I was at the superbowl “riot” on Sunday. I will never understand “rioting” over sports, but lets be serious when we talk about this “riot”; it was not a riot. There was no property destruction, very few if any people were out of control and the only people being aggressive were the UMPD and State troopers.

I arrived in SouthWest at most 15 min after the game ended, and no sooner had I arrived, the UMPD was firing less than lethal pepper pellets at the crowd. They were throwing flashbangs to “disperse” the crowd. I’m sure they’ll claim that they were “out-of-control” but that would be the farthest thing from the truth. Most students didn’t even go there to riot, they were there to watch the “rioters”, they were spectators to something that would not be.

The Umass Alarm system sounded as almost a beckoning call for students to come to SW. Nothing the administration did was constructive. They sent out emails telling students in more words, “don’t riot”. They had riot police in full riot gear stationed in SW before anything even happend. The scheduled signing in sheets at 4pm. They used extreme force to “prevent” a possible riot.

The police violence was within reason, if reason is defined as overreaction and provocation. They fired on the crowd to “disperse” them, when it is well within our rights as students to gather. Freedom of Assembly is guaranteed by the constitution and for these officers and the administration to act as if a gathering of students is a “riot” is a clear violation of our constitutional rights. The use of overwhelming force and militaristic tactics to break up a peaceful assembly is nothing new of course and based on Umass’s record its almost understandable why they administration acted how they did. However without provocation they fired, charged the crowd with horses and threw flashbangs. They arrested students who did nothing but verbally dissent to police commands. It was exhilarating (I’m kind of an adrenaline junkie) but defiantly in violation of our rights.

In this modern police state that we live in, the police are kings. Their modest operandi is fear and intimidation. In which they can do no wrong, and by no wrong I mean beatings, shootings, torture. They can lie to the judge, lie to the media, but there will always be those in the public who can see through their propaganda. The black community has experienced this since the dawn of our nation, the poor have always received the brunt of police brutality. Now it has reached the doorstep of middle-class white America, and it’s only a matter of time before we either rebel, or follow an Orwellian path.