On Thursday night, 2,000 rioters began to get out of hand and forced the police to exert such non-inert crowd control devices as tear-gas canisters. Eighteen and 19-year-old students celebrating the Boilers' Elite Eight advancement were treated to state-funded barbarism.

Saturday, the Boilers lost, fewer students celebrated or "rioted" and the police reacted the same as on Thursday. This time, they took their power too far. After a crowd consisting of somewhere between 300 and 500 revelers did little more than minor vandalism, the riot control officers discharged tear gas canisters nearly indiscriminately, aiming at groups consisting of as few as three people.

This is a dramatic contrast to Wisconsin's victory celebration. Students numbering in the thousands celebrated their Final Four berth with assuredly more vigor than Purdue's "riot" could have produced. Yet, Wisconsin crowd control officials saw it more as a celebration than a destructive event.

Students sitting on the lawns and front porches of their own houses were arrested for doing nothing more than refusing to lock themselves up in a house filled with tear gas.

Part of Saturday's riots might be a retaliation effort for the over-zealous use of chemicals and force during Thursday's celebration. The students had a right to be on the streets celebrating, and the police should have focused their energies on arresting only those who were actually committing crimes.