Madison police deemed this year's Halloween festivities a success Monday, despite the need to declare an unlawful assembly and disperse the crowd using pepper spray.
Addressing questions of whether they moved in too soon, too late or with too much force, the police stated they felt their actions were appropriate at their press conference in the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Out of the 100,000 people who filled State Street Saturday night, there were 468 arrests total-most of which were for underage drinking and open intoxicants. Sixty-one percent had Wisconsin addresses, 14 percent hailed from Minnesota and 12 percent came from Illinois, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
A 19-year-old male from Russell Walk Street is also in critical condition with a head injury resulting from falling down stairs. The fall was alcohol-related and the man had been celebrating on State Street earlier, according to Madison Police Chief Noble Wray.
One of the most contentious points of the weekend was the use of pepper spray on the crowd.
'What we always try and do is create distance between the police line and the crowd, so anytime anyone comes near us, even if they are not in costume, we will spray them,' Madison Police Captain John Davenport said.
Police said the crowd had been given ample opportunity to disperse, with messages telling revelers to go home starting at 1:45 a.m. and playing for 15 to 20 minutes. However, some officials conceded the public announcement system was hard to hear at times due to crowd noise. Then, at 2 a.m., the message informed the crowd for five minutes that police had declared the celebration an unlawful assembly, after which police went in with pepper spray.
According to Wisconsin statutes, an unlawful assembly is 'an assembly that consists of three or more persons which will likely pose a threat to people and property unless it is immediately dispersed.'
Though there have been reports of police neglecting to help those they sprayed, police said there was a task force in place to address the issue.
'We did have a decontamination team behind the police line to provide assistance to those who had been sprayed,' Davenport said. 'We also had the Madison Fire Department with portable washing apparatuses helping to wash out and flush eyes.'
Yet the City of Madison may classify this year's event a success in that there was no property damage and no riots. Whether a riot would have happened had the police not taken pre-emptive measures in clearing out the increasingly rowdy crowd is under debate.
'This year's event was a success in that we were able to successfully plan and manage this event. Though I don't want to suggest that more planning will make this a safer or better event,' Wray said. 'This behavior is going to happen because we have a group of people who came here hell-bent on starting a riot.'
650 city ordinance violations, 468 arrests
43 misdemeanors, 7 felonies
61 percent state of Wisconsin
14 percent state of Minnesota
12 percent state of Illinois
13 percent other regions
18 years old'65 arrests
19 years old'84 arrests
20 years old'81 arrests
21 years old'71 arrests
22 years old'53 arrests
23 years old'39 arrests
