Havoc in a college town
Friday, May 6
Walking south early this morning (about 1:50 or 2:00 a.m.) down Sherman Avenue, I saw Northwestern University Police and Evanston Police cars converging on the Evanston Shitty Bar District—roughly the 800 block of Grove Street and the 1500 block of Sherman, marked off by The Keg of Evanston, Bar Louie and Prairie Moon. I got to the corner of Sherman and Grove, where a swarm of bar-goers were drifting about, some of them clustering around the cops either to figure out what was going on or try and tell the cops what was going on. First thing I heard was an officer on the sidewalk yelling at them—"you've been ordered to move, or you go down to The Station" (the EPD station is just around the corner on Elmwood Avenue, not so distant or majestic as an officer can make it sound). I looked around and counted 11 cop cars and two ambulances.
I could see only one cop interviewing people as I walked up and down Sherman. The rest posted themselves along the block and outside the Keg. I could tell from the rumors going around that there had been a fight in one of these bars—I figured most likely the Keg, the ugliest and most crowded dive in the Shitty Bar District. Also, as far as I could tell, it had involved two or threee people at most. One rumor was it had erupted from some frat rivalry. The CTA 201 bus inched its way up the block as police cruisers were moved from their parking spaces in the lane of traffic.
I asked an officer standing outside the Keg what happened. "Nothing to worry about," he said.
Two police departments and a fire department didn't seem to think so. It looked excessive in this shitty bar district, which, shitty though it is, doesn't draw a crowd that needs much controlling, even it's Thursday night and people are pulling off random Cinco de Mayo bullshit. As I heard one passerby say to another, if this happened at Fullerton and Western, how many cops would show up? (Not this damn many). The officers there obviously didn't need to be there, at least not because of this incident. One was idle enough to ticket a guy for walking out of Prairie Moon with a half-empty pitcher of ale in his hand. Start to finish, it was a display of swift and sweeping overkill without a climax.
I suppose we'll just have to wait now for the official report...
Walking south early this morning (about 1:50 or 2:00 a.m.) down Sherman Avenue, I saw Northwestern University Police and Evanston Police cars converging on the Evanston Shitty Bar District—roughly the 800 block of Grove Street and the 1500 block of Sherman, marked off by The Keg of Evanston, Bar Louie and Prairie Moon. I got to the corner of Sherman and Grove, where a swarm of bar-goers were drifting about, some of them clustering around the cops either to figure out what was going on or try and tell the cops what was going on. First thing I heard was an officer on the sidewalk yelling at them—"you've been ordered to move, or you go down to The Station" (the EPD station is just around the corner on Elmwood Avenue, not so distant or majestic as an officer can make it sound). I looked around and counted 11 cop cars and two ambulances.
I could see only one cop interviewing people as I walked up and down Sherman. The rest posted themselves along the block and outside the Keg. I could tell from the rumors going around that there had been a fight in one of these bars—I figured most likely the Keg, the ugliest and most crowded dive in the Shitty Bar District. Also, as far as I could tell, it had involved two or threee people at most. One rumor was it had erupted from some frat rivalry. The CTA 201 bus inched its way up the block as police cruisers were moved from their parking spaces in the lane of traffic.
I asked an officer standing outside the Keg what happened. "Nothing to worry about," he said.
Two police departments and a fire department didn't seem to think so. It looked excessive in this shitty bar district, which, shitty though it is, doesn't draw a crowd that needs much controlling, even it's Thursday night and people are pulling off random Cinco de Mayo bullshit. As I heard one passerby say to another, if this happened at Fullerton and Western, how many cops would show up? (Not this damn many). The officers there obviously didn't need to be there, at least not because of this incident. One was idle enough to ticket a guy for walking out of Prairie Moon with a half-empty pitcher of ale in his hand. Start to finish, it was a display of swift and sweeping overkill without a climax.
I suppose we'll just have to wait now for the official report...
posted by Scott at 2:55 AM
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