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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2002)
Riot continued from page 1 Olshanski said police were forced to wait several hours before a large enough group could be assembled to break up the riot. “There’s absolutely no way you could take five to 10 officers into the area and have any effect on a crowd that size,” she said. “I was in the middle of it. ... This was an in credibly violent crowd throwing bricks and bottles, even as firemen tried to put out the fires.” A group began to flock into the streets just after 11 p.m. Friday when the student and his room mates asked an estimated 200 par tygoers to leave. At 11:30 p.m., witnesses said a man took off his shirt, placed it atop a street sign at the East 14th Avenue and Ferry Street roundabout, and lit the clothing on fire. People then grabbed mattresses, coffee tables and dressers from sur rounding homes to feed the flames. Signs from neighboring streets were ripped from the ground and used as propellants in the blaze, which witnesses estimate reached 30 feet high as the crowd chanted “Fuck the police” and “U-S-A.” Nearby Dumpsters were wheeled from local apartment complexes and moved to the intersection. Some on lookers participated in the havoc, jumping through the flames onto burning dumpsters, scaling rooftops and climbing telephone poles. As the crowd swelled, people rev eled in the flames, and students in vited their friends to join the chaos. “It was drunken immaturity,” University junior Kelly Nissl said. “I heard people calling on their cell phones, ‘Oh! Get over here.’ ” The activity continued past 2 a.m., when nearly 40 police officers tried to break up the crowd. “First (the police) just shot smoke bombs,” Lane Community College sophomore Josh Tift said. “Then peo ple started rushing them, so they shot rubber bullets and (sprayed) tear gas.” Witnesses said the party moved east as people tried to escape the tear gas and riot police. The crowd set fires that charred pavement and left a swath of Dumpsters ablaze. “The cops just tackled us for walking down the road,” said Shan non Johnson, whose female friend was punched in the face by a drunken rioter. Rioters continued on as police fol lowed close behind, tackling stu dents and ordering residents to go inside their homes. “The cops were shoving and ar resting random people,” witness Mike O’Brien said. “They were just riding up to people on their bikes and busting people with their sticks. “It was bad. Very bad.” Olshanski said police had to use every means necessary to break up the crowd but added that no live am munition was discharged. “If you’re given an order to dis perse and you don’t leave, you’re subject to arrest,” she said. The group reconvened east of the police, where rioters overturned a golf cart at East 14th Avenue and Hilyard Street, poured gasoline on the vehicle and set it on fire. People emptied the contents of nearby recycling bins and trash cans and lit a large blaze as riot ers danced around the flames. Feet away, people uprooted street signs and set a small tree on fire. The group vandalized a phone box and set it ablaze as well. An estimated 400 residents were left without phone or Internet service, according to a Qwest employee at the scene Saturday morning. Service is ex pected to be restored this evening. At East 13th Avenue and Hilyard Street, Subway employee Brett Michel heard riot stories from cus tomers throughout his evening shift. He stepped outside at about 1:30 a.m. and watched as the riot contin ued toward the University. “I told everyone we should think about closing shop because (the riot) was getting closer,” he said. As police arrived on the scene, they announced over loudspeak ers, “Get off the street, get off the sidewalks.” Not everyone listened. A videotape obtained by the Emerald showed one man repeatedly ignoring police requests to leave the scene and trying to put out the fire in the middle of Hilyard Street near East 14th Alley. Police shoved him in the back as they tried to clear the street. “They fired off the tear gas, and everyone scattered,” Michel said. The video showed people chok ing and coughing as the tear gas did its work. “If I knew this was what Eugene was about, I would have been here a longtime ago,” he said. One young man hoped to keep the party going. “Where’s the beer at?” he asked. People walking in the neighbor hood felt the effects of the gas from blocks away. “We were just walking down the street at 14th and Alder — we felt the tear gas hit us and our eyes start ed to water,” University student Blake Gebhardt said. A second round of tear gas dis couraged further rioting, and people began to disperse. By 3 a.m., police had cleared the area and cordoned off streets as students watched from their windows. Cleanup crews soon went to work, and the charred remains of the golf cart were scooped up by a bulldozing crew. “I’ve been here for three years, and this is the first time I’ve cleaned up something like this,” one worker said. Contact the news editor at brookreinhard@dailyemerald.com and the senior news reporter AAA AUTO REPAIR »Tune up specials 4 cycllnder engines V-6s and V-8s extra 232 Walls St. Unit 0 (off west 1st) _334-0490 24 years ot experience Live and Learn Japanese! 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