give it a week before VEISHEA is canceled and another head coach ends up leaving.
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You know...if Veishea were to get cancelled over something stupid like this, I wouldn't be surprised to see the students put on their own little "celebration" not sponsored by the school. Hell, it might be even more out of control than the normal Veishea. Wouldn't that be ironic for these a-hole cops.
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I agree. The students would organize something pretty big and I bet some of them would make it a point to be out of control, just to **** off the Univeristy, Police, and city.
Video
"it only took a few minutes to get the fight under control, but after the fight there were so many gathered around the clocktower it took some time to get them to leave the area"
So. Basically, they fixed the problem within minutes, then they just didnt like that there was a crowd there? I mean seriously, every weekend theres a crowd around that clocktower with kum and go and the food stands there. Seems like it wouldve made more sense to just let the crowd disperse on its own than to start pushing people around who are not causing any harm (they never allege that this crowd was being violent or unruly). And not even clearing the crowd from the clocktower area is good enough... they then for some reason had to get people off of welch, and then wouldnt even let you onto the south side of lincoln way between welch and the next blocks in either direction.
"it only took a few minutes to get the fight under control, but after the fight there were so many gathered around the clocktower it took some time to get them to leave the area"
So. Basically, they fixed the problem within minutes, then they just didnt like that there was a crowd there? I mean seriously, every weekend theres a crowd around that clocktower with kum and go and the food stands there. Seems like it wouldve made more sense to just let the crowd disperse on its own than to start pushing people around who are not causing any harm (they never allege that this crowd was being violent or unruly). And not even clearing the crowd from the clocktower area is good enough... they then for some reason had to get people off of welch, and then wouldnt even let you onto the south side of lincoln way between welch and the next blocks in either direction.
I seem to remember a couple really sweet parties on the weekend veishea was supposed to be in 2005 when it was cancelled. They were still called veishea parties even.
It wasn't anywhere near Veishea, but there were some great parties that weekend. On my floor we called Veishea-Replacement week, and we partied every day that week, like it was Veishea. If they cancel it for this, then I think people are going to get wild...
What? VEISHEA will give you a reason to break the law? I don't get it. That's like saying "I can get drunk on my 16th birthday infront of police because its my birthday"
It was like war zone down there when I was there. There's no way to determine if you are behaving or mis-behaving. Police did what they had to do to control the situation. If you didn't want to be sprayed, all you had to do was to leave (like I did).
A war zone? the police compared it to a typical football weekend with nice weather on KCCI's newest video. So you're saying every football weekend is like a war zone?
You're suggesting that it's impossible to tell if people are mis-behaving if there is a crowd around them? So if 2 people throw punches at the Iowa State Fair they should MACE the crowd, close down the fair, and cause a media storm of negativity?
I don't buy the argument that after the people who were fighting were arrested the police couldn't identify that the problem was over. Maybe asking the food vendors to close for half an hour to an hour before reopening for the night would have been the better way to clear the crowd, then get on the P.A. and say to clear the area and the food vendors would be open later that night.
NO, Veishea does not give you a reason to break the law. You give horrible comparisons. There is NO reason to go around giving people tickets when they aren't harming the public or peace. On ANY GIVEN weekend, the cops could hand out PUBLIC INTOX tickets to almost EVERYBODY on welch after 1:00 am, because the COPS KNOW WE ARE ALL ILLEGALLY DRUNK. But, they don't do that because we aren't causing trouble!!! What would the point of that be?!?! We are breaking the law, might as well give us all tickets right?? NO!!!! They just give out tickets if you are doing something stupid or bringing attention to yourself. Let me guess, if you get a speeding ticket for 56 in a 55, you would not be mad and pay it and be happy, because you were BREAKING THE LAW and DESERVE that ticket...
Seriously, get out more...
Secondly. A War zone??? :biglaugh: nice comparison. Because I swear I saw about 50 people with guns, cars on fire, people smashing windows, and about 2-3 IED attacks.
It was not a war zone down there, it was just a bunch of people standing around talking like they do EVERY weekend. If you want to compare it to something, maybe try part of the student tailgating lots. There are even more people in the lots, than welch, and they are all drunk. Should we give public intox tickets to all of the drunk students in the lots? NO. If they aren't doing harm, let it go! Just because the law has been broken, doesn't mean you need a ticket. Your behavior at the time has more to do with getting a ticket. Cops don't need to be a-holes, some just choose to be, they aren't above the law, and they aren't some type of saint we should bow down to and kiss their shoes.
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That is what they do at the university of illinois. It is called "unofficial" because it is their unofficial st pattys day party. The university stopped sponsoring it while back and they just kept doing it anyway..
Busted Coverage: Booze, Ladies And Football » Illinois Students Gearing Up For UnOfficial St. Patty’s Party
The difference is, VEISHEA actually has a reason and a purpose other than to just drink, though that is my favorite part.
Glad to know I wasn't the only one called by my parents from Cedar Rapids asking about the riot 
I was getting on a plane to go home and as I listened to him describe the news coverage, all I was thinking in my mind is "This sounds exactly like the news coverage from 2004, I bet they just showed some highlight clips of that"
As for when VEISHEA was canceled in 2005, a number of student organizations (including the Res Halls) put on a number of different events and in some ways it was better than VEISHEA (like a lack of out of towners to cause trouble - because Iowa State students don't start riots - drunk out of town community college students do)
That said, if they cancel VEISHEA I will be pissed, and will make sure every student calling me asking for money for the Alumni Association knows it
I was getting on a plane to go home and as I listened to him describe the news coverage, all I was thinking in my mind is "This sounds exactly like the news coverage from 2004, I bet they just showed some highlight clips of that"
As for when VEISHEA was canceled in 2005, a number of student organizations (including the Res Halls) put on a number of different events and in some ways it was better than VEISHEA (like a lack of out of towners to cause trouble - because Iowa State students don't start riots - drunk out of town community college students do)
That said, if they cancel VEISHEA I will be pissed, and will make sure every student calling me asking for money for the Alumni Association knows it
More cops should be reprimanded for their actions in the forms of things like lawsuits, etc. but in the end it is about as useful as banging your head against the wall. That is unless they act that way to somebody somewhat important and its caught on tape (The Texans fball player). There are laws and rules that they must abide by, yet they will bend them as they see fit. Just as a few bad apples among the civilian population can ruin it for everyone, so can a few bad cops on power trips. I'm sure just as there are some people looking for trouble, there are cops that probably wanted there to be a riotous situation so they could go all Rambo on 19 year old girls. The thing with cops is that they have more power to do wrong than does Joe College.
The fight that started everything was between Tyease Thompson and another black guy. Ames isn't the most ethnically diverse population so I don't see how they found it so hard to differentiate between those two and the rest of the people in the area...unless I am giving their intelligence too much credit.
Running over to a group of people standing away from the situation and macing the **** outta them is not good policework and is anything other than trying to keep the peace. They are required to give a verbal warning and a physical warning (pushing, arresting) before they are supposed to use mace. They skipped the first two as they saw fit and went around causing a potentially dangerous situation that if not for some cooler heads among the students and other people, could have turned into another fullscale riot.
Mace is some serious stuff, the effects are supposed to last 20 minutes but from what I saw and heard the people were still blind and burning 2 hours later. Now why is macing some girl already walking away from the situation without verbal or physical warning acceptable to some of you people?
The fight that started everything was between Tyease Thompson and another black guy. Ames isn't the most ethnically diverse population so I don't see how they found it so hard to differentiate between those two and the rest of the people in the area...unless I am giving their intelligence too much credit.
Running over to a group of people standing away from the situation and macing the **** outta them is not good policework and is anything other than trying to keep the peace. They are required to give a verbal warning and a physical warning (pushing, arresting) before they are supposed to use mace. They skipped the first two as they saw fit and went around causing a potentially dangerous situation that if not for some cooler heads among the students and other people, could have turned into another fullscale riot.
Mace is some serious stuff, the effects are supposed to last 20 minutes but from what I saw and heard the people were still blind and burning 2 hours later. Now why is macing some girl already walking away from the situation without verbal or physical warning acceptable to some of you people?