Basketball and Bonfires

            Riots broke out across the nation in 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by James Earl Ray.  It took only a lose in a college basketball game to incite riots this year.

            Students at the University of Arizona, Purdue University and the University of Maryland all broke into riots following NCAA tournament losses.  The Arizona campus saw riot police using stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse an estimated 2,000 people from looting stores and setting fires following a loss to Duke in the men’s final. 

            State police used tear gas to stop students from throwing rocks, setting fires and launching bottle rockets at officers following Purdue’s loss to Notre Dame in the women’s final.  Maryland students stole furniture to fuel fires and attempted to overturn a firetruck when firefighters arrived to put out the blaze.  Students witnessing the outbreaks of violence compared what they saw to “a war zone”.

            This year’s tournament is not the first to see such violent displays following a basketball game.  Purdue students set several fires and overturned dumpsters last year following a tournament loss to Wisconsin.  Earlier this year, University of North Carolina students celebrated a victory over rivals Duke by overturning a car and starting several bonfires. 

            School officials should not tolerate this type of behavior.  Those that have been arrested should be punished not only by the law, but by their university as well.  School officials must set an example to discourage similar incidents in the future.  A student’s college education should not include Rioting 101.

*This editorial was writen on April 4, 2001 for a class

top