bingrassiaAs you’ve no doubt heard already, there was a bit of a fracas over at the U of M this weekend, coinciding with the annual Spring Jam Block Party concert.
The Minnesota Daily is on top of the story, but beyond the details of the news, the comment thread is pretty fascinating.
Some readers are blaming the MN Daily for publishing a story that there wasn’t going to be a party patrol over the weekend. Others say the catalyst was the last-minute cancellation of Spring Jam headliner Talib Kweli.
This commenter assures us that we’re all just overreacting:
… to avoid a HUGE misconception, I wouldn’t call this a riot as much as a large get-together that was slightly out of hand. People were not hurting each other or raiding houses. There was a strong communal understanding of respect, however, there was some bottle smashing and fire starting.
Duly noted.
Other commenters are debating over whether Dinkytown is a “ghetto,” and whether people who live there have a right to be upset over their property being damaged by rampaging drunks, or if they should just accept that as an inevitable risk of living near a university.
Another insight: If you don’t want your car vandalized, don’t park it in an area where a riot is going to happen later:
The worst thing that happened was a few cars got wrecked up a bit, only because some morons decided it would be a good idea to park their car in the middle of a multi house block party on what is annually a crazy weekend. I hate to say it but if anything they’re the dumb ones.
Granted, this isn’t the first time a bunch of college kids got out of control and flipped over a car or two (actually, according to the Daily story, the rioters attempted to flip over a car, but didn’t succeed).
Anyone remember anything similar from their college days? Or are the Kids These Days simply out of control?
