Has Madison Lost Its Mojo?

Let me preface this by stating that I do not condone "illegal and illicit behavior". However, for some reason (which I will not delve into in this post), certain laws are not followed. Driving over the speed limit, J-walking, underage sex, and of course underage drinking are activities that the police mostly turn a blind eye to. The benefits of cracking down do not outweigh the enforcement. Fine. My question (which will be answered) is if people at Mifflin were not causing a problem, why were more arrests made, and not just more... Drastically more.

For my non-Madison friends, allow me to break this down baby style. In the year 1969, a group of students located on Madison's famous "Mifflin Street" decided to hold a war protest against the Vietnam War. This one time event ballooned into a yearly block party to celebrate student advocacy. Of course, knowing Madison's fine tradition, this turned into a riot in 1996. After the riot, the "advocacy" part of the party was ditched to quell crowds, and the p

arty turned into a good time centered around hearing bands, and drinking beer. 

Humm... So if people aren't causing trouble anymore, why have arrests skyrocketed? The Badger Herald says:

Between 5,000 and 10,000 people attended the party in 2002, but police made only two arrests. That number increased to seven arrests in 2003, and then ballooned to 190 arrests in 2004, 225 arrests in 2005, 263 arrests in 2006 and 366 last year. Police estimates for attendance, meanwhile, have trended downward since 2003.

This year, arrests have topped 400, and the Police had this to say about the party this year -- "they (the partiers) were mostly well behaved."

Huh. Really? That makes perfect sense, a well behaved crowd, lets make a ton of arrests. Why would that happen? There are three reasons.

First, "no tolerance policy". I personally saw a man sipping his beer, and talking with friends. He was relaxed, and not acting belligerent whatsoever. His phone rang, he dug in his pocket and took it out to talk to a friend. The crowd was loud so he turned away towards the street. In taking a half a step, his foot was on the other side of the sidewalk. Within seconds three cops quickly pulled him into the street, arrested him (handcuffs and everything), and led him to the large unmarked black van which would take him to the courthouse where he would sit for the next couple hours.  He was not arrested for underage drinking, he was not breathilized, no, he had an open container of beer on the street. That's a $172 fine. 

Second, the reason that they have to make a large number of arrests? Simple economics. They hired a MASSIVE amount of police, and in order to pay all the police for their hours, and for the horses (common was that necessary?)/cameras/riot gear, etc... in order to pay for the extra cost, they'll just make it up with fines. Arrest enough people and you'll break even. So. Let me get this straight. The city imposes a mass mulitude of police upon a block party that is sponcered by the block (the police are not ASKED to show up, the city DECIDES). I would imagine most residents would even go so far as to suggest that city police are not needed. The costs to the city are a lot, so they make it up by fucking over the students, and making them pay enough tickets to cover the cost of the ever rising number of police. More tickets means they need more police, more police warrents more tickets...etc...

It is much more feasible for the people themselves to pay for rented cops to deter theft, and use the massive amount of money wasted on what I would call "mostly useless" police. I saw one person get arrested that should have gotten arrested. There is a horrible double standard that was set at Mifflin. 

So... That leads us to our final reason and question. Why more police? Because the city of Madison (and the University administration!) have decided to "kill" the fun in Madison. All the fun, all the spunk, all the randomness, and all the tradition is to completely be killed. Madison Police Lt. Joe Balles was quoted as saying, "Quite frankly, we wish this event would go away." Look what has happened to Halloween. Over 100,000 people used to show up. They decided to kill it. It is now gated, and you have to PAY to get onto a public street that they make fun. It is sponsored by Mountain Dew. People are making money OFF of students. Again. $7 to get onto State Street. I will not be going next year. 

This new "Freakfest" has been proclaimed a "success". Right... After two years of the new system attendance has fallen from 100,000 to 20,000, and next year I would not be surprised if that number dropped to 10-15k. Now the city is calling to get a sponsor for Mifflin. It would turn into "Freakfest". Whoever would be supplying the money would make sure that it was done their way, or they wouldn't sponsor. It completely cuts the students out of their own block party. It gives some company a shit-ton of money. Can you imagine the irony of it? Its really a Vietnam War protest... brought to you by Coca-Cola. Brilliant. 

But this is only the beginning! All across the board student freedoms that were granted and accepted are slowly being curtailed. Examples? WUD Music Concerts now have security. Madison PD can have cops at any show (and of course they only happen to show up to shows that would draw a crowd with a browner hue... I am not someone to disparage the cops, but I've seen some very racist choices, it kinda sickens me). Anyone in WUD music can go on and on about the crackdown. Carrots are no longer thrown at football games, carrots and marshmallows were thrown at every football game until the 1990's. Now you can't bring anything into the game, and I've seen a guy throw a carrot, then get arrested, and kicked out, and slapped with a $300 fine. Give it another year or two, and the playing of "swingtown" will die as well. Along with the fuck you eat shit cheer, Mifflin with die, Halloween will be killed, and all the creativity that goes with it, aka, an independent student body, will eventually just become normal. 

It now is spreading towards student orgs. WISRPEG, a MASSIVE org on madison who does nothing but good has, in effect, been canceled by the Administration. 

How do we fight this? We stop believing that there is not a "us vs. them" that the University always tells the students. We are working for YOUR benefit. That is bullshit. I'm glad you work for students by going against their wishes. 

How will it stop? Take it to the Mattresses. I want to see some protests, and some real student activism. 40 years ago everyone came to Memorial Union, smoked pot, and yelled at Nixon on TV. No one goes to the Union as a first choice anymore. People have private parties, why? Because that sense of fun is gone. Its horrible. 

So do your part, lets make a change. As the Kaiser Cheifs say... "I predict a riot."

Thanks,

Guthrie