University Of Maryland Basketball Riots After Victory Over Duke

Parent Cafe
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<p>Same thing happened when they won the team won the national championship, their students need to chill out…seriously.</p>

<p>Video on this page: [Maryland</a> students riot after Duke win | Guyism](<a href=“http://guyism.com/2010/03/maryland-students-riot-after-duke-win.html]Maryland”>http://guyism.com/2010/03/maryland-students-riot-after-duke-win.html)</p>

<p>From The Associated Press:</p>

<p>"Police say they’ve arrested 27 people, including some University of Maryland students, after hundreds of basketball fans turned confrontational near the College Park campus.</p>

<p>Police spokesman Cpl. Larry Johnson says about 1,500 people poured onto U.S. Route 1 in Prince George’s County after No. 22 Maryland beat No. 4 Duke 79-72 Wednesday night.</p>

<p>TV footage showed officers on horseback dispersing the crowd and police in riot gear patting down young men. Johnson says some threw snowballs and ice at police. One officer suffered minor injuries and also three of those arrested.</p>

<p>Johnson says charges ranging from civil disturbance to destruction of property are pending against those arrested. Campus police say smaller groups there set a tree and trash cans ablaze."</p>

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<p>Our DS attends school there, and he told me today that they had to close Rte 1. </p>

<p>It is sad, but let’s be real, it happens in cities around the country. Didn’t ADULTS do the same thing in Boston when they won the World Series.</p>

<p>I take it you either
A: Don’t know the rivalry
or
B: Wanted Duke to win.</p>

<p>It wasn’t right, but if you’re from MA you should put this on the level of Yanks vs. Soxs.</p>

<p>Have you ever been to UMDCP? DO you know RTE 1 and how small of an area you are speaking about? We are not talking a city! AGAIN it WAS WRONG for the students to go this insane, but don’t make it more than it is!</p>

<p>Our DS agrees with one thing that was stated on your link

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<p>They were out shooting kids with rubber bullets. </p>

<p>Another quote from your link

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<p>DO you want to stick with your 1st sentence

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<p>All the people that I’ve talked to here at Duke say they don’t consider this that big of rivalry (and they said this before the game, so it isn’t sour grapes). How intense is it? (honest question; I don’t follow sports)</p>

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<p>Well, I guess it’s not the Terps fans’ finest hour. But, it could have been a lot worse.</p>

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<p>That link that I gave is a pretty biased article on the students side. I heard students were burning trash cans and property, throwing snowballs, throwing objects at the police and windows. That’s just not acceptable. </p>

<p>Maryland-Duke is not a huge national rival unlike the Red Sox-Yankees (I would understand more if it was Duke-UNC). To be honest, probably the Maryland fans are the only ones looking forward to the Maryland-Duke game. Duke fans could probably care less about the “rivalry”.</p>

<p>and yes I have been to Maryland. I was there when their football team beat Clemson in the fall haha</p>

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<p>Duke and UNCCH are top rivals regarding BBall, and UMD is their red headed cousin. The game was huge because it was the 1st time in the last 6 or 7 that they had played against each other that UMD won. On top of that they were competing for the tieing the #1 in ACC.</p>

<p>This was a huge game for UMD.</p>

<p>Nobody in the sports world would have thought that UMD would be tied for ACC Champs.</p>

<p>Duke has their tent city because of the size of their arena, UMD does not, yet UMD students lined up yesterday in the early hours WITH TICKETS to get good seats.</p>

<p>This was the finest hour for UMD basketball, unfortunately they ruined it with their behavior. If they really loved Gary Williams, they wouldn’t have spoiled it like they did.</p>

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<p>Bold is key…you heard, and you also assume that this was rampant. Our DS was there, and he said, that yes, kids were getting out of control, but it was escalated with Riot police using shields, batons and rubber bullets. AGAIN RUBBER BULLETS!</p>

<p>FYI, our DS came out on rte 1 because of the noise (he lives right off of it), he was not there when it started, he quickly left when he saw RUBBER BULLETS being used.</p>

<p>Also, we lived in NC for yrs, Duke takes UNC as their chief rivalry, but to say they didn’t care about the game is BS! They now will share the ACC title with UMD because of that loss. It meant a lot to them, it was not a “oh well we lost” game. Duke bball means everything to them, otherwise K-town would not exist.</p>

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<p>as a parent of a Syracuse student, wonder why this didn’t happen at Syracuse this past weekend after the win over Villanova/#1 ranking designation…maybe Syracuse was better prepared?</p>

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<p>Somehow, people in New York have managed never to riot when the Yankees have won the World Series. Or in connection with any other sports celebration. So I"m not sure that comparisons with the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry are apt.</p>

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<p>Several generations of Maryland students have been involved in this kind of activity. It’s not frequent, but it’s nothing new for those of us who live (or in my case lived) in the DC metro area.</p>

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<p>not to mention that Maryland students were chanting “F*** Duke” during the basketball game… </p>

<p>The Red Sox hadn’t won anything since 1918. That’s a long time and to beat the Yankees in the way that they did (coming back from a 3-0 series deficit), I can deal with some rioting. But Maryland has a national championship in the last few years. They need to act like they belong as a college basketball powerhouse.</p>

<p>I understand about the police perhaps using too much force but that still does not excuse the students behavior. It seems that the students did it because previous students before them had done it before and this trend needs to stop at Maryland if you want to avoid the police.</p>

<p>I hope none of this ever happens here at Clemson.</p>

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<p>Don’t worry Clemson is not known for BBall, but it may happen for football!</p>

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<p>Clemson’s town is not like UMD, you have no idea if these were students or townies. Rte 1. is not the safest environment. Put the entire picture together and you will come up with a different response. You are making assumptions that every person in the riot was a student, we all know what ASSUME means.</p>

<p>Additionally the chant is not F Duke…it is <em>**E DUKE, or *</em>*e Duck get thousands of kids chanting it and it will sound like F DUKE. They do something similar to UVA during Football season regarding the word WAHOOS.</p>

<p>I am not saying they are right, but if you think that UMD has only this yr been mean to Duke, than you obviously missed last yrs game at UMD!</p>

<p>Don’t know why the mods ****, but because it no longer makes sense, they usually scream the word that rhymes with puke but starts with an F</p>

<p>MD won National back in 02, and since then they were on a steady decline. They are not considered a power house, because Gary Williams refuses to recruit in middle school like many power houses do. They actually have not been invited to the dance several times over the past few yrs. I don’'t know the last time Duke wasn’t invited.</p>

<p>Again UMD is not a powerhouse, UNCCH, Duke, Nova, UK, UT, and JU are powerhouses. They are always the underdogs when it comes to playing the big games. Vasquez will even tell you that he probably would have never made it to this level if he played for Duke, he is at this point because UMD does not get the same level of players as the powerhouses, and that reason makes him special at UMD.</p>

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<p>This sort of thing has been going on for many years. </p>

<p>My son graduated from Maryland two years ago. One time, when he was a sophomore, I asked him whether he had attended the basketball game the previous evening. He said, “No, but I attended the riot.”</p>

<p>This sort of behavior is expected. Illegal and stupid, but expected, especially in connection with Duke games. Maryland students have strong negative feelings toward Duke, which they consider their greatest rival. Duke students may not necessarily feel the same way about Maryland, though; they may be more concerned about UNC.</p>

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<p>I suspect that the arrested students learned their lesson. Prince George’s County, where the university is located, is one of the rougher parts of Maryland. You do not want to tangle with the Prince George’s County police. Really, you don’t.</p>

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<p>Maybe Syracuse was too cold. Rioting is, after all, an outdoor activity.</p>

<p>They don’t riot at my other offspring’s school, Cornell, either. It’s cold there, too. But they do throw fish on the ice during hockey games against their most hated rival, Harvard. And I suspect that Cornell’s negative feelings toward Harvard are stronger than any feelings Harvard may have about Cornell, kind of like with Maryland and Duke. These “rivalries” are sometimes one-way things.</p>

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<p>I am a UMCP student and I was present at the “riots” (unlike the OP).</p>

<p>You comparing this to the 2002 ACC championship just proves how little you know about the situation. 2002 was a MUCH different occurence.</p>

<p>No trees were set on fire - someone lit a Duke t-shirt on fire, and hung it on a tree. The tree was not damaged. </p>

<p>Two people lit the trash in two trashcans on The Mall on fire (one of the students was the same one/in the same group of the friends as the one who lit the t-shirt on fire). The trashcans were not damaged.</p>

<p>So, no campus property was damaged. At most 3 students were involved - more than likely, 2 students were involved. </p>

<p>Remember, 1500 students celebrating. 1-2 students involved in the destruction of trash (not trash cans, trash), 1 student involved in the destruction of his own t-shirt.</p>

<p>Wow, how unruly.</p>

<p>Now, let’s move to route 1.</p>

<p>No windows or private property was damaged. A street sign was damaged. </p>

<p>So, total damage from the “riots” - a student’s own t-shirt and a street sign. Total amount of students involved? 3-4. Out of 1500.</p>

<p>Seems like this would happen any other day in College Park, to be honest, haha.</p>

<p>The only thing the student’s were guilty of, of course, was obstructing traffic on route 1. Here the police escalated a dispersing situation with their arrival. Students were peacefully gathering and businesses were letting students flow in (as reported by the Washington Post around 11pm-12am), and then the cheers were already dying down once the cops started arriving in force and BEATING, PEPPER SPRAYING and SHOOTING RUBBER BULLETS at students who were simply slow to move…? Or even those that weren’t…? My friend called me and said “Hey, we’re going home, it’s over.” Then the police arrived.</p>

<p>Students threw SNOWBALLS at the cops AFTER: the cops beat several students across the back of the neck with night sticks. The cops pepper sprayed innocent students in the face who shouted at them to stop. The cops slammed a girl face first into the ground as she was running away because she dropped a cell phone in the street and came back for it.</p>

<p>Look, what I see here, is a trigger happy police force and town because of the past precedent foolish UMD students left. This is a new generation of students who didn’t experience the 2002 riots and had no idea their celebration in the street would be met with riot gear, horses, armored vehicles, guns, pepper spray. When they saw these things, they had more incentive to stay in the street and see what was going on. When they saw their friends getting hit by or thrown onto the ground or pepper-sprayed in the face by cops, they started taunting the cops. Stupid moves, but not really something that the whole school should be ashamed of.</p>

<p>I think, really, the riot police should be ashamed. They escalated a situation into something quite dangerous, when it wasn’t going to go there, and in fact, it’s their job to PREVENT that from happening. They turned a group of students in the street into something that the papers could write about the next day, but definitely not into 2002 ACC levels and, I would argue, not even into a riot.</p>

<p>PG Cops really aren’t ones to mess around with - and on a sidenote, especially if you’re black. I’d like to see the racial breakdown of the arrests as well. (Speaking as a white female).</p>

<p>Finally, Maryland doesn’t have “negative” feelings about Duke. Rivalries are a game schools play as a way to make a sports event more interesting than it actually is. It makes the stakes artificially higher and helps transform the bystander into a participant - they can’t make a basket, but they can yell “Duke sucks”!. UMD students are aware of this fact and play along with it…they don’t actually “hate Duke” and I’d argue they couldn’t give two craps about anyone from that school.</p>

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<p>I just got off the ph with my son. He wasn’t at the game but was at a restaurant during the celebration/“riot”. He reports kids were shot with rubber bullets, beat with batons, and otherwise mistreated by the police. He did not witness students breaking the law. Although, I’m a big basketball fan, he could care less. He just happened to be there. </p>

<p>I wonder if the police were using this as some sort of riot training exercise. The news footage is entirely consistent with my son’s report. You’d think the police would have been better at keeping the peace, rather than beating kids into submission. Their behavior in this situation needs to be examined.</p>

<p>As far as MD students yelling profanities at the opposing team, I agree…bad form! The Duke rivalry is huge at MD. Face it, there are a lot of Duke “Haters” out there, especially in the ACC. This year no one gave MD any chance of being a contender. MD’s win over Duke (ranked #4 in the country) was vindication of a program and their coach.</p>

<p>If you want to see something fun that speaks to the rivalry, search “Duke Sucks” on Youtube.</p>

<p>I honestly don’t think the kids were the real problem last night.</p>

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<p>And let me clarify that those students who threw a few snowballs and taunts at the police (and the police were in RIOT gear, really, a snowball is not gonna hurt a police in riot gear), were, again, in the MINORITY. It wasn’t like a mass attack or something. A few students got a little out of hand but hardly did anything that one would classify as very violent or destructive. And I think, considering the over excited and YES confrontational actions the police took, one might expect a few students to turn confrontational in return (NOT the right thing to do, but again, the minority cannot be reflective of the majority).</p>

<p>Over 99% of the students were simply cheering, smiling…if obstructing traffic.</p>

<p>The DBK (student newspaper) and some students involved want to call it a “riot” so bad so that they can make news/feel badass, but look at the videos and tell me it doesn’t just look more like the scene at a teeny bopper concert :P. Sorry student rebels. </p>

<p>I am not ashamed in any way of my school.</p>

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<p>cool, thanks for clearing up everything. That’s just what I had heard from some friends who live in Maryland so there must’ve been some exaggerated reports.</p>

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<p>Why is it that some schools can win championships and celebrate in a safe and nondestructive manner and some schools can’t???</p>

<p>It doesn’t matter whether some of what has been reported was exaggerated, the point is what did happen is worse than what happens at other winning schools.</p>

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<p>What should be this topic is the fact that students are saying that the cops shot rubber bullets at students, sprayed them with pepper spray and for intense purposes escalated it into a Riot. </p>

<p>Our DS was like Max’s shocked that the police brought it to this level, and many ran out of fear because the police took militant procedures as if the students were overturning cars and burning down buildings.</p>

<p>The kids were wrong in their rowdy behavior, but it is frightening to believe that the police thought they would get a peaceful resolution by hitting students with batons, are shooting them with rubber bullets.</p>

<p>Pierre, you seem to have started this thread attacking UMD students, and even linking a site saying it was biased, but now you did a 180. You assumed student guilt. May I ask, do you now feel that the link wasn’t biased after hearing stories of rubber bullets, pepper spray and batons used on students, while there is no report of any physical property damage? Do you now think that maybe the police are partially held to blame for insighting the so called riot?</p>

<p>Mom2,</p>

<p>UMD is a very large university in a very unsafe area. People are assuming that the students started this, not saying they didn’t, but also not saying they did. There are no gates to separate the students and the townies.</p>

<p>Was it wrong? YES! Should all UMD students and alumni be embarrassed for the behavior? YES!</p>

<p>But, I think PG will be looking into this because Rubber Bullets and Pepper Spray was not required to control the situation. The police have a lot more explaining to do than the students.</p>

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<p>well seeing as I wasn’t there, I guess I realize I can’t say anything. I think there may have been fault on both sides. The police should have done a better job at controlling the situation than escalating it with rubber bullets and pepper spray BUT on the other hand the fact that the police plan to charge some students with civil disobedience and destruction or property may indicate that students may be at fault too.</p>

<p>Overall, it just seemed like a bad situation and both sides were at fault.</p>