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BY MARTHA MARRAZZA and IAN YARETT

In print | February 2, 2006

Revision Appended

One student was arrested and three additional students received citations in the vicinity of the fraternity houses on campus for alcohol-related incidents last Saturday.

Police officers were initially summoned by Public Safety officials to deal with an intoxicated individual who was causing a disturbance near the Phi Psi fraternity, Swarthmore Police Chief Brian Craig said. The student was delivered to Worth Health center but subsequently fled Worth on foot. Public Safety officials called for police reinforcement to respond to the individual because they were occupied with controlling the flooding situation in Parrish (see article below).

Members of the DU and Phi Psi fraternities emphasized that police involvement did not result from fraternity-sponsored activities. “There was no event at Phi Psi [that night],” said Jay Charles ‘07, a member of Phi Psi. "It seems like a lot of what happened was between individuals and law enforcement officials. There were no eyewitnesses, and I think that’s the issue and reason why it [Saturday night’s events] was so confusing."

DU member Alex Ryan-Bond ‘07 said the DU fraternity did not do anything to incite a police response. "We didn’t do anything that would have warranted police presence," he said. “Of course, the usual problem we have is that if something goes bad in that area, we [the frats] are literally 10 feet apart from each other. If you come to one fraternity, you come to both.”

After the police officer on duty arrived at the scene and identified the problematic student, the student was arrested and handcuffed, according to Craig. “He refused medical treatment, but the officer wanted to get him looked at anyway,” Craig said, based on the report filed by police who were at the scene. “At that point, he was under arrest, they tried to get him into the police car but he yelled obscenities and kept trying to get away.. "He was put in the rear seat of a police car while he was kicking and fighting. He kicked one of the officers in the arm, so they sprayed the student with Mace at that point to control him. He was then transported to the Swarthmore station, and the medics here looked at him.”

In the process of being treated for the Mace exposure, medics located a laceration on the student’s head, incurred from events prior to his arrest. “The person had previously been banging his head against a tree. When the officer arrived on the scene, he was given that same information,” Craig said. “The medics discovered that he had a laceration to his head, apparently from when he was banging his head against a tree. At that point, paramedics believed the laceration required stitches. He was taken to Crozer medical center.”

Once the student was released from the hospital, police officers charged him with various offenses including assault of a police officer, underage drinking and disorderly conduct, Craig said.

Additional police departments from Media and other provinces were first respondents to Public Safety’s call due to the small size of Swarthmore’s squad. Craig and Dean of Student Life Myrt Westphal both said that surrounding police departments frequently provide additional manpower in situations that require increased police presence.

As a result of responding to the original disturbance, Craig said police officers cited other students in the area who were engaging in various illegal activities, including public urination, possession of an open container of alcohol in public, display of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. While there was no event held at Phi Psi last Saturday, lacrosse team member Jesse Handler ‘09 confirmed that the men’s and women’s lacrosse team had planned a joint get-together for earlier that night.

A citation for possession of an open container of alcohol in public occurred after a slight altercation between another student and the police.

According to Craig, the student in question concealed an item in his hands from police officers. “They handcuffed him and put him in the back of a patrol car. When they went to see what was in his hands he tried to resist their efforts,” Craig said. “The student who was concealing his hand was cited for that and taken to Media to recover from his [intoxicated] condition. He was taken in for his safety so he could be observed until he sobered up. When somebody is under the influence, they are taken into custody until they sober up and then they can be safely released.”

According to the police report, two students also received citations for public urination charges. However, the students in question said they were unaware of their citations until this Tuesday when they were informed by college administrators of the charges that had been brought against them.

When confronted about the miscommunication over citations that were issued, Craig said police officers generally do not issue citations in person, but rather notify the offenders by mail at a later date. “For citations, unless there are aggravating circumstances, the information is obtained and then the citations are mailed. Officers generally tell them ‘you will be receiving a citation in the mail’, and the [college] administration was aware of that,” Craig said. "I don’t know what they [the students] are thinking or how they’re forming their opinions, but generally when police officers ask for identification, they are doing so for a purpose.

“If the students have a question, they are certainly welcome to come down here [to the station] and talk about it,” Craig said. “It’s not uncommon that when we explain it to them, with everything else that’s going on, they just don’t remember. They think if they walk away without a piece of paper in their hand that it’s all over, but that’s not how it works.”

In response to last weekend’s events, Westphal stressed that students should cooperate rather than resist police efforts in the future. “Don’t talk back to the police and don’t discuss theory and civil rights,” she said. “You need to do what the police say and ask questions in a different setting.”

Revision: Oct. 30, 2006:

The name(s) of the accused in this article have been removed because their police record was expunged.

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