Tens of thousands lined State Street for this year's Halloween event Saturday night. While this weekend's party was an overall improvement from past years because there was not a riot, a few thousand partygoers lost their common sense and impeded the evening's potential to reach expectations of city officials.
A goal of Mayor Cieslewicz's Halloween plans this year was to prevent the use of pepper spray, while a goal of these few thousand partiers was to encourage the use of pepper spray. Unfortunately, the mayor did not win this showdown Sunday morning.
The overwhelming majority of the crowd of approximately 100,000 dispersed by 2 a.m. Those partygoers who decided to stay after police declared their presence to be an unlawful assembly wanted to witness a riot, stir up trouble and agitate police officers.
The police were thrust into a no-win situation against the few-thousand remaining partiers looking for trouble. Partiers expected pepper spray and were not leaving until they got it, while police officers were expected to clear the street. In this situation, the outcome is not surprising.
The partygoers remaining on State Street after they were asked to leave gave a black eye to Madison and the approximately 98,000 partygoers who enjoyed the celebration and went home peacefully.
The last few Halloween celebrations have been a painful learning experience for Madison, and this year was no different. We learned controlling the size of the party with mere words is difficult. Despite hundreds of proclamations for out-of-towners to stay away on Halloween, the number of people on State Street increased by 20,000 this year. We learned Madison cannot depend on the generosity of partiers to keep a calm event. Most problematic, we learned the precedent of riots and pepper spray from past years has brought people to Madison solely for trouble and dug the city into an ever-deepening hole.
Put into perspective, the few troublemakers should not stain the entire event for those who follow the rules. Madison needs to continue the improvements that were made to the annual celebration this year and look at ways to marginalize the effect of the violent Halloween precedent in Madison.
In the end, Halloween 2005 must be remembered for its successes and should not be likened to the chaotic, riotous events in past years.
