Mardi Gras history of violent incidents, 2001 no exception

By:

Posted: 3/5/01

It’s not a big secret: When lots of people gather and start drinking, trouble’s always a possibility. Add to that the tradition of Mardi Gras, historically one last licentious blowout before Lent, and the odds are even higher.

Still, far from the Mardi Gras epicenter of New Orleans, a growing number of communities promote or endure celebrations of “Fat Tuesday.” It’s an opportunity to party, and money talks.

But this year, the “morning after” was nothing to brag about. More than seventy people were injured Tuesday, two seriously, in Seattle, where Mardi Gras revelry degenerated into vandalism and violence. In Philadelphia, about fourty people were injured as festivities got out of hand. One person was stabbed as a crowd rioted in Fresno, Calif., and police in Austin, Texas, canceled a Mardi Gras Day parade after weekend violence injured five people and resulted in more than fifty arrests.

In New Orleans? A boisterous but relatively uneventful celebration. One explanation is that the local police have had lots of practice.

“In New Orleans, which in the United States has the longest tradition, it is very clear what the rules are,” said Dr. Cynthia Gentry, a sociology professor at Trinity University in San Antonio and a former resident of the “Big Easy.”

“At the same time, people know that you do not bother the police unnecessarily, because they’ve been working for weeks,” she said. “You don’t carry glass in the street. You do not bother another person. These rules are very clear and they’re enforced formally and informally.”

In some communities, Mardi Gras festivities are relatively new. Austin and Philadelphia, for example, have celebrated Mardi Gras for two years.

“Every Chamber of Commerce in every city, all the movers and shakers . . . are always looking for opportunities to increase the number of people coming to their cities,” said Dr. Charles Friel, a criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University. “So somebody says, Mardi Gras Heather Raymond that brings a lot of people in.”’

Philadelphia police Sgt. Roland Lee said a local nightclub was the driving force behind the Mardi Gras celebration there. Some partygoers, he said, had been drinking all day.

Philadelphia City Council member Frank DiCicco said businesses that were “pumping people full of booze from 7 a.m. in the morning should be held accountable.”

“We want to see if we can hold the businesses responsible for the destruction that took place,” he said, adding that owners may be asked to post a bond in the future to pay for city services and damage.

DiCicco said most of the 40,000 to 50,000 revelers who partied on Philadelphia’s South Street were young, many under 21.

With that large a crowd, he said, there were not enough liquor control agents “to keep a close eye on people who are intoxicated, and underage people being served.”

Business owners in Austin also came up with the idea of having a Mardi Gras celebration.

Austin Assistant Police Chief Rick Coy said Wednesday that officers there had some problems with the crowd that celebrated Mardi Gras last year, but problems escalated this year.

Coy said that officers had been monitoring the partying and making arrests earlier, but that shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday “the crowd turned on the officers and it just bloomed immediately into a serious situation with bricks and bottles and chunks of concrete being thrown.”

He said Austin’s Sixth Street area also has large crowds on Halloween and New Year’s Eve, but Mardi Gras seemed to attract “a much younger, raucous crowd.” Police officials will be reviewing what happened and trying to develop ways to avoid serious problems next year, he said.

Fresno Police Lt. John Fries said that the violence in Fresno’s Tower District, a concentration of restaurants and nightclubs, mainly involved intoxicated teen-agers, “young people drunk and under the influence of drugs.”

He added that the city still supports the Mardi Gras celebration, now in its eighth year, and will take steps to prevent a repeat of this year’s violence.

Mardi Gras is not the only event that attracts large crowds with a tendency to get rowdy.

Celebrations after a sports team’s victory have led to fan violence in several cities. Last year, after the Los Angeles Lakers captured their first NBA championship in twelve years, two police cars were set on fire, two other vehicles were destroyed and several bonfires were set by revelers. In Dallas, the Cowboys’ Super Bowl victory parade in 1993 also had its share of violence with fifty people injured and 74 people arrested.

Uninhibited behavior is the norm for spring break gatherings on South Padre Island, Texas, and also an economic boon for local businesses. But in response to some of the problems that accompany the partying, local officials recently approved an ordinance banning open containers of alcohol on downtown streets, though consumption on the beach would not be affected.

Margaret Collins, executive director of the Metroplex chaper of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, sees a trend in which retail establishments promote more “drinking holidays” to increase their profits.

For example, she said, “bars and clubs really are promoting Halloween as an adult holiday, really pushing drink prices and partying.” Thanksgiving once marked the beginning of the holiday drinking season, she said, but that has been moved back to Oct. 31.

“Is it a little bit of a black eye. . .that we have festivals like this where there’s a pretty good probability that people are going to get out of control? Yes, of course it is,” he said. “And is it a little embarrassing to the people who live there? Of course.

“Is the economic tradeoff worth it? Obviously, or the beneficiaries would say we don’t want to have it anymore.”