No tickets, no problems
It's the week before the 2006 Mifflin Street Block Party, and Mifflin resident and UW-Madison junior Max Grinberg has a decision to make: to party or not to party? After some deliberation, Grinberg and his roommates decided to celebrate the occasion by hosting a party at their residence on the street's 400 block.
To avoid altercations with police and protect their property, the roommates opted to keep their party small and secure. Less than 100 friends and acquaintances, a few kegs of beer, a locked front door and a local band performing on the front porch—if they could keep to this formula, they thought, their party would be both fun and ticket-free.
""We tried to keep it small, not let it get out of control, not really any random people, and we just followed the police officers' instructions the whole time and never tried to argue,"" he said.
For the most part, their strategy worked.
At 10 a.m., guests began to arrive at Grinberg's house. By noon, the street was full and the band was ready.
Shortly after 1 p.m., however, Grinberg was confronted by the Madison Police Department due to the noise coming from the band on his second-floor balcony.
""They had us move the band from the front porch to the back because they said we were going to get a noise violation,"" Grinberg said.
The band was relocated and Grinberg and his roommates received no further harassment from the MPD.
As the day went on, multiple tickets for public urination and underage consumption of alcohol were issued to revelers outside the residence. According to Grinberg, there was also an incident of a man selling beer cans from a suitcase he carried into the house's backyard. The man was arrested by police and taken off the property.
Despite these disruptions around the residence, officers never moved to interfere with the party happening within.
""I didn't feel like our house was targeted in any way. They only came into our yard when there were situations they needed to attend to,"" Grinberg said of police. ""Otherwise, I felt they were doing their job.""
A noisy situation
Some Mifflin residents, however, were not so lucky. As the block party approached, UW-Madison senior and Mifflin resident Megan Smith and her roommates were faced with the same decision as Grinberg. They arrived at a similar conclusion.
The seniors, all 21 years old, decided they would throw a small gathering for all the friends they had made in their four years at UW-Madison at their residence on the 500 block of Mifflin. They invited a close friend's band to play on their second-floor balcony.
They had a fun and relaxing day planned—what followed, though, was the exact opposite.
Smith said as the party began, she and her roommates immediately had problems controlling the number of guests arriving at her house. They had opted to use the front door as the entrance to their party and, in doing so, opened the door to a slew of unwanted others.
""Whether you want them there or not, they just come over on Mifflin,"" she said.
The unlocked front door made it easy for MPD officers to investigate Megan's home.
""We had cops come up probably four or five times and check every single person's ID in the house,"" she said.
Luckily for them, they had regained control over the flow of unwanted guests, and everyone in the house was over 21. Also, the roommates were not selling cups, thus avoiding distribution tickets.
Still, the problems with police did not end.
As the party progressed and the band began their set, Smith and her roommates were immediately met with ""harassment"" from police. Officers told them the music was causing a noise disturbance and that they would have to turn it down or face a citation. As the officers left, the band turned down the music and Smith pulled an officer off the street to inquire about the new volume's appropriateness. She said the officer assured her it was fine.
""Not five minutes later does another [officer] come up and start going, ‘We're writing you five tickets right now,'"" Smith said.
The house was issued two tickets for noise violations, each for $270.00.
Smith was upset at the citations., claiming she received bad information at the Mifflin Street Community Meeting the week before the event and that her house was thus unfairly ticketed.
""They said [at the meeting] not to get a permit, that it was a waste of money ... if we would have gotten the permit, we probably wouldn't have had to deal with this,"" she said. ""It was bad information and it was just stupid.""
A fine line
Of course, not all Mifflin residents decided to take a low-key approach to the block party. For UW-Madison alumnus and former Mifflin resident Gabe Horstick, his last Mifflin Block Party was his opportunity to put an exclamation point on his college career.
He and his two roommates decided that for the event they would throw a large-scale party in an around the house, featuring multiple kegs of beer, a charge for cups, live music and a pig roast in the backyard at their residence on the street's 500 block.
In planning the party, Horstick knew he would have to cover his back. He did not want any trouble from the MPD and began taking what he thought was every reasonable precaution to avoid citations.
""We spared no expense for this party, to make it safe and also so that there wasn't any police confrontation ... We rented two Port-O-Johns, had three or four security guards, we put up fencing all around the perimeter and no trespassing signs that stated ‘No one under 21 allowed on the premises,'"" he said.
In the days before the block party, news of Horstick's bash had spread. Horstick knew police were aware of it—he recalls sometime before the party, officers went door to door asking residents about their plans. When questioned, Horstick responded honestly, thinking that with security guards to check guests' IDs and fencing to restrict unwanted entry, all his bases were covered.
The party was also made public by the Madison press. On the day before the block party, a picture of Horstick and his roommates sitting on the stoop of their house ran on the front page of the Capital Times with the headline ""Parties vs. Prudence."" An article featuring Horstick's plans followed.
As the block party unfolded, Horstick's event began smoothly— however, Horstick would soon feel the power of the MPD. At some point during the day, MPD officers stopped two underage women with open alcohol on the street and obtained information that they acquired the beverages at Horstick's residence.
Horstick, however, said the police were unfair and the story was possibly untrue.
""[The police] arbitrarily pick out two young looking girls, cornered them ... and basically put the words in their mouth and got them to say they got beer from us. Whether they did or didn't, I don't know,"" he said.
Horstick said even with all the precautions taken, preventing people from trespassing is impossible with an event such as Mifflin.
""They basically caught people that were trespassing on our property and blamed us for serving them alcohol,"" Horstick said.
Police acted on this information, entering Horstick's residence and evacuating the area.
After the party was broken up, Horstick and his roommates faced upwards of $14,000 in tickets for offenses ranging from procuring alcohol to minors to distributing alcohol without a permit. What was worse for Horstick, though, was the MPD had killed his party.
In his mind, they had done so without justification, and to this day Horstick is bitter toward the MPD for the way he was treated.
""The Madison police acted like Stalinists,"" he said. ""They deceived us before the fact, trying to get us to think that they were there to help, that they were the good guys, and when it came down to it they basically came after us with no reservation.""
He continued, stating that, with the ""Stalinist"" methods of the MPD and the fact that underage revelers can always sneak into a party, it is nearly impossible to throw a good Mifflin party.
""I don't see anyway to have a party, unless you just have 10 friends over...without getting messed with by the cops,"" he said.
