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The party crashers
Did University administrators mislead event organizers?
By Kyle Duerstein
Surely the Milwaukee Police Department must have something better to do with their time, their horses, and their SWAT team then to send them onto Frederick Avenue to stop the grilling!
Last week began what can now only be described as a load of crap. Jimmy Lemke, who many of you may know or have at least seen at Panther sporting events, and who writes for this paper, was summoned to the office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Dr. Helen Mamarchev.
Lemke, who is also arguably one of the biggest allies of the concept of school spirit on this campus, is also known by many on Facebook as the brains behind the idea of the Frederick Avenue block party. The notion, to students, sounds pretty cool. A fun little get together with a bunch of students you go to school with but haven’t yet met, a chance to network, to grill, and to toss beanbags competitively into a homemade game board assembled from leftover wood from the building of a beer pong table. There can’t be any harm in that, right?
Actually, if that’s what you think, you apparently couldn’t be more wrong. Two weeks ago, to a thunderous crowd of neighborhood hecklers, you learned about changes to Chapter 17, and I introduced to you the reality that resides in the minds of UWM administrators, that neighborhood appeasement reigns supreme, and that anything you or I want to do on our own is irrelevant to their foremost value of appeasement.
Today, we can collectively point to another example.
Lemke left the meeting with Mamarchev and James Hill, Dean of Students, and was, in his own words, “taken aback.” The email Lemke sent out to fervent members of the Frederick Block Party Facebook group, in no uncertain terms warned students NOT to show up to Frederick Avenue this past Saturday night.
“They said, by no exaggeration, that the police would be preparing for a riot. They were preparing to show up with cops on horses and SWAT teams. Believe that or don’t, but that’s what I was told,” read part of Lemke’s email.
As a matter of fact, I didn’t believe that. Surely, even though the neighbors might not agree, the Milwaukee Police Department must have something better to do with their time, their horses, and their SWAT team then to send them onto Frederick Avenue to stop the grilling! I called Anne E. Schwartz, Public Relations Manager for the Milwaukee Police to get some confirmation. “I’m not sure where you got all of that other dramatic information,” Schwartz said. “We are working with UWM Police to ensure that if this event does occur, that it’s safe for everyone attending.”
If that’s the line coming from the Milwaukee Police Department, not seeming to indicate a large-scale riot response, where did Vice Chancellor Mamarchev and Dean Hill get their information? Inquisitive students, feeling misled to by University administrators, want to know, right?
“The public information officer hasn’t been in meetings with (UWM) and the fifth district. We might have outlined a worst-case scenario to Jimmy, but they (MPD District 5) have indicated that they will be monitoring the area and reacting according to their directives and protocols,” said Dean Hill.
“If our students are going to be there, and potentially be in harms way, we feel that we have a responsibility to keep them safe,” continued Hill.
So, I came to Frederick Avenue this past Saturday to see the spectacle that Mamarchev outlined while attempting to intimidate and frighten Lemke and the rest of us. There was no SWAT team, there were no mounted police officers. The spectacle wasn’t there, likely because there weren’t many students there either. Lemke and co-organizer Kurt Smet probably won’t get expelled as was inappropriately threatened by Dr. Mamarchev. Suddenly, being expelled for a speeding ticket in Florida doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
It could have been fun, sociable, and maybe, just maybe, it might have even been a positive reflection on us…that we really do know how to have fun without breaking things.
You could just set one up with some student neighbors on your block. Just stay off the street, be respectful, don’t break shit, don’t be too loud too late at night, and whatever you do, DON’T post about it on Facebook, and DON’T tell any UWM administrators. Not that it’s any of their business anyway.
We’ll have to wait for spring, when student government will host another block party on Hartford Avenue again, according to Student Association President Tyler Draheim. Let’s just hope, for the sake of a good time, that Dr. Mamarchev is NOT invited.
Kyle Duerstein is a Student Association Senator.
> Comments
_ on Sep 22, 2008 at 12:27 PM:
Kyle, Are you surprised to find yourself living in a police state?
Aaron Jeske on Sep 24, 2008 at 02:23 PM:
What?