Students tarnished in eyes of permanent residents
Dear Editors,
Although I thoroughly enjoy Homecoming every year, I’m afraid that from a Kingston resident’s perspective, the actions that occurred on Aberdeen Street this Saturday have unfortunately negated many of the positive contributions Queen’s students have made to the community so far this year.
Undoubtedly there will be repercussions for our actions, but I want to emphasize that the majority of students on Aberdeen Saturday night did not approve with some of the events that occurred, especially the overturning of the vehicle.
Most students that I spoke to were appalled and completely disturbed that people—let alone fellow Queen’s students—would participate in such mindless destruction. It truly does reflect badly upon the rest of us, who were there to responsibly celebrate the past and present of the University.
Christopher Johnson
Sci ’07
Students not solely to blame for Homecoming events
Dear Editors,
This year at the Homecoming party on Aberdeen Street there were many irresponsible and dangerous actions taken by both students and the Kingston Police. Both Queen’s and the City of Kingston planned to increase the police presence and involvement on Aberdeen this year. The result of this increased involvement meant that the police had riot gear and mounted officers before it was warranted, and acted with unnecessary hostility. This type of action shows a very aggressive stance on the part of the Kingston Police, as opposed to a defensive stance meant to keep the peace. The partiers, not all of whom were Queen’s students, responded to this with aggression of their own.
Both groups fuelled each others’ rage, leading to an unsafe and unstable environment.
Last year, Aberdeen was not plagued with such tension and anger. Although police did encounter numerous problems, the street party was relaxed and controlled. What was the difference this year? The University funded a large concert, headlined by Billy Talent, to divert students away from the streets. This was a good step taken towards keeping the street parties reasonable. Full riot gear and aggressive police, however, seemed to cause problems, rather than solve them. The crowd’s behaviour cannot be condoned, but the police should have anticipated such a reaction and responded in a more responsible and safe manner.
Aberdeen is supposed to be a relaxed place where students and alumni can mingle, share stories, and have a good time. This year, unfortunately, it was ruined by irresponsible actions on the part of students, other party-goers, and the Kingston Police. The blame rests on everybody involved, not just Queen’s students.
Ross Jamieson and Philip Lewis
ArtSci ’07 and Sci ’07
Domestic violence worse than Aberdeen party
Dear Editors,
As a Queen’s graduate, I was disappointed at the behaviour displayed by some Queen’s students who have denigrated the reputation of the school.
However, along with my disgust for last week’s actions, I was equally disgusted with the hypocrisy shown by the Kingston Whig-Standard. All one has to do is look at their online edition and find three feature articles on the pandemonium caused by students. Prominent in this front-page excess was the voice of Police Chief Bill Closs who said that his officers were “subjected to the most vile and disgusting behaviour that a police officer could possibly encounter.” The “most” vile and disgusting behaviour that a police officer could encounter? Now, I’m no police officer, but I recall what Kingston is like well enough to know that there are a lot more “vile and disgusting” things that happen in Kingston. Take for instance, one of the last articles displayed in the Whig. Way at the bottom of the list was an article about a woman who had been murdered by the man with whom she was living. Yes, domestic violence happens—but wait a minute, drunk students caused damage to a run-down Kingston neighbourhood? That’s much more “vile and disgusting?”
Unfortunately, the Whig-(sub) Standard’s online edition evinces a typical hypocrisy that runs close to the surface in Kingston. Students are rotten and spoiled in the minds of some of Kingston’s upstanding citizens. But as for the domestic violence that goes on in town? Clearly the fact that a 23-year old woman was stabbed to death is of lesser importance, if the Whig-Standard is to be taken as a measure of public interest. Surely the behaviour of Queen’s students was despicable. But it stretches credulity to believe it more vile than a domestic murder.
Kingston is a city wallowing in hypocrisy. While many of the residents decry what they perceive as the recklessness and debauchery of students, the universities and colleges in this town are what keep it from becoming another Brockville or Cornwall. And while the police chief has harsh words for the students who took part in the violence, it’s when the Ghetto needs new street lighting and police protection that the town and police pay only lip-service.
Those who are found responsible [for offences on Aberdeen] should be expelled from the University and be charged criminally. However, the hypocrisy of some of the citizens and institutions of Kingston has overshadowed other, more frequent tragedies. That, in my opinion, is just as vile and disgusting.
Aaron Klopp
ArtSci ’01
Money to be returned to Radler should pay for Homecoming damages
Dear Editors,
It is time that Queen’s University’s criminal benefactors offset the damage of current Queen’s students’ criminal behaviour. The University should stop payment immediately on the $915,180 it is returning to David Radler on the basis that his original donation compromises the integrity of the University. The money should now be used to pay for the damages incurred on Aberdeen Street and around the city on Homecoming weekend, a gesture that might restore some of the University’s integrity within the community. Any remaining funds can go into the Radler Homecoming Damage Trust to pay for any additional hypocrisy incurred in future years.
Michael Podgorski
ConEd ’01
Anti-authoritarian sentiments justified on Aberdeen
Dear Editors,
RE: “Aberdeen not a tradition but a dangerous game” (Journal, Sept. 27, 2005).
It’s comical to me how Sgt. Keuhl and the press portrayed the Aberdeen party to be a riot and pointed out the handful of bad things the partiers were responsible for while completely ignoring the things done by the wonderful Kingston Police force.
It was clear to me when walking home from the restaurant at 8 p.m. that the cops were going to cause more problems than they were going to solve. When we were crossing the road a young cop came running out and physically grabbed my black friend, saying “in Kingston we don’t stop cars, we wait for them.” You see, there was a car coming, however, there was a stop sign between us and the car, and the driver would need to brake anyway so we crossed, of course coming nowhere near the car. It’s interesting he stopped a black guy crossing, when there were about 10 white guys who crossed in front of him, myself included. Wasn’t it the Kingston Police who were busted for racial profiling earlier this year? This officer was riding high on a power trip and just loved the excuse to physically grab someone. It was clear the police force was full of boy-hero cops who were determined to make their presence felt that night.
I arrived in Kingston at 4 p.m. and was surprised to see such a police presence for absolutely no reason. There were no problems at that point, yet it seemed there were hundreds of cops patrolling and writing tickets for various offences. What you had Saturday night was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Police expected a riot, and they got one.
I know most police officers don’t have the best educations, but maybe they should focus a little less on shooting and a little more on sociology and human behaviour. By sending every cop in the city to Aberdeen Street with the intention of ruling the students that night and controlling what was going to happen, all they did was create tension and resentment towards authority—in this case epitomized in men in uniforms.
While I did not throw any bottles that night, I most definitely felt a strong anti-authoritarian sentiment and a classic case of mob mentality was obvious. Maybe the Kingston Police should study the French Revolution or other subjects to help them understand things like Saturday night rather than writing letters to the editor.
Andrew Robinson
Oshawa
Violence and hostility unprecedented on Aberdeen
Dear Editors,
As a recent Queen’s undergrad who has enjoyed her fair share of keggers, I must admit that I was disgusted by the behaviour of some Queen’s students this Homecoming weekend. The violence and hostility I witnessed at some house parties, not to mention the mob mentality of car flipping, rampant vandalism, bottle smashing and some shockingly disrespectful behaviour towards women has made me seriously question what type of citizens the Queen’s community is breeding. During my undergrad, I threw and attended some major parties, but not once was I grabbed in an inappropriate manner, not once was my brother—himself an alumnus—attacked by a complete stranger for no reason at all, and not once did I think it was appropriate to set a car on fire amid thousands of people (and I know for a fact that Queen’s students were responsible for the first two instances).
Although the individuals who committed these acts are certainly among the minority of students, most of whom just want to have good time (myself included), I hope the perpetrators reflect—in their sober state—upon what kind of people they want to become and what kind of picture they want to paint of Queen’s both to the Kingston community and beyond.
The shameful behaviour that I witnessed the past few nights is simply unacceptable. I long for the return of smaller, more responsible and respectful parties with 20 or 30 fun-loving friends. Enough with this abysmal, drunken, violent display that lacks any sort of social consciousness.
Kathryn Muller
Arts ’02, PhD candidate
Appalling student behaviour should be punished accordingly
Dear Editors,
During four years of undergraduate study, one year of master’s studies, and as a current employee of the University, I have never before had cause to be ashamed of being associated with Queen’s or its students. Unfortunately, with the Kingston Whig-Standard’s summary of last Saturday night’s events on Aberdeen, that pride has been tarnished.
The notion that flipping a car has anything whatsoever to do with school spirit or Homecoming is laughable. What truly appals me, however, more so than any destruction of property, is that anyone—and I don’t care if you are intoxicated or not—would ever fling beer bottles at emergency personnel (whether police, ambulance, or firefighters) trying to do their job. Endangering your own property and health is one thing. Taunting and endangering those who are trying to protect you while you do so is despicable. I certainly hope no one has the gall to claim that increased police presence is in any way to blame for Saturday’s events: that would be the height of petulant disrespect.
In New Orleans last month, some of those in impoverished areas, in the midst of a life and death struggle, took shots at rescue helicopters flying overhead. For a group of affluent, educated university students, however, apparently glass is the weapon of choice instead. It seems this kind of behaviour is not so much a matter of education as common sense. I wish those involved on Saturday had more of the latter, and would suggest that perhaps denying them the former might wake them up a bit.
With any luck identifications can be made from photos taken and the perpetrators expelled. Yes, it could lead to scapegoating, but something needs to happen before someone—student, resident or officer—gets killed. With any luck the sheer lunacy of this year’s behaviour can serve as a deterrent against, rather than incitement to, further unabashed alcoholic hooliganism next year.
Wade Guyitt
ArtSci ’04, MA ’05, Kingston resident
Attitude of police and attention of media not important
Dear Editors,
Once again, the actions of a few have spoiled for the rest of us what should have been a fun weekend. But what disgusts me, and, I hope, a lot of other people, is that some students are sticking up for the criminal actions of some students: “The reason why it escalated to that point was that police tried to suppress it so much and students just retaliated,” one student told CTV News. So throwing beer bottles at police officers, lighting cars on fire and blocking paramedics are legitimate forms of protest? Not in the society we’re in, and not in the society we’ll enter when we leave Queen’s. Wake up, students. The point isn’t that the police are rude, or that the media are unfair to students. The point is these actions/crimes are indefensible, no matter what the circumstances. By sticking up for them, we’re making it that much easier for the finger to be pointed at us.
Evan Sterling
Sci ’07
Senseless violence and destruction no tradition
Dear Editors,
I am a former Queen’s student and must say that today when a friend e-mailed me a link and I opened it up to see the headline “Homecoming turns into drunken brawl” I was disgusted to see the kind of reputation the student body is giving to one of the finest educational institutes in all of Ontario, if not the country. I lived in various houses throughout the Ghetto in my years at Queen’s and in my second year I started out on Earl Street, just a stone’s throw away from where this incident happened. I have witnessed firsthand the kind of debauchery that has occurred on the street in the past, especially on Homecoming weekends. To read the articles and see students defending these “parties” as “tradition” I say WAKE UP!
I don’t recall any tradition of reckless abandon and ill regard for the safety of myself or others, including the fine officers of the Kingston Police force, as any tradition we held steadfast. I was on hand for what I would say was the beginning of the “traditional” Aberdeen Street parties in my final year at Queen’s and it’s quite sad that this is what it has come to. There was no destruction of property, no disrespect for authority and certainly no coverage in national media when I was there. I remember hardly any police presence, if any at the keg parties I attended and I don’t look back on my University experience as a “sterile” experience because we were policed too heavily or unfairly targeted by the University administration or City of Kingston.
The students of Queen’s need to take a long look at themselves and ask what was the point of all the madness? Tradition? I find that hard to believe. A sense of school spirit? School spirit is going to a football game and supporting your Golden Gaels through thick and thin, not lining up with your peers watching the senseless destruction of property. Firing racial slurs and verbal profanities at police officers and smashing beer bottles on the street in defiance of any kind of authority—that is not tradition at the Queen’s I know. The only place for behaviour like that in the Limestone City would be down the street from West Campus at the Kingston Pen.
To justify the intensity of the situation as a result of the beefed-up police presence is another absurd excuse for a generation of students who clearly do not understand the gravity of the situation they created or the damage they are causing to the reputation of a fine educational institution. To say that because the police were tense and vigilant the students were tense and defiant is a poor argument at best. This is the kind of excuse you would hear from children in a grade school playground: “Well, they started it!”
The job of the police is to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Not to turn a blind eye because, well, it’s “tradition.” We had plenty of opportunity to show our pride in our University and let loose with a drink or two and we did it all without attracting the attention of police or national media coverage. Looking at the headlines from my years in the Ghetto, the only front page news that I can remember from Aberdeen Street was the construction of a ski hill alongside one of the houses. It was fun and, I admit, fueled by a little alcoholic idiocy, but no one got hurt and we came together and did something that everyone looked back on and was proud of.
How the police must long for the days when they had to come to Aberdeen to warn us to keep from ski jumping onto the street instead of arresting students for destruction of public property or assault on police officers.
To defend any of the actions of the previous weekend as “tradition” is a weak excuse by a student population to justify the severe lack of maturity that this generation possess and demonstrates that Queen’s is no longer the proud institution that it once was which has produced leaders in all facets of business, arts and sports the world over.
Blair Halchuk
Sci ’02
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