This past weekend on Halloween a very destructive and vicious riot took place. It was estimated that there were 3,000 students at this riot at around midnight that were drunk and going crazy.

Although Pirate Nation has been known for our party school mentality, this was something unlike anything seen in Pirate Nation . Unfortunately, students took things way too far and created a completely unsafe environment for themselves as well as for officials. The occurrence has triggered many negative comments on various sites that criticize ECU student conduct in regards to how everything played out. It is terrible to see the destruction that came from the riot. Destroyed cars, neglected safety of others, and launching of things at police officers made for  an overwhelming scene. It got to the point where Greenville police had to use tear gas to try and disperse the crowd. So, it's pretty safe to say, and admit that things did get a little out of hand, to say the least.

We are better than this. It’s plain and simple. Pirate pride is not something that is taken lightly around here. It is something that sticks with you for life. We like to party. We like to go crazy. We like to have a good time. But we are so much more than that. We are Dowdy Ficklen. We are the loyal and bold. We are 5th Street, but we are also Joyner. We are late nights at Peebs, but we are also volunteers at The Boys and Girls Club. We are Halloween, but we’re also our Brody Medical School. We know how to play hard, but we work hard first. 

We know all of these things, but onlookers have a distorted picture. In a year when East Carolina is in the national spotlight for our football team, we should be celebrating, not subjecting ourselves to scrutiny. By no means am I saying that we should conform and become boring, we would have gone to State for that. But come on, guys, act like you’ve been there before.