(OH) Shotguns Would Quiet Campus-Area Rioters

[Drizzt]

Copyright 2002 The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus Dispatch


December 24, 2002 Tuesday, Home Final Edition

SECTION: EDITORIAL & COMMENT; Letters To The Editor; Pg. 08A

LENGTH: 106 words

HEADLINE: SHOTGUNS WOULD QUIET CAMPUS-AREA RIOTERS

BODY:
While waiting for my knock on the door to be answered, the command, "Whaddya want?" barked from behind me. Turning, I came face to face with a shotgun held at the ready. This frail little old lady wasn't playing games. After conducting my business, I departed on friendly terms.

Now I'm wondering: What protection did Columbus' strict anti-firearms laws and huge police force give the victims of the football-fans-turned-criminals after the Ohio State-Michigan game?

Would there even have been any damage if those cars and properties had been protected by frail little old ladies with shotguns?

THEODORE P. DOWDELL

Elyria
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He does have a point.........

 

[M58]

Water cannons!

 

[Orion]

Actually I think this is very intersting.

The Campus Area Commission (A bunch of liberal, overeducated no it all politicians) got together and decided to close all the campus bars and clean up the area.

This is what happens when you take the bars away but not the alcohol.

I grew up on campus here and know from experience that when you had enough to drink you got your ass thrown out and sent home.

There were no block parties or big drunk crowds so you took your drunk ass home (after getting a gyro).

Now, there's noone to throw you out and send you home.

Everyone throws a party and they all spill over into each other and you have three or four neighbors with yards full of drunk idiots and when it gets out of hand...

Last year the cops got a bad rap because they were said to have instigated the riot when they "attacked" the crowd.

This year they're getting a bad rap because they're not being proactive enough.

Now they want to close the HineyGate and declare Lane Ave. off limits to the organised party not now or never was part of the problem. Go Figure?

 

[Oatka]

Some years back when the Communists rioted over everything in Italy, the cops put dye in the water, used the water cannons on the mobs, then arrested everyone who had dye on them.

Sounds like a plan to me.

 

[redneck]

If I can remember right, it was down in the 30's during the thick of the riot. I would have paid to see the fire department brought in to help the trouble makers "cool off" a little.
Seriously, a fire hose is a wonderful thing. You can knock people down from moderate ranges, and hypothermia should have a sobering effect. They had to be there for the car and dumpster fires anyhow.

Also would have been cool if SWAT had set up on rooftops with slug guns an rubber bullets (not those big honking knee knocker cork guns that you can't aim)


Little old ladies with shotguns is a nice idea, but they would have had to be out past their bed time, and clean up would have taken much longer

 

[Ninj500]

I'm as much a law and order person as you'll find, but, the Columbus Police need to put down the book, "How to Handle a Riot, by Richard Daley," and learn from some other cities that properly dealt with riots. Every year in Sturgis there was a riot that usually escalated around the time the city sent the riot police in full gear to "break up" the mob. As always happens, escalating violence is met by escalating violence. So the police would further the rioters cause. Add into this the attitude by the Columbus Gestapo..I mean police, that no matter what you were doing, if you're out in the street during a so called riot, you're guilty of diorderly conduct and you make criminals out of non-rioters. If you read the list of arrests from the last Columbus riot you'll notice everyone was arrested for open container or underage drinking. Very few violent rioters were caught in the act. In Sturgis, they learned sending little groups of non-riot gear clad police officers out into the crowd to quickly nab "instigators" and the riots never had a chance to gain momentum. The same theory worked in Daytona Beach as well. Instead of learning from this, the Columbus Department choses to use ancient tactics that have failed over and over again. For the record, I'm not a student, I do however own several rental properties in the campus area and would like to see the Police truly protect my renters and property. Not cause more harm than good.