Town police's report mentioned that the party attendants were "extremely uncooperative" and that there was underaged drinking going on inside.
"It didn't really seem like it was that much different from any other Zu party in the past, so I was sort of surprised that the police broke it up," said Jude Volek '03, who was at the party at the time police shut it down. "All I really remember is one police officer commented, 'come on guys, now you're starting to act like UMass kids.'"
"There were a lot of cars blocking traffic, a lot of noise complaints and lots of open containers," said Eric Ditzian '01, who helped organize the party. "But [the police] were pretty friendly. They didn't try to find the kegs. Two or three cops just came to the door, asked to speak with whomever was in charge, told us to break up the party and waited for us to do it."
Town police visited the party three times on Friday night and early Saturday morning, first at 11:40 p.m., in response to a noise complaint regarding a "group of people milling around" a car lodged in a snow bank. The officers towed the vehicle and returned at 12:50 a.m. to remove another vehicle that was blocking a resident's private driveway. Finally, at 1:55 a.m., the officers cleared the party, noting that cars were blocking traffic up and down the street.
When Campus Police were notified of the party after 2 a.m., they offered to help, but town police declined their assistance, according to Carter.
"The purpose was to remove cars," Carter said. "The party wasn't closed down because it was disruptive."