Monday, April 9th 2002

This is a report written by a Mpls woman who was listening to her police scanner during the "riot" following the Gopher game.  She doesn’t believe that we bent over all those signs ourselves!  She lost the faith.

I was listening to this incident on Minneapolis PD channel 2 (460.1 Megahertz) last night. The first call came in a bit after the Gopher's victory, an officer reporting a growing crowd of revelers in
Dinkytown. Several squads were then dispatched to the scene. The first officer arriving suggested closing off the street. This would have been the best strategy- let the revelers have the street and
avoid any potential pedestrian/vehicular accidents.

        Unfortunately this wise officer was promptly overuled by a supervisor, who ordered that the revelers be chased from the street. The crowds complied and  moved, but Minneapolis PD kept chasing them as the crowd reformed in new locations. About 11 pm or so the dispatcher gave the wind directions but not the speed- not a good sign. Minneapolis PD was apparently ready to deploy tear gas without even understanding the consequences! About this time officers first reported being targeted by projectiles, mostly snowballs. A call for helmets went out, along with more officers.

        About midnight I called my friend Lxxxxx, who put her radio on the channel also. We were quite amazed at how long the party had lasted, and wondered if Minneapolis PD was in fact prolonging the incident by their presence. We also noted the cat and mouse nature of the "riot", as Minneapolis PD would chase the crowd, only to have them reassemble a few blocks away. In fact, we eventually reached the conclusion that the Minneapolis PD was being outflanked by a leaderless mob of drunks! Perhaps if they'd had time to slip some plainclothes in to lead the "riot", like they did at ISAG, they would have done a bit better.

        We listened in amazement as the "riot" dragged on. Around 1 am, several State Troopers were pulled off the highways to assist. Unfortunately, Minneapolis dispatchers must have forgotten how to link their radio systems via MNCIS, so the troopers didn't know what was going on. Perhaps the dispatchers were already believing Motorola's trunk radio pitch that they needed a whole new trunked system to link?

        The confusion became contagious. Minneapolis PD sent a squad the wrong way up University, while other officers reopened the street to traffic. Miscommunication between University PD and Minneapolis PD caused at least one false alarm at Centennial Hall. In fact, Minneapolis PD did not defer in the slightest to the wishes of University PD, who had jurisdiction and should have been the lead agency. Throughout the evening, we never once heard University PD request assistance. Officers abandoned their squads to chase revelers on foot, then totally lost track of one of the abandoned squads. We also heard reference to a "car 1" being on the scene- this used to be the mayors car, but as RT has been driving himself about this is probably now the chief. An officer was told to look for a "black Lincoln Navigator"- is this Chief Olsons's new wheels?

        Officers were pulled in from all over the city as the "riot" continued. On another Minneapolis PD channel, we heard an officer call for assistance at a serious assault on the north side. By this
time 4th precinct was very shorthanded and the crime scene was compromised by the time backup eventually arrived.

        Around 3 am we shut our radios off and went to bed. Today we visited the scene of the "riot" and found little damage- a few bear cans, a tipped over strib rack, and a couple bent over signs. The signs would have taken considerable force to bend over, and may in fact have been hit by a vehicle instead. Your tax dollars at work...

(a few days later....)

Forgot to mention some stuff about the shooting at Old Colony. This is the incident that Minneapolis PD was slow in responding to due to shifting so many officers to the "riot". A description of the suspect vehicle was sent out over the Minneapolis PD's radio, but by the time officers were able to respond it was long gone.

        Were it not for Minneapolis PD's decision to do battle with the frat boys rather than protect the citizenry they might at least have a suspect in custody for the homicide at Old Colony.