Here are eight reasons why I strongly dislike Madison right now: the Chocolate Shoppe, Subway, Spex, Princess of India, that audio place that got smaller, Jamba Juice, the Birkenstock store and for the kicker, Badger Liquor. I dislike that all of these businesses got their windows smashed Saturday night.
Meanwhile, the riot police stood a block away. What a way to give businesses confidence in the city.
Screw everyone who was involved in the whole thing. Screw you so hard. Screw the police officer who decided that riot gear was going to be the new style. Screw all the stupid kids who think that dissing authority is cool. Screw the idiots who destroyed even the public property of the bus station.
I was having a pretty good time this weekend, although the darkness and cold were bothering me a little. I was just coming back from a party on University Avenue when all of the sudden we saw people who had been hit with pepper spray. We made our way up Gilman Street and found people crowded in front of a very nervous group of riot police. I thought the police were supposed to be prepared THURSDAY (a.k.a. pleading-for-premature-ejaculation night). People began throwing things at the cops. The cops began to pepper spray anyone who walked toward them.
Things escalated and we retreated. We retreated to the corner of Gilman and State, right in front of the Chocolate Shoppe. My friend said that the cops were going to start using tear gas. We saw a plume of smoke. It turned out to be something burning over by Amy's. The kids did it. On the opposite corner, idiots were hard at work at taking down the stop sign.
If anyone ever tells me that this Halloween was a response to the fascist political regime of America, I am going to kick that person in the crotch. It's not that I don't think that the current regime acts in a fascist manner sometimes, but that idiots can co-opt anything and find a reason to ruin our party. And historically, that party has ruled so hard.
Apparently the Mifflin Street block party used to rule righteously hard. Kegs were on the street.
Now people are forced into one party or the other, in an amped up atmosphere, and girls get raped. Raped. Look at the word. It is terrible. People try to party hard and they get out of line. I keep trying to think that this is a very low-key, chill sort of place, and people keep getting raped and tear gassed. I want to blame it on high schoolers and out-of-town folk, but I'm sure that people who go here were involved.
If you were there Saturday and saw a guy dressed as a pink bear yelling a lot, then as far as I am concerned you can eat a huge rhinoceros dick because you should have just left. I should have just left too, but there were enough people acting stupid to make me watch. I was there when the first tear gas started blowing. I was standing by the Chocolate Shoppe, and some asshole started smashing the bus stop. Luckily, my friend extracted me from the scene, despite my drunken complaints. My eyes really hurt, and I had only been in a very thin cloud of tear gas. It really is a lingering pain; it hurt a lot more after I got out of it than it did while I was in it.
My first reaction was to hate America. I felt like there were frustrations of all sorts being taken out on authority figures, and these figures were acting like they were military personnel, and the whole thing stank of pretend civil discord.
What do kids in downtown Madison, where the cops are generally incredibly nice, and everyone's drunk, have to complain about? Screw any college student who complains about cops in the downtown area. They are better than on the East or West, and yes I know it has to do with the college kids having money, but that's my point; you assholes trashed our own street and ruined Halloween and my faith in America in general.
