In Ferguson, protesters rise up over allegations of police brutality and the ravages of American racism. In Keene last weekend, rioters rose up over their right to be … stupid.
In a beer-soaked contretemps to the New Hampshire city’s family-oriented Pumpkin Festival, college-age partiers ripped down street signs and hurled bottles through the air, drawing tear gas and rubber bullets from police. As in Amherst last spring, the heavy hand of authority only served to push some of the revelers toward greater defiance.
In a statement that will surely haunt him in job interviews for years to come, an 18-year-old from Haverhill, Massachusetts exulted in the confrontation. “It’s just like a rush,” Steven French told The Keene Sentinel. “You’re revolting from the cops … It’s a blast to do things that you’re not supposed to do.”
I happened to be in Keene that day for a family gathering. As I walked through downtown, the annual Pumpkin Festival carried on as usual. Costume-clad children gawked at row after row of jack-o’-lanterns; community groups hawked sausage grinders and caramel apples; local rock bands belted out songs on sidewalk stages.
Just two blocks off Main Street, though, I found a very different scene: Police officers in riot gear had cordoned off a neighborhood of apartments beside Keene State College. Strapping on helmets and clutching billy sticks and rifles, they waved off anyone who wanted to join the party behind them.
“You’re interfering with our constitutional rights,” one young man said to a cop.
The officer, a man not much older than his questioner, puffed up his chest and fired back: “So what, is this going to be your big day?”
As day faded into night, the kids continued to drink and the cops continued to stand their ground. Trucks carring riot squads from other cities poured into a staging area west of campus. A helicopter appeared in the sky, shining a bright light onto the throngs of young people and warning them to go home or face arrest.
In the Twitterverse, people were quick to point out the difference between the largely white crowd in Keene and black protesters in Missouri. In response to a Tweet I sent out in which I described the partiers as “kids,” one commenter said: “Kids?? Why not thugs, gang members, rioters or ills of society? That’s what y’all called kids in Ferguson.”
And another: “Bet if they were black, those helicopters woulda been a swat team spraying mace and swinging sticks … asking questions later.”
— Jeffrey Good On Twitter: @jgoodstories
