Police shut down DKE Halloween
By Greta Bradlee, News Editor
Last Thursday night at 11:30 p.m., Amherst town police closed down the annual DKE Halloween Party after receiving a noise complaint from a nearby residence.

Four town police officers and the sargent on duty arrived at the DKE House, which is located at 167 College St., and found what police record called "a large party of Amherst College students." Officers then gave two residents of the house a verbal warning and instructed everyone to leave the premises. They did not confiscate any alcohol and no arrests were made.

"Some of [the officers] were very reasonable, others were a little belligerent," said one DKE member who asked to remain anonymous. "For the most part they were just doing their job."

"[But] noise complaints at 11:30 at night on Halloween shouldn't be happening," he added.

Another DKE member, however, did not think the officers acted reasonably. "They were being really rude and using foul language and were being threatening where they didn't need to be," he said. "All there was was a lot of people there. There wasn't a lot of noise."

After being told to leave the DKE house, students went to the Hills lot. "Hearing that Amherst Police Department was going to the DKE house and knowing it was mostly our students and that they would be moved onto campus, it was in everyone's best interest that we were in the area," said Chief of Campus Police John Carter.

According to Carter, campus police wanted to make sure that students leaving DKE did not cause any damage or destruction to the cars in Hills Lot. The responding officers also told students not to return to the DKE House. "Campus police also wanted to make sure that no highly intoxicated people were abandoned (or attempted to drive cars) during the dispersal of the party," added Carter.

Two nights later, campus police confiscated an unlicensed keg from Hamilton at 10:32 p.m. Dan Ades '03 who was at the party and had a conversation with responding officers, explained that campus police did not respond to a noise complaint but rather, saw a large group of people inside. "They didn't really need to come in," said Ades. "There wasn't much going on."

Issue 09, Submitted 2002-11-06 15:31:00