So last night I head out to downtown wilmington with a large crowd of friends. The whole town was definitely hopping. All the bars were slam full, crowds in the streets, parking lots sidewalks etc. Everybody had a blast. At 2am, all the bars closed shop and and the halloween partyers head to the street to find cabs. Mind you this is several thousand young people converging onto front street and market street at once. A group in the middle of the street begins chanting USA! USA! USA! Soon they crowd grew pretty large with lots of college kids, marines and soldiers from the nearby bases. Everyone is chanting USA! USA! dancing, laughing, having an awesome time. All of a sudden dismounted officers and mounted officers on horseback begin firing gas into the street and form a wall pushing through the crowd. Kids were coughing, choking, throwing up. I saw one guy fall and get trampled by the crowd. My face was on fire and all of my mucus was draining out of my mouth and nose and my eyes burned like crazy. There was never a warning, sirens, cop on a megaphone, nothing. Just gas! Me and my buddies stumbled through the crowd to get out of the way when I cop on horseback came up and yelled at us to get out of downtown. Then his horse stepped on me. Where the fuck were we supposed to go?

I never expected to get tear gassed, especially in Wilmington, NC. I've been in much larger, destructive and malicious crowds and never have I seen cops be this forceful and aggressive.

Before people get on here bashing me, I understand cops have a job to do and are necessary for our country to function. But.... rolling into a peaceful college crowd on horseback shooting tear gas is uncalled for and unprofessional. Not surprisingly, this story hasn't made it to the local news

[Edited on October 31, 2010 at 4:45 PM. Reason : .]

10/31/2010 4:43:58 PM

Is there video of this of YouTube?

10/31/2010 4:46:25 PM

Cool story bro. I, too, would like to see some evidence.

10/31/2010 4:47:59 PM

it's ok, they thought the revolution was starting.

10/31/2010 4:48:06 PM

Wilmington cops being overzealous. White-trash downtown Wilmington bar-hoppers being overzealous. Sounds like a perfect storm of typical Wilmington bullshit.

10/31/2010 4:49:15 PM

Troof

10/31/2010 4:49:37 PM

Maybe they were just fellow partiers with really good costumes.

10/31/2010 4:49:47 PM

I have a video and some pictures. I'm getting ready to upload them. Unfortunately the video is before the gas. It's just the crowd cheering USA. I have a pic of when they shot the gas, but it's blurry. The last thing I was thinking about was taking, pics or video. I couldn't see or breathe and was just trying to get the fuck out of there.

10/31/2010 4:51:07 PM

Priorities

10/31/2010 4:52:09 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfN8lgAN4c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSAkti6txw

I found a couple videos, but neither one is particularly interesting or compelling. The first one is some dancing in the streets stuff, and the second one is after the cops came.

10/31/2010 4:54:52 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfN8lgAN4c

This video looks like people randomly starting a mosh-pit in the middle of an unclosed street.

10/31/2010 4:55:00 PM

How dare they make a bunch of rowdy drunks clear a thoroughfare.

10/31/2010 4:58:32 PM

Quote :

"I understand cops have a job to do and are necessary for our country to function"

Yes, but stopping free association is not their job.

Fuck those cops.

This is why
I don't cry
when cops die

10/31/2010 4:59:48 PM

Quote :

"Wilmington Police Tear Gas Dwntwn Halloween Crowd"

perhaps they deserved it? did you pause and think about that?

j/k man... could you sue them, at least for stepping on you with a fucking horse??? i guess you would need video evidence for anything, otherwise it would just be chalked up to the general madness and helter skelter.

but then again, the mayhem was started by the damn tear-gassing cops.


[Edited on October 31, 2010 at 5:03 PM. Reason : ]

10/31/2010 5:00:10 PM

Quote :

"perhaps they deserved it? did you pause and think about that?"

Why did we deserve it? We did absolutely nothing wrong. This crowd was only a few hundred large. They close front street after bars close anyways, so it wasn't blocking traffic. If they wanted us to disperse why not get on megaphones and demand us to leave? Why not cut their sirens and horns on? Why not ride up and horses and send your officers in to tell people to leave?

Gassing should not be the first option when responding to a crowd. Especially a nonviolent one.

edit: ah, you edited after my response. I see now that u were joking

[Edited on October 31, 2010 at 5:06 PM. Reason : .]

10/31/2010 5:04:40 PM

cool story, bro

10/31/2010 5:05:26 PM

i edited before your response

yes, they should have at least made a warning first... you can't start shooting a crowd with anything until at least one of 2 conditions is met: they are being violent, or you have warned them to disperse.

fuckin oppressors!

10/31/2010 5:13:25 PM

Quote :

"If they wanted us to disperse why not get on megaphones and demand us to leave?"

Maybe they did bit you couldn't hear them over the loud mob that you were a part of.

Quote :

"Why not ride up and horses and send your officers in to tell people to leave?"

Because no one in a mob would listen?

10/31/2010 5:13:41 PM

Quote :

"the mayhem was started by the damn tear-gassing cops."

10/31/2010 5:14:08 PM

Here's my pics of the crowd. As you can see it wasn't that big or violent. Anyone who knows downtown Wilmington well knows that it would be hard to amass a large mob there. Hell the riot on Hillsborough St last year was 3X the size. The cops said "ya'll were awesome, you've had your fun, now go home" and everyone left nicely.











[Edited on October 31, 2010 at 5:20 PM. Reason : .]

10/31/2010 5:20:20 PM

btw, did you have any injury from the horse stepping on you[r foot?]? hope you got lucky and weren't injured.

i would never want to be subject to that... a horse could easily seriously injure a person by mistake in such a situation, and even kill.

10/31/2010 5:20:35 PM

first world problem

10/31/2010 5:22:28 PM

Reason people become cops:
-------------------------------------
25% Want to help people.
75% Want to hurt people and get away with it.

Quote :

"FUCK THE POLICE"

10/31/2010 5:26:23 PM

Quote :

"Maybe they did bit you couldn't hear them over the loud mob that you were a part of."

Na, as you can see from my pics I was standing right beside a cop car. They never said shit to any of us. Then they strapped on gas masks and lit up the crowd.

Quote :

"btw, did you have any injury from the horse stepping on you[r foot?]? hope you got lucky and weren't injured. i would never want to be subject to that... a horse could easily seriously injure a person by mistake in such a situation, and even kill."

Na, no injuries. I had steel toe boots on. I grew up on a farm so I'm used to getting stepped on by animals. I'm also not the type to bitch out and try to sue people, unless I was actually caused serious harm.

The cop one horseback was like "ya'll need to get out of downtown right Now!". I said, "What the hell man, this is where I live, where do you want me to go?". Then his horse stepped on me and he was all like "see, this is why you need to get outta here!" You could tell he and the horse were freaked out.

10/31/2010 5:27:26 PM

Quote :

"first world problem"

I would have to argue that crowd control with violence is actually a more second and third world problem. There we were chanting our countries name, expressing our right to assemble and right to free speech and we get blasted with tear gas. I know how that stuff affected me and I can only imagine what would happen if people had asthma. Also the folks that fell and got trampled on. I hope nobody got hurt. The whole thing just turned into a bullshit mess that could have been handled much more professionally by the police IMO.

[Edited on October 31, 2010 at 5:32 PM. Reason : .]

10/31/2010 5:30:48 PM

so what happens when a riot breaks out because some drunk ninja turtle steps on the foot of "the situation"... will we complain that the cops didn't do enough?

looks like a pretty big crowd to me...

10/31/2010 5:49:47 PM

Quote :

"Then his horse stepped on me."

Bahaha... I, too, hate getting stepped on by horses.

10/31/2010 6:00:09 PM

Welcome to Iran

10/31/2010 6:03:12 PM

If that horse scuffed my Nikes I would punch that motherfucker in the face so hard.

10/31/2010 6:09:58 PM

^ the horse or the cop riding it?

10/31/2010 6:12:51 PM

The horse. It's not the cop's fault his horse was being a dick.

10/31/2010 6:15:07 PM

Quote :

"so what happens when a riot breaks out because some drunk ninja turtle steps on the foot of "the situation"... will we complain that the cops didn't do enough?"

This was far from a riot. There was no fighting, violence, damage to property etc. If a fight broke out between a ninja turtle and the situation then I'm sure they have enough officers to break up the fight. If they want the crowd dispersed there are several other options to consider before gassing them.

10/31/2010 6:23:28 PM

yeah, if there were evidence of this happening, it would probably make the news... but it seems like there is no real evidence of it (other than the stories of those involved)

10/31/2010 6:26:13 PM

are you sure these were actual cops and not just a bunch of dumb college kids in really good costumes with awesome props pulling one more prank in character?

10/31/2010 6:35:03 PM

Quote :

"yeah, if there were evidence of this happening, it would probably make the news... but it seems like there is no real evidence of it (other than the stories of those involved)"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSAkti6txw
Here's a video of the gas. You can hear everyone chanting USA! USA! and hear other people coughing and spitting. You can see the gas in the air as well. Also, I'm assuming the police have to file reports of this. It is definitely news worthy IMO.

10/31/2010 6:39:13 PM

Here's my video. I just got it uploaded to YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNE5YZ3oBNQ

10/31/2010 6:48:53 PM

why did everyone decide to start chanting USA, USA?

10/31/2010 6:52:18 PM

Quote :

"I would have to argue that crowd control with violence is actually a more second and third world problem."

A drunk crowd was dispersed with tear gas. No one was beaten or killed.

First world problem.

10/31/2010 6:53:26 PM

Quote :

"why did everyone decide to start chanting USA, USA?"

i was wondering this too

10/31/2010 7:00:48 PM

Haha I'm not sure. Being Wilmington, there was lots of marines and soldiers present. I guess a group of them started the chant and everyone else felt a patriotic pull in their heart lol

10/31/2010 7:04:47 PM

Quote :

"there was lots of marines and soldiers present"

thats what cody just said

10/31/2010 7:05:46 PM

10/31/2010 7:18:28 PM

i understand on the person by person basis that charging a cop with assault is almost unheard of, but what is keeping the whole city from being sued into oblivion for improperly executed mass assault in an action that under normal circumstances requires either a signed statement of emergency, or an issued order passed through a judge? Otherwise this sounds like "whoops! we just invented a curfew >.<"

actually it sounds more like the cops got hammered like everyone else and saw an opportunity to use some of the brand new equipment that's marketed to them every year. :-/

"DUDE, THIS KAGOV REPEATING CANISTER STREET-SWEEPER HASN'T EVEN BEEN FIRED YET. *burp* TIME TO SEE IF THE WARRANTY IS UP YET"

10/31/2010 7:20:11 PM

Someone busted a few caps last night in Greenville while I was working downtown. I stuck my head out the back door at about 2:30am and it was a fucking zombie movie outside. The entire crowd was in full panic mode sprinting as a unit down 5th street. I think there was a pretty bad brawl in the area cops probably broke out bear mace and those coincidental shots just freaked people out.

10/31/2010 7:38:39 PM

I generally get along with cops (I'm a nice, law abiding female who does a lot of voluntary community service). But there is seriously something wrong with cops in Wilmington. I've never had a problem anywhere in my life but there (still bitter).

10/31/2010 7:49:04 PM

Quote :

"why did everyone decide to start chanting USA, USA?"

I have a feeling if someone can answer this question then we'll really know why the cops decided to start gassing people (I doubt they saw a bunch of UNCW girls in lingerie and thought "Lets gass'em!") . I'm guessing some marines somewhere were involved and they were not being very cooperative

10/31/2010 7:59:08 PM

^ So if there was an individual incident, shouldn't it have been treated on an individual basis? Gassing an entire city block was not the right move. What about the people just waiting to catch a cab, walking home, going to get some food? What about the folks standing on the sidewalks smoking a cig or the ones taking pictures and enjoying the scene? Did they all deserve to get gassed to? Hell, I was just standing on the street outside of the bar chanting USA along with the crowd. Did I deserved to be gassed and run over by a freakin horse?

10/31/2010 8:07:46 PM

Should have used mustard gas. Teach a real lesson...

10/31/2010 8:09:18 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfN8lgAN4c

Just saw this video. It shows how the mob/ crowd thing started. A guy in a bunny suit began dancing with a dude in a giant sombrero. Others soon gathered and in a matter of 2 minutes it turned into a huge dancing mob scene. Sounds pretty dangerous huh?

10/31/2010 8:15:43 PM

You can't just let people dance in the street. It's irresponsible!

10/31/2010 8:22:42 PM