Halloween 2002 inaugurated a pattern of destruction on State Street that university and city officials are desperate to end. But for many new students at UW-Madison, the background to the preparations for this weekend may be unclear.
Each year since 2002, the Halloween-weekend party on State Street has turned into what some describe as riots. Before Halloween weekend in 2003 and 2004, university and city officials took steps to prevent a redux of the previous year, yet the disturbances continued.
Halloween in 2002 fell on a Thursday, leaving police guessing as to what night would be State Street's busiest. Saturday, Nov. 2, proved to be the night of not only a large crowd but of what police termed a 'large-scale disturbance.'
The disturbance began around 1:30 a.m., when women in an apartment on the 500 block of State Street began flashing onlookers, according to 2002 articles in The Daily Cardinal.
Madison Police Lt. Cameron McLay told the Cardinal the apartment occupants retaliated by throwing objects at the crowd. A student was injured, but as police attempted to bring help, the crowd became more violent, McLay said. Police responded by using pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the crowd. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, at least 10 people were reported injured in connection with the riot, windows were broken at 12 locations and at least two businesses were looted.
The city tried to ensure a disturbance would not happen again with a ban on glass bottles, the removal of bike racks on State Street and live music on Library Mall Saturday night. But Sunday morning, State Street once again was filled with shards of windows, with several businesses on the 500 block of State Street damaged and looted and nearly all the State Street-facing windows of University Inn, 441 N. Frances St., smashed.
Revelers reportedly chanted, 'Ri-ot, Ri-ot,' and incited the crowd from the windows of University Inn, the Cardinal reported in 2003. People threw rocks and parts of their costumes and police used pepper spray to break up the crowd. Police noted at a press conference the day after that had a glass bottle ban not been in place, the damage might have been much worse.
Mounted police and stadium lights were added to the city's prevention arsenal in 2004, but at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, members of a 5,000-strong crowd lit a bonfire near the University Inn.
'We've got a core group of people that are determined to have a riot,' Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said at a press conference Sunday, Oct. 31.
