I wish the subject of this blog post was a joke, but sadly it isn’t.

Last night, local blog Keep Albany Boring (a blog maintained by college students who double as area boosters) collected videos posted on YouTube of the rioting that occurred Saturday morning in the wake of a conglomeration of Kegs & Eggs parties on Hudson Street in Albany.

When I went to college, I heard no shortage of complaints from students about “townies” and how dangerous the area was in contrast to their Long Island homes and neighborhoods. The statements carried with them a sense of superiority that conveyed what they felt was a clear class distinction between themselves, the out-of-town college students, and homegrown locals.

Yet time and again, we see the more disruptive and destructive behavior in area neighborhoods being committed by many of those very same students.

There is a very real and direct correlation between the lack of respect shown to the area in terms such as “Troylet” and “student ghetto” and the lack of respect that kids such as the ones in these videos have for the property and neighborhoods in this area. In their mind there is no emotional investment or sense of civic responsibility, because they’re only blowing through until (if) they receive a bachelor’s degree. Albany, Troy, Schenectady, and other municipalities in the area are seen as a playground for entitled youth and treated like a cheap hotel room.

I’m not sure where exactly the answer lies, but I’m guessing it’s a combination of conscious efforts on behalf of the educational institutions in the area to instill a sense of respect for the community upon arrival and the responsibility of fellow students to speak out and not simply be bystanders recording the mayhem on their cameras and cellphones. There is also, perhaps, a responsibility on behalf of the Albany District Attorney’s office to throw the proverbial book at the offenders and not cut them a deal simply because the perpetrators are of a different societal class and designation from what’s perceived to be the norm.

Regardless, it’s a situation that’s not getting any better, and it needs to stop.

If you’re a local college student and you’re offended by reading this: good. Let me know that you don’t appreciate being lumped into this group. This way myself, and all those reading, will know that this is a problem with a very specific subsection of the student body. It’ll also tell us that there is a way to avoid this happening in the future, and that we all take this issue very seriously.

After the cut: some close-up pictures of the vandalism and the perpetrators, taken from the YouTube videos posted this weekend.

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