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Melee mars weekend party at Brown University; 4 arrested

6:28 PM Tue, Nov 17, 2009 |
News staff    Email

alumnae_hall.jpg
Journal photo
The annual Scandalous party was held at Brown University's Alumnae Hall.

By Amanda Milkovits
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Scandalous, indeed.

A sorority party with that name drew hundreds of young people to Brown University Saturday night, ending with fights, police pepper spray, injured campus officers, and four arrests. Some partygoers tried to wrestle the gun from a Brown police officer.

Now Providence police are opposing two other parties planned for Nov. 20 and Dec. 5 on the Brown campus.

"The position this department will take is: 'We're against anything Brown wants to permit,' " Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman told his command staff Tuesday morning. "Everything for the rest of the year is canceled, period.

"I think things were completely out of control."

Esserman was particularly upset at the attempt to take the gun from a Brown officer. "What's going to happen if the Providence police don't get there in time to protect your people?" Esserman asked Brown Deputy Chief Paul Shanley. "I think that could have been bad."

The struggle over the officer's gun isn't mentioned in a message sent to Brown undergraduates on Monday by Margaret Klawunn, the university's vice president for campus life and student services.

Instead, Klawunn's message focuses on the Brown officers' use of pepper spray to break up the disturbance, in which three campus officers suffered minor injuries. "Pepper spray is used very infrequently on our campus; when it is discharged, there is a full review of how and why it was used to determine if the use was consistent with departmental policies and protocols," the message stated.

The university is also reviewing the management of the Scandalous event and Brown's own policies related to large public events, the message said.

Until this weekend, the annual Scandalous party, sponsored by the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, hadn't had any problems. "It's unfortunate this incident happened," said spokeswoman Marisa Quinn. "We're taking it very seriously."

The sorority, one of 14 Greek organizations at Brown, was established as a sisterhood of black college-educated women with a mission of public service. The Lambda Iota chapter in Providence includes members from Brown, Bryant and Johnson & Wales universities, the University of Rhode Island and other four-year colleges, according to its description on the Brown Web site.

The sorority did not return an e-mail requesting comment.

The sorority had obtained an entertainment license from the city for Alumnae Hall from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., and the application was signed by one of the university's deans, according to the city Board of Licenses. The doors were closing at 1 a.m., but the event was continuing until 2, Klawunn said during an interview on Tuesday.

Admission was limited to people with IDs from colleges in Rhode Island, although other people could ask in advance to be added to the guest list, Klawunn said. A later review found that the sorority had followed the list, she said.

But notice about the Scandalous event went viral on the Internet -- attracting hundreds of people from outside the campus.

Alumnae Hall's capacity is 585 people, and a fire marshal was posted at the door, Klawunn said.

"We don't think there were more than 600 people in the area," she said.

Brown University refused to release the campus police report on the incident on Tuesday, calling the report "an internal document."

However, the Providence police released their incident reports and also described what officers found when campus police called for help at 1 a.m. Sunday.

The Providence officers found an unruly crowd of hundreds of people outside the hall at 194 Meeting St., and dozens of people yelling obscenities at the Brown police. The Providence police estimated that more than 500 people were inside, as well. The campus police told the Providence officers that someone in the fight had threatened to get a gun and come back to the party.

One person was seen covered in blood from a possible stabbing, the police said, but disappeared before he could be found for medical treatment.

Four men from Massachusetts were arrested. Kenny Jean, 21, of Bridgewater, and John Germainmartinez, 19, of Boston, were charged with assault on an officer and resisting arrest. Mario Montes, 21, and Jide Disu, 21, both of Randolph, were charged with disorderly conduct. None is a Brown student, Quinn said.

Esserman said he spoke briefly about the incident with University President Ruth Simmons at a conference on youth violence at Brown on Monday. He said she told him she was aware of it.

"To hear that someone tried to take a gun off a Brown police officer and that they had to use pepper spray is serious," Esserman said Tuesday. "That's an enormous concern for me, whatever uniform they're wearing."

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Comments

Phil G said:

This will somehow end up being blamed on the police before is said and done.



Ernie said:

I can't say I'm shocked, Brown is a liberal school and the campus police are treated like mall security by the university. Since when did a police report become an internal document. Well if you sweep it under the carpet it never happened. They cover up rapes and crimes on campus as much as they can after all they have a public image to uphold and this information is bad for business.



Marco J. Capaldi said:

Brown has been a bad citizen of this city for some time. It's students create serious problems for the surrounding neighborhoods and it often seems they get to do what they want as I have been told they hold favor with the mayors office. It is about time it blew up in their face and to lie to their student body and refute the police evidence is a slap in the face to our dedicated and hard working police force. I am very much in favor of further sanctions on Brown events. Maybe even a bill from the city which is almost broke to Brown for all their dedicated service.



AJM said:

terrible to hear. but looks as though the providence college area is not the only place that has parties and distrubances...



itsajoke said:

Don't you get it...they teach anarchy at Brun...
spoiled and foolish non-intellectual, thoughtless infants...no respect for solid founding principles.



John Nicholas Brown said:

Being admitted to Brown does not mean that you might have a functioning brain, just the money and pull to get in.
;
throw them all in the can for a few nights and let Ruthie go hold their hand and tell them everything will be taken care of .

those big bad mean policemen, don't they know who we are?



Charles from Providence said:

Is this the same policy that Shiny Badge uses at the FOP Hall? And before he shuts down Brown U. he better check with his "friend" the Maya.



Matthew55 said:

Thank god no one was seriously hurt. Maybe next they check the guest list a little more closely.




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