Apr 12 (THAINDIAN NEWS) An off campus block party which ended in violence on Saturday night after the police tried to disperse the party-goers is being called an embarrassment by the schools president, in emails sent to the students.
Linwood H. Rose, president of James Madison University said that the school will confer with the students, the police and the residents of Harrisonburg to determine what type of punishment may be required, and to mitigate the negative consequences of these types of situations in the future.
Over thirty people were placed under arrest when the police had to resort to pepper spray and tear gas grenades to break up a block party which is normally known to draw about 1000-2000 people. The crowd on Saturday was more along the lines of 8000. Fights were breaking out, and some of the party-goers were throwing bottles and rock at police officers who were announcing over the loudspeakers that the people needed to go home, according to police LT. Kurt Boshart of the Harrisonburg Police Department. Videos of the events can be seen embedded below.
It was also said that the police do not believe that most of the problems were caused by the students of the university. The president still sent out emails to condemn those who were involved. Let me first acknowledge that many of you did not attend Springfest on Saturday, Rose said in his e-mail. To those of you who were involved, your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation. JMU spokesman Don Egle said the party drew students from other campuses and even from out of state but what happened on Saturday should never have happened.
It has been
suggested that the size of the party and ensuing riots were the cause of social networking on Facebook, but this has yet to be determined
