Michigan State University student riot

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The Michigan State University student riot is an event that took place on and around the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan on the night of March 27, 1999. Following a loss by MSU's basketball team to Duke University in the NCAA Final Four, approximatly 5,000 students and non-students gathered around the Grand River Ave. area of East Lansing. During the course of the evening, party goers began throwing empty bottles at Police Officers and breaking Police car windows. The Police dispersed what they felt to be an unlawfull assembly with potential dangers to the public good via teargas. There remains controversy over the justification of the actions of Police Officials, with many present holding that the Police overreacted to what was felt to be nothing more than a large block party.

[edit] Other Notable Civil Disturbances

Though the March 27 1999, incident was the most serious riot to happen in East Lansing, it was by no means the first or last incidence of civil disturbance:

Grand River Avenue antiwar riots of 1972.^{[citation needed]}
Cedar Fest riots of the late 1980s/early 1990s. The most recent of which on April 5th/6th, 2008 (see below).
September 6, 1997: 500 partygoers in the Gunson Street neighborhood confronted police, throwing bottles and damaging police vehicles.^{[citation needed]}
May 1, 1998: An estimated 3000 students protesting the ban on alcohol at Munn Field tailgate parties resulted in police firing tear gas at the crowd.^{[citation needed]}
March 31, 2003: Michigan State basketball fans overturned four cars, tipped vending machines and set fires in trash bins in East Lansing, Mich., after the Spartans lost in the N.C.A.A. tournament. Police officers in riot gear dispersed the crowd using tear gas. Seven people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, six of them Michigan State students, police said.The damage occurred that night near the university's administration building, where about 2,000 people had gathered.They tied up traffic earlier in the evening on Grand River Avenue, which divides the campus and downtown, said Lt. Kevin Daley of the East Lansing Police Department. The disturbances caused about $40,000 in damage to university property.The violence followed Michigan State's 85-76 loss to Texas in the South Regional final in San Antonio.
April 2, 2005: An estimated 2,000 students and non-students took to the streets immediately following the men's basketball team's loss to UNC in the NCAA Final Four, causing an estimated $8,275 in damage to the city of East Lansing and costing area law enforcement an estimated $190,389 in expenses. The April 2 event was marked by accusations of police abuse and mismanagement. Though large segments of the disturbance were documented on video, no specific acts of violence were seen until after tear gas was launched at the students. The City Council formed a commission to review the events. The commission declined to assess blame to the students and police by a 5-4 vote ^[1].
April 6, 2008: In what was described as a renewal of the Cedar Fest festival of the 1970's and 1980's, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 students gathered around the Cedar Village Apartment Complex. Initially the crowd was peaceful, and police chose to observe the crowd and step in only to arrest or ticket those who were behaving illegally. As the evening wore on the crowd began to behave violently, throwing beer bottles at officers, tearing up street signs, setting dumpster fires and chanting "We want tear gas." After being hit with bottles, cans, and various other debris at an increasing rate for well over an hour the Police ordered the crowd to disperse using loudspeakers. Those who did not were first subject to a combination of 24 smoke grenades, 20 flashbang grenades, and 20 stingball grenades. These were not successful in dispersing the crowd, so 13 rounds of teargas were fired which eventually dispersed the crowd. There were 52 arrests made, 28 of which were of MSU students. The disturbance was sufficiently large to be reported on CNN. The significance of this riot was that students were responsible for supplying the evidence as many of them were able to report with their camera phones and home video equipment with the support of the popular internet website Youtube. A Video highlighting the event