Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 10/30/02 Section: Campus News

Fights, vandalism and general rabble-rousing erupted from a sorority dance on campus last Saturday night, according to the University Police Department.

The dance was a fund-raiser organized by Zeta Phi Beta sorority in the Loma Prieta Ballroom of the Student Union.

However, according to the event organizer, UPD's report of the disturbance was inaccurate.

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According to Sharee Williams, Zeta Phi Beta sorority member and coordinator of the event, the sorority distributed flyers in all California State Universities, UC Berkeley, Sacramento and Davis.

"They all came from far away and got frustrated when they couldn't get in," she said. "There are not a lot of events for African American college students, so they'll travel for an event to support black sororities."

According to UPD, the first sign of trouble on Saturday happened at 10:17 p.m. when a minor was cited and later released for possession of alcohol and drinking on campus.

At 11:02 p.m. a physical fight involving three people, with a crowd of about 200 people watching, broke out in the Student Union. One person was arrested, but later released. Capt. Bruce Lowe of UPD reported that six minutes later a number of people rushed the stairs in the Student Union, trying to get into the party without paying.

At 11:19 p.m., Lowe said people started becoming combative with police officers. Bottles were being thrown, and another arrest was made. At that point, the San Jose Police Department was called for assistance, and officers were using pepper ball guns, a form of tear gas, to disperse the crowd, which were trying to prevent officers from making arrests.

"The crowd numbered about 200 people, and they were being held off by one UPD officer with a pepper ball gun," Lowe said.

At 11:34 p.m. another fight broke out inside the Student Union, and officers tried to shut down the event.

Shortly thereafter, the DJ hired for the party began to incite the crowd to stop officers from shutting down the dance, according to UPD reports.

But Williams said she was in the Student Union the entire time that trouble was stirring, and did not see the DJ try to stir up the crowd in any manner.

Williams said UPD encouraged event organizers to control the problem first so the event would not be forced to shut down. However, organizers could not control the crowd, and UPD forced them to shut down shortly before midnight, said Williams, a senior advertising major.

The dance was scheduled to go until 2 a.m.

In addition, Williams said the event organizers were forced to turn attendees away because the room had reached its maximum capacity. About 400 people were allowed in, and 40 were turned away, she said. But eventually of those turned away, police allowed 30 to attend.

"The problem was the capacity limit," Williams said. "People got mad because they were being turned away. We weren't having any problems with the crowd before they closed capacity."

In addition, Williams said it appeared people also became upset that the dance was canceled after attendees had paid up to $15 per ticket.

At 11:47 p.m., UPD reported, a serious fight broke out in the Student Union and all officers available were working to respond. During the altercation, an officer dislocated his shoulder trying to stop someone from jumping over the third floor balcony of the Student Union.

Lowe said it is unknown when the officer will be able to return to work.

Williams said police were trying to do their job at first, but later they became hostile toward the crowd.

"People get defensive when other people are talking down to you," Williams said. "The partygoers felt like, 'you don't understand why I'm mad, I just paid $15 for a ticket, and now you're telling me I can't participate.'"

Williams also said UPD's account of events that unfolded was not accurate.

"It's been made to look like something worse than it is," she said.

Williams said that although the crowd was somewhat hostile, UPD could have done a better job of controlling the crowd by directing traffic after they kicked everyone out of the Student Union. Williams said major trouble began to escalate after the partygoers were told to home.

By 11:53 p.m., UPD reported that bottles were again being thrown at officers, but with the help of SJPD, they had the situation under control. By this time, Lowe said, every police officer in the King district, the Downtown San Jose area, was at San Jose State University trying to quell the situation.

At the same time, UPD received a call that a number of people were under the Dining Commons trying to turn over an orange Cushman vehicle. Lowe said the crowd started moving toward South Campus by 12:13 a.m.

"We had a dozen noise complaints from the residence hall area," Lowe said.

Mike Harold, an Allen Hall resident, said from his building he saw a large noisy group of people moving south toward San Salvador Street, and there was a big cloud of smoke, what looked like tear gas to him, above the crowd.

"I wasn't paying attention for awhile, but then it began to escalate," said Harold, a graduate student pursuing his MBA. "It got kind of scary. I didn't want to go out at first."

But Harold said he went out to the street behind his building and saw a line of police in riot gear standing across Ninth Street trying to get the crowd to disperse and go home.

Eventually, Harold said, "the police seemed to get it under control."

At quarter after midnight, UPD reported that people were holding a sideshow - spinning cars in circles - on the south side of campus - between Eighth and Ninth streets, on San Salvador.

UPD reported calls from residence directors requesting help after a disturbance was caused in and around the residence halls, but all UPD and SJPD units were tied up trying to control the crowd, estimated at 1,000. Someone in Washburn Hall had their door kicked down. A vehicle in Lot A, which is outside the residence hall, had been jumped on and the windshield smashed out. But eventually, Lowe said, "the whole thing got pushed away and dispersed."

Lowe said he has seen disturbances like this on campus before.

"They happen," he said. "We don't like them to happen. We're concerned when there is potential for somebody to get hurt or worse. They involve the people who come to the event, but because all these people cannot get into the Student Union, they start engaging in criminal behavior at other locations on and around the campus, and the possibility for innocent victims to be swept up into the goings-on is one that concerns us."

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