Hey everybody, I hope you all had a great Fling and got the most of it.
While the DP highlighted the number of citations at this year’s Fling, and student quotes echoed our opinion that the new crackdown promoted an environment of fear and division rather than one of safety and student unity, it is important to note that Fling still, definitely, actually happened.
This sounds fairly pessimistic, but considered in the historical context of previous Flings, the total number of people directly affected by police action, relative to the huge number of people who were still successfully partying, still remained constant and relatively small within year-to-year variability.
Based on our experiences, drinking was still super possible if you were even remotely savvy, the closing off of the quad to non-residents (while a huge buzzkill) definitely did stop people from making it a ground-zero public urination disaster, and the destruction and disbanding of block parties was a huge and total bummer. We’ve heard anecdotal evidence of tipsy students making smarter decisions when confronted with police while Flinging, and would certainly love to hear more if you have any to submit. .
In the end, it was heartening to see so many people out, enjoying the weather in their chosen states of mind. As predicted, the police focused on a few easy targets to keep arrest and citation numbers constant, but the vast, VAST majority of students seemed to be willing to persevere and not let the DPS and BCLE scare them into a really really lame weekend.
It was an absolute pleasure writing this blog over the past two weeks and your responses have been super encouraging. As Fling starts to ramp up again next year, we’ll be there to respond to the latest changes and news regarding BCLE and DPS collaboration. If you have any questions, stories, or parties at other schools that you wish us to analyze and discuss, feel free to email us at yrfling1@gmail.com.
Over and out,
-BW & TR
No comments:
Post a Comment