45 arrested, scores hurt at off-campus disturbance

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

 nearly annual off-campus party evolved into a riot late Saturday and early Sunday when between 1,500 and 3,000 revelers, mainly students, started fires, tore down light poles, vandalized apartments, and attacked police and fire fighters with bottles, rocks, bricks and full beer cans. The disturbance resulted in 45 arrests.

      Four UMass Police officers and 15 Amherst police officers were injured in the fracas, according to Amherst Police chief Charles Scherpa, and there were reports that some students sustained injuries, as well.

     The riot also left widespread property damage in its wake. Four Amherst Police Department cruisers were vandalized, two extensively, and a $45,000 UMass Police vehicle was "destroyed," according to chief of police and Public Safety director Barbara O'Connor.

     Light poles were knocked down, a bus shelter and trees were burned, passing cars were attacked with bricks and rocks, and thousands of dollars of damage was done when dozens of windows in greenhouses at Morrill Science Center, French Hall and Clark Hall were smashed. Morrill's greenhouses also were sprayed with graffiti.

     After an afternoon of monitoring and sometimes breaking up parties in the Hobart Lane area of Amherst, known as the "Hobart Hoedown," Amherst police had arrested 20 people for disorderly conduct and by 9 p.m. had dispersed the crowd of roughly 1,500 that had gathered in the vicinity in the preceding hours. But when the crowd reformed, larger than before, around 11 p.m., it spread across the street to Puff-ton Village and began lighting fires and throwing heavy objects at police and fire fighters. Am-herst police called for back-up from state troopers and University police and donned riot gear to disperse the group.

     Using pepper spray and rubber bullets, officials worked for three hours to get the area under control again. At Puffton Village, the group dismantled a brick wall to provide further projectiles, torched a bus shelter, smashed a sign, burned furniture and trees, and knocked over light poles to provide fuel for a bonfire they built in the middle of the street.

      Ambulance crews and fire-fighters were attacked as they responded to 17 calls in the area, according to Amherst fire chief Keith Hoyle.

      By the end of the disturbance, 28 people had been arrested for disorderly conduct, 11 for inciting a riot, one for drunken driving, four for carrying open containers of alcohol, and one for assaulting a police officer. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of those arrested were University students.

      Scherpa praised the help he received from UMass officers and state troopers.
"Without them we would have had a major, major uprising," he said.

      "I'm really proud of the men and women who showed restraint in the face of bricks and beer cans," O'Connor said. "It's a delicate situation; we're dealing with students, not hardened criminals."

      Last year the Hobart Hoedown resulted in 55 arrests but had fewer injuries and less property damage.

      "I understand that this behavior that produces significant injuries is not new to this part of the off-campus community," said Chancellor John V. Lombardi in a prepared statement, "and it clearly requires a combined effort by the University, its colleagues in the community, and the private owners of these apartment complexes to ensure that we do not continue to experience this behavior with its damaging consequences to individuals and property and its high risks for everyone involved."

      Lombardi's statement also said, "For the University's part, we will take prompt and appropriate action regarding any members of our community found to have engaged in behavior contrary to the University's code of student conduct."