Following the disappointing Patriots loss in the Super Bowl on Sunday evening, students at the University of Massachusetts slowly began to congregate in the walkways of Southwest. If you remember last year's unbelievable Super Bowl win, you definitely remember the celebration “riot” that occurred at the same place same time last year.
Friends and I ran down to Southwest to join in the celebration by chanting and partaking in all the shenanigans that came with such a tremendous win by Tom Brady and the rest of the beloved team. The experience I had last year was fun and memorable for all the right reasons, but win or lose UMass students definitely still riot and this year, things seemed to take a turn for the worst.
Music was playing, rain was pouring, and “F*** the Eagles” was the cry you could hear from the pits of the masses swarming the residential area. I engaged in a conversation with sophomore Bella Keefe, a good friend of mine, who was present at the riot and willing to share her first-hand account of what really went down.
Southwest was packed, if you were in the crowd you could barely move. You also really could not get a sense of what was going on the outskirts of the overwhelming mass of people. Despite what different people have said, students noted that at the beginning of the riot, there was no police present, aside from the few officers that stand by the security in JA, a residential hall in Southwest.
At the peak everyone was having a blast, Bella described the same situation I found myself in this time last year, people climbing trees and poles, beer cans being thrown in the air, crowd surfing, etc. Bella was having a blast, but the fun ended quite suddenly. What sounded like gunshots began ringing through the air and what seemed to be tear gas began to be thrown, once students realized this, all hell broke loose.
Students began running anywhere they could to get away, disregarding other students who at this point were being trampled. Bella and her friends, being some of the students who were trampled, were eventually assisted by students who stuck around for a minute to assist those who had hit the concrete.
“Emily, I thought I was going to die,” Bella explained her struggle attempting to relocate her friends and make her way home, “the police were shooting rubber bullets, my friend got hit by one. People are screaming and crying. I booked it back to JA, no idea where my friends were. It was an absolute terror.” Though she was not hit with a rubber bullet, she did have a personal interaction with a police officer.
At this point confused, afraid, and just trying to find her friends, Bella waited outside the entrance of JA calling her friends. There she was greeted by an officer who said, “Get the f***into JA if that’s where you live.” Bella attempted to explain that she was waiting for her friends to which the officer replied, “you’re being f***ing annoying get the inside.” Bella went back to her dorm where she eventually located and reunited with her friends.
What are UMass officials saying when parents call to question the situation that clearly got out of hand? Bella’s mother called today and she was told there was no force, no guns, no tear gas. In an age where everyone constantly has their phones, Snapchat stories were flooding my phone right from the scene.
Even from the ten-second videos, I could see how quickly things were going downhill. Painful shrieks could be heard from students running from the scene after being hit with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Last year's riot dispersed quite peacefully, probably once students realized they still had class in the morning. Were the police mad about the loss and wanted to get things shut down quickly? Was two years just too much for them to handle? I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that there is outrage here on campus about the whole situation. Students are in disbelief about what happened and clearly upset that stories are being warped and covered by news outlets and school officials.
