At the College and in the town of Amherst, celebrations involving relatively few people presented little threat either to the overjoyed supporters or to the community at large.
Police narrowed an area of Main St. outside of McMurphy's Bar and the Monkey Bar on Wednesday to accommodate the few hundred fans who poured out of the bars after the Red Sox clinched the Series, but the festivities in town did not cause a problem.
The celebrations at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst were of a different nature, with more than 3,000 students gathering to celebrate the sweep against the St. Louis Cardinals. To deal with the sizable crowds, UMass police called on the Amherst Town Police and the Massachusetts State Police, and also used a helicopter to monitor the campus.
The large crowd was not the source of the problem, according to police. "If people want to come celebrate without being destructive or dangerous, that's fine with us; that makes our job easier," said UMass Deputy Police Chief Patrick Archibald. "Unfortunately, it doesn't usually happen that way." Instead, crowd belligerence forced police to disperse people about an hour after the end of each game.
Although the noise rose to higher levels than would ordinarily be tolerated late at night, that alone was not a sufficient reason for police intervention. "If you live in the area of Southwest, you have to know that this sort of thing may happen a few times a year," said Archibald.
According to Archibald, UMass Police Chief Barbara O'Connor's policy is to give the order to read a statement instructing students to disperse when she judges that the celebrations have taken a negative tone that could prove dangerous. She gave this order when students began jumping over fires, throwing bottles and other debris, exposing themselves and fighting.
Most students followed the instructions. According to Archibald, police used horses, white smoke and pepper balls on those who did not. O'Connor said that the pepper balls used at UMass are fired at the ground and break as easily as an eggshell, emitting a gas that stings the eyes.
UMass security also arrested 22 people after identifying them using undercover officers. O'Connor said that the police have learned from the rioting that occurred during the ALCS last year, and were better prepared to deal with the crowds this postseason. They credited the students, as well as police quickness in responding to trouble, for the fact that this postseason involved no serious injuries or major property damage. "I believe the word has gotten out that we are serious about maintaining order and arresting people when necessary," said O'Connor.
In an article in The Daily Collegian, some UMass students disagreed with police tactics, particularly the use of undercover officers. Others were unhappy that the police dispersed crowds that had yet to commit crimes in an effort to pre-empt riots. This led some revelers to lash out at what they saw as unfair police practices by shouting obscenities at police. It also led to arrests for disorderly conduct, which was defined by little more than staying in the quad after the order to disperse.
Ian Lovett '06 went to the Southwest quad after the Red Sox clinched the World Series. "By the time we got there, whatever riot there was had already been broken up," he said. "There were still a lot of police there in full riot gear: masks, shields, clubs, and some on horses. We were just watching with some other people; no one was doing anything. Then all of a sudden these guys in Red Sox hats and plain-clothes who we thought were students said stuff like 'Go home or go to jail.'"