Last night, students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut celebrated the end of finals as students usually do --with a big party. But this time 10 or more police cars showed up to try to disperse the crowd.  The students didn't leave and what ensued involved pepper spray bullets, attack dogs, taser guns, and rubber bullets.  Five students were arrested. Some students had to be hospitalized.

The best coverage of this event is by Wesleying, a blog run by Wesleyan students.  It includes links to all the media coverage (both print and television), student testimonials, photo documentation of the events, and more.

Full disclosure, I graduated from Wesleyan last year and have first-hand experience with some of the tactics the police use to break-up parties.  There is certainly enough blame to go around. Students definitely become stubborn and don't want to give into authority.  Some are disrespectful (and outright dangerous) to law enforcement officers and have an unjust sense of entitlement. Others have been racially targeted by police officers and attacked unfairly by overzealous cops with pepper spray, dogs, and taser guns.  The police often seem intent on confrontation. I'm not sure why it was necessary to call in the police when the students were not bothering anyone prior to the arrival of the police officers. (The party in question was on a side street with houses only occupied by students).

Many questions come out of this incident that fit into a larger context:

2. Why are police officers so intent on using their authority to create confrontation with students?

3. Why do events like this continue to happen between students and police officers across the country? Why is this a systematically problematic relationship?

Other thoughts?