ATHENS -- Police in riot gear fired rubber and wooden bullets at a rowdy crowd that packed a street near Ohio University after bars closed early on Sunday morning for daylight-saving time.
Two officers were injured slightly by thrown objects, and 27 people were arrested during the 90-minute confrontation. The presence of cameras -- both news crews' and students' -- fueled the crowd's behavior, Athens Police Chief Rick Mayer said Sunday. Police reported no civilian injuries, but witnesses said dozens of the estimated 2,000 people -- most of them OU students -- suffered minor injuries in scuffles with armed and mounted police on Court Street.
Those arrested were to appear in court this morning on charges ranging from assault to disorderly conduct by intoxication. One person was charged with punching a police horse, considered the same as assaulting a police officer.
"I spent 12 hours in jail, had to pay a $330 bond and face three major misdemeanors just for showing my school spirit," Chris Autry, 22, a senior from Clermont County's Union Township.
Mr. Autry was charged with disorderly conduct, inciting a riot and public intoxication after, he said, officers arrested him as he stood on a Court Street balcony shouting "OU!"
About 1,600 of the school's 19,400 students are from the Cincinnati metropolitan area, said Bryan McNulty, executive director of OU's news services.
The disturbance began shortly after 1 a.m. as bars along Court Street -- the brick-paved main drag of Athens' Uptown area -- began to close. Normally, they shut down at 2:30 a.m., but because of the time-change, bar owners agreed to close an hour earlier.
Hundreds of patrons, most of them Ohio University students, filled sidewalks as mounted patrols and roaming officers ordered them to stay off the street. Additional foot patrols were called in as the crowd occupied Court Street and grew -- in size and defiance.
At about 1:40 a.m., an official order to disperse was given and ignored. Seven minutes later, officers on horseback moved in. After dodging bottles, pieces of asphalt and coins, police shifted into a skirmish-line formation. That's when rubber and wooden bullets were fired. Uptown streets were cleared about 4 a.m., after police began forcefully dispersing the crowd with batons.
Officers did not use tear gas on the crowd.
The incident comes a year after about 1,000 people -- again, mostly OU students -- gathered outside downtown bars after they closed at 2 a.m. instead of 2:30 a.m. because of the change to daylight-saving time.
In that confrontation last spring, 47 people, including 34 OU students, were arrested.
The university did not discipline the offenders then. Richard Carpinelli, director of student judiciaries, said a review of arrest reports showed the disturbance involved only non-violent, minor offenses.
Students early Sunday greeted approaching officers with cheers and chants, many gleefully scrambling to collect as souvenirs the rubber and wooden "knee-knocker" hollow bullets police were firing at the crowd.
Athens police officers drag a rioter away Sunday morning.
(AP photo)
| ZOOM |
|
"It is frustrating," said Athens Lt. Anthony Fish, who was involved in the confrontation, "but it's not the students, it's the university. It's a little scary; you always have to have that fear. if you don't, you're going to wind up being hurt. It's a mixture of fear and frustration."
Ohio University President Robert Glidden released a statement Sunday saying the Office of Student Judiciaries will review the arrest reports and "make a determination of appropriate university discipline that should be taken in addition to whatever legal action has already been initiated by the city."
Mr. Glidden, who was at the scene under police escort imploring the crowd to disperse, said many students' curiosity might have been fueled by media presence. However, "the responsibility lies with those ostensibly intelligent people who indulged their curiousity," he said.
Few seemed surprised by Sunday's clash between students and authorities. For weeks before the switch to daylight-saving time, Athens-area newspapers and the Ohio University Post covered meetings between campus and city officials centered on last year's confrontation. Chief Mayer said the media attention fanned the flames.
"I believe that the media played a crucial role in creating an atmosphere of anticipation and help draw a crowd to the area to see if it would happen again like last year," he said in a statement.
"I feel that the media helped create the event and brought about a self-fulfilling prophecy that gave them the story to cover." Freshman Karen Stegemoller, 19, of Lebanon, agreed.
"I don't know why everybody went down there anyway," she said. "If the media hadn't hyped this up so much and the students would just calm down, it wouldn't have happened."
On Sunday, Court Street was quiet, belying the confrontation that made national news.
"At first, I thought it was kind of cool," said Matt Handley, 16, an Athens High School junior who was on Court Street early Sunday. "But then when you see all those cops with riot gear walking at you and shooting, it gets scary. I just started hiding behind stuff so I wouldn't get hit."
