
huge block party on fountain celebrating end of finals; psafe was hanging out for a while trying to clear people out of the road.
then 10 middletown police cars came
they’re lined up on the street now
(seriously! 10!)
nice cop huddle going down, chatting with psafe. mpd is carrying huge paintball guns. everyone is just kind of standing on the side of the street, yelling and watching
“i think that the spectacle of having so many cop cars is having the opposite of the intended effect. like, all the parties are still going on”
clapping and cheering
11 cop cars now.
car alarm going off. everyone’s watching from houses. a nice psafe guy told us to leave the area/stand back. lots of cameras/videocams out
party is STILL going on. 2 more cop cars looks like they came from the other direction but it could be the ones from before. people dancing in front of psafe cameras and chanting.
Smoke bomb in the middle of the street
K9 unit just showed up.
Dogs barking, megaphone order to disperse. Mace brandished. General Disarray. Continued bustle of people. Please send any photos not taken with phone to wesleying@gmail
student quote “what better way to leave wesleyan? it’s a spectacle…”
crowd sings the fight song. go wes…?
beautiful yet menacing german shepards. chomping at the bit.
Dogs walking up and down the street. National anthems, paintball guns shot!!!!
STUDENTS FIRED UPON. pellets apparently bounced off ground, dogs chasing students, officers in tow.
Angry students yelling at PSAFE to get police out of here. Pepper spray dispersed. Some violent words. Students restraining other students.
STudents yell about fucking pigs, dogs chasing more people.
Drunk people yelling really, really irately about their rights. “can’t even breathe because of that shit they put in the air” car alarm goes off again. Students apparently under arrest.
One wesleying reporter has to vacate due to asthma.
More shots. Some kind of laser sighted weapon.
*DO THEY HAVE TASERS?????*
Student bebing put in squad car right now. Arrested, yelling “I’m fucking bleeding!!!”
Neither students nor police handling this particularly well.
Someone chanting “Glo-bal war-ming!” -> WTF?
another student under rrest, more docile.
kicking out the window of a fucking cop car, one in the car is kicking. pain compliance tactics being used.
Broke the frame of the cop car door, though not the window. Some SLC punk shit right there. Screaming about pigs continues.
Laser guided weapons are in fact TASERS. be-fucking-ware.
Dudes with hats arrive, PD from another town most likely, or state police. First arrested student driven away, presumably to jail.
Students asking for badge numbers. very know-your-rights mentality being enacted here. Someone is filming. People asking why, etc. etc.
PSAFE still on scene. Sirens in distance. No more car alarms.
Jose Chapa definitely on some students minds, yelling. One arrested student apparently pepper sprayed and then had dog released on him while he was down. Also, paintball gun/ beanbag pain compliance devices definitely fired.
Also, confirm that the dudes with hats are the staties.
2:45 am: computer died for a sec. running off power from a woodframe. cops have left fountain street proper; cluster of cars with lights on still on church. two ambulances. at least 3 student arrests. party on fountain: still going (music from houses, people on street). people walking to police dept, roth’s house. don’t know how much of this is hearsay so take it with a grain of salt: two students tasered, one in ER(??? one of the arrested students was def bleeding from the head) Psafe doing PR, amiably talking with students, saying basically no mutual respect shown between MPD and students. tell students to treat police with respect, express dismay @ alleged improper uses of force. nice psafe guy just came by to make sure we didn’t need medical assistance, telling us how to get rid of pepper spray.
“that was the most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen”
“Roth came to fountain, he didn’t say much but for people to come tomorrow and file complaints to his office”
didn’t mention this earlier: the first guy who got arrested was chased down the street and tackled by at least 4 mpd.
final count was 16 cop cars (mostly mpd, a few staties at corner of fountain and church). 2 dogs. we hear people got bitten but not sure
music is over now. a few clusters of students still on street talking about what happened
it’s late, i’m going to get off this porch.
(i know my name is on this post but it was me and will switching the computer back and forth)
goodnight
PUT YOUR VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE. PUT YOUR PICTURES ON FACEBOOK. EMAIL US: WESLEYING@GMAIL.COM
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Edit (Justin, 3:06 AM): NBC30 and WTNH are on the scene.
We’ll post updates throughout the night, as we receive news.
PLEASE SUBMIT VIDEOS/PHOTOS to wesleying@gmail.com. Requests for anonymity will be respected.
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Edit (Justin, 3:37 AM): WTNH will be live from Middletown Police Headquarters for their 5:00 AM broadcast.
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Edit (Mad, 3:42 AM): A student sends us a whole picasa album full of pictures.
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xue 3:39 am: will just called. there are dozens of wesleyan students at the middletown police department right now. if you go down right now to file a complaint, you’ll be in good company. also, ANYONE WITH PHYSICAL WOUNDS FROM A POLICE ALTERCATION SHOULD GO DOWN TO THE POLICE DEPT TO GET PHOTOGRAPHED AND DOCUMENTED.
mtown police dept:
222 Main Street
Phone: (860) 344-3200
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Edit (Justin, 4:09 AM): NBC30: “We’ll be there live this morning.”
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xue 4:24am: added inline pictures from becky’s set. text has not been changed and will not be changed.