Colorado State Riots After SWAT Team Breaks Up Saturday Night Party

At this point even writing “another college riot; when will they learn?” is corny and overdone, so here are the straight deets on what went down at Colorado State this weekend: two students threw a registered block party 100 feet from campus, and among the unexpected guests was a Fort Collins SWAT team.

The party started at 7 p.m., according to the Collegian, and after five hours of shenanigans, the hosts called 911 and asked for help in dispersing an increasingly growing crowd. 25 units ultimately arrived on the scene. They met around 200 students in the street. Some students began throwing bottles and rocks at the officers, while others jumped on cars and led “Fuck the police” chants.

Most students left immediately, although pockets of resistance antagonized the police until around 1:30 a.m. According to the local Coloradoan paper, no citations were issued and no injuries were reported. Which doesn’t exactly line up with what some party-goers told the student paper.

Steven Meyers, a senior art major, was knocked down by a riot officer while trying to protect his car from the rioters.

“I didn’t want to make any sudden movements, so I stood by my car,” Meyers said, “and before I knew it a riot police officer was right next to me and he told me I couldn’t protect my car and he slammed me with his riot shield and I fell in between my car and my girlfriend’s car.”

Meghan Center, Meyers’ girlfriend and senior human development and family studies major, said she was also knocked over by the officers and then told to “move, bitch.”

…. Police began to disperse pockets of resistance around 1:30 a.m. No injuries were sustained as a result of the confrontation, Fort Collins Police Services Lt. Jeremy Yonce said. But students interviewed said others were visibly harmed that evening.

It’s a story we’ve seen time and again over the last two years. There are some college students who react to a police presence with aggression (see: the Barney Blowout), and there are some police officers who use a big party as a chance to strong-arm kids (see: the guy who blindsided a woman at the University of Arizona). It’s like an arms race of dickishness, and it can only end poorly. Thankfully, CSU’s Saturday night ended without tear gas or mass arrests or major injury.

Here are some tweets from CSU students at the scene (unlike the 2013 CSU riot, there isn’t much video):