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Cornell Police Break Up Student Snowball Fight
©2011 The Cornell Daily Sun. ^ | February 3, 2011 | By Jeff Stein

Posted on 02/03/2011 12:55:45 PM PST by Behind Liberal Lines

ITHACA--The Cornell University Police Department shut down the second annual “Epic Snowball Fight on the Arts Quad” Wednesday, apprehending a student, confiscating tin shields and knocking over a six-foot snow penis.

Chief of Police Kathy Zoner said CUPD officers did not plan on breaking up the event but had to do so in response to a call-in complaint. The officers decided that the event had to be stopped because it was “putting both people and property at the potential for injury and damage,” Zoner said.

As a police car approached from the western end of the quad, the hundreds of Cornellians who had pelted each other with smiles dropped their slushy weapons with disgusted frowns.

“Fuck the police!” someone shouted. “Hit the cops!” yelled another.

Soon, some had rearmed, and a snowball glanced off the police car windshield. Then another. A third landed with a thud. An officer stepped out of the car and was promptly hit in the chest.

For 15 minutes police worked their way through the crowd, but the students — who were packed around the terrace of Olin Library as tightly as the snowballs they hurled back and forth — continued to fire.

One officer, who thought a snowball had been directed at the police, “identified an individual who he thought was involved,” Zoner said.

That individual, Tony, M. Eng. ’11, who declined to give his last name, said police took him and told him to place his hands on the police car.

Tony said the officer took his information and asked if there was “anything in your backpack to worry about.”

“Of course not, officer,” replied Tony, who added that he did have his financial engineering textbook. Upon his release, he was told the officer would run a background check for prior incidences of misconduct.

“I just threw a snowball randomly into the crowd … They said I hit their feet,” Tony said after being released by the officers. “They upset me a lot.”

Eventually, hopes for continuing the snowball fight melted away. But Tony was not alone in decrying the CUPD’s actions.

Caryn Berley ’13 said a police officer told her he “didn’t want to do the paperwork for people getting hurt.”

“[The officer] was condescending and rude,” Berley said. “I wanted to be aware of my rights … It seemed a little strange to me because I didn’t realize you could restrict such things as snowball fights.”

The University appeared to condone last year’s snowball fight on the Arts Quad, sending photographers to the event and posting a video of it on a University blog entitled “Snowball fight!”

Additionally, Gannett’s official website says that, among other things, “having a snowball fight [is] proven to help [sufferers] of the blues feel better.”

Zoner said the officers understood that “of course people need to release and have fun,” but added they also “need to be cognizant of the dangers they put others in.”

Zoner said some of the snowball throws risked breaking the windows of Olin Library.

“Uninvolved parties have the right to safe passageway,” she added.

“I understand why people wanted to blow off steam, but if we get a complaint we need to address it,” Zoner said, adding that students should “blow off steam productively.”

However, some students disagreed with Zoner.

“If the Cornell police are the same people really stressed by the suicides, why are they asking us to stop relieving stress in a healthy way?” Chris Leyen ’13 said. “This just shows the level of maturity they actually give us credit for.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: cornell; donutwatch; fight; ithaca; napl; snowball
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To: John Valentine
"You are both too smart by half...."

And you have a lousy eye for humor.

41 posted on 02/03/2011 5:03:06 PM PST by diogenes ghost
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To: metmom; MeekOneGOP; Conspiracy Guy; DocRock; King Prout; Darksheare; OSHA; martin_fierro; ...
*sigh* Big Mother is watching.


42 posted on 02/03/2011 11:04:33 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows
Kids. Meh.

Jan. 28, 2011 A group of students at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth built a snowball they hope will break the world's record.

43 posted on 02/04/2011 3:39:33 AM PST by Daffynition ( Live EACH DAY as if it were your last, but EXPECT that there still may be a tomorrow.)
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To: b4its2late
Meanwhile in NC


44 posted on 02/04/2011 3:49:06 AM PST by Daffynition ( Live EACH DAY as if it were your last, but EXPECT that there still may be a tomorrow.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

The school is afraid of a lawsuit. Lawyers are taking all the fun out of living.


45 posted on 02/04/2011 3:56:20 AM PST by Fresh Wind (TOTUS knows how to give a speech. Obama knows how to read.)
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To: drubyfive
I wonder what would happen if the arts majors had a fight on the engineering quad.

Let me guess. The artsy fartsy brigade would toss fluffy, rainbow colored snowballs, and the engineers would respond with perfectly spherical, tightly packed snowballs delivered from laser-guided launchers. The artsy fartsys would run home to their two mommies crying their little eyes out.

Engineers rule!

46 posted on 02/04/2011 4:05:36 AM PST by Fresh Wind (TOTUS knows how to give a speech. Obama knows how to read.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
“I just threw a snowball randomly into the crowd … They said I hit their feet,” Tony said after being released by the officers. “They upset me a lot.”


47 posted on 02/04/2011 4:10:25 AM PST by Jonah Hex ("To Serve Manatee" is a cookbook!)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
"They said I hit their feet,” Tony said after being released by the officers. “They upset me a lot. "

Boo freakin' HOO... Why didn't you just hit 'em with your purse? Oh... and I think that's why yellow makes me sad.... MEOW, you friggin' jackwagon!

48 posted on 02/04/2011 4:28:48 AM PST by Hatteras
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To: Fresh Wind
perfectly spherical, tightly packed snowballs delivered from laser-guided launchers

Ha! Your post reminded me of this classic: Fight fiercely, Harvard

49 posted on 02/04/2011 4:52:17 AM PST by drubyfive
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To: drubyfive

Ah, yes. Tom Lehrer, one of my all time favorites!

“Won’t it be peachy if we win the game, oh goody!”


50 posted on 02/04/2011 5:12:36 AM PST by Fresh Wind (TOTUS knows how to give a speech. Obama knows how to read.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Liberals: Sucking the fun out of our lives for 180 years.


51 posted on 02/04/2011 5:36:08 AM PST by TheOldLady ("20 Years Ago Desert Storm began...where were you...?" "I believe I was hitting it." - Lazamataz)
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To: jimt

Besides...somebody might have “their eye put out”....(sarcasm on)


52 posted on 02/04/2011 7:22:56 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: Fresh Wind; drubyfive

When I was at CU back in the early 80s a few of actually remembered that song and used to chant it in a sort of a lisp at Cornell-Harvard games.

If we did that now we’d be charged hate crimes and sent to JA re-education camps.


53 posted on 02/04/2011 9:43:46 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: TheOldLady

...and it feels like longer.


54 posted on 02/04/2011 11:08:35 AM PST by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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