The Exponent


Tuesday, 4/3/2001	5 day quick link 4/2 \| 3/30 \| 3/29 \| 3/28 \| 3/27

Editor's Note: We have reached our limit of 10 letters related to the Sunday night campus disturbances (aka riots).

Newspaper articles provoke crowds

First off, I would like to congratulate the Boilers on a great season. Katie and Camille and the rest of the seniors have had a great run. We also saw the future with Shereka and Shalicia. They are going to be stars, if they aren't considered that already.

The point of my letter is the whole riot situation. The riots are probably unnecessary and immature, but I honestly can't blame the students for reacting the way they did. The fault should be put on the police.

On March 30, there was a column in the Purdue Exponent and the Lafayette Journal and Courier talking about possible riot situations. Was there any need to print this in the papers? Do you realize that article, in the eyes of the students, was a challenge? You challenged the Purdue University student body to try and mess with the police. You might as well have said, "Come on out and riot. We have more police, more dogs and a ton of tear gas!" Having that article in the paper was one of the worst things that you could have done.

The police did what they had to do to control the crowds; I cannot argue with those actions. Please, next time, when you bring in more police, don't challenge the students to a standoff!

Brent Wunderlich
Senior, Schools of Engineering

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