So what was the teargas like?

• Re: A Wilhelm Scream (Australia) by nocigar on
  

This used to happen twice a year here. They don't fuck around at the UW. When they riot, they riot.

• Re: A Wilhelm Scream (Australia) by BarleyPat on
  
  • Re: A Wilhelm Scream (Australia) by usversusthem on
    
    • Re: A Wilhelm Scream (Australia) by BarleyPat on
      

I was there for the one in 2001. I've never seen anything like it (in person, anyway). People flipping over cops and burning them in bonfires, people throwing propane tanks in bonfires. The fucked up thing was that there were no fires at first. People were just flooding Cedar Village and downtown and hanging out by the streets. Some kid was breakdancing and people were posing for pictures by the cops. Then, they just started firing tear gas off like crazy for no reason other than to "disperse" the crowd. Which was then pissed off (with good reason) and proceeded to run down the street setting every trash can on fire, among other things. Of course, that's not the story that makes the paper. They claimed that people were burning things before the tear gas went off. And maybe they were, somewhere. But not where I was at. The funniest part was when we were trying to get out of Cedar Village, which was a complete haze of tear gas for as far as you could see. We were somewhat trapped by the riot cops near the bridge over the Red Cedar and the riot police were still shooting tear gas at us. Some dude had a sweatshirt over his hand and was chucking the tear gas canisters back at the cops (those canisters are fucking hot when they land). Most of them had gas masks, of course, but it was still funny. What a wierd fucking night.