Domers (JEEZ I HATE THESE GUYS!)...They come in all shapes, sizes, ehtnicities, and all walks of life. Domer students, Domer Cops...It simply doesn't end.
In case you haven't seen it, check the link to the story and video. I will tell you right now that the video takes some time to download for whatever reason - but it's kind of worth it to see what's happening. Hard to hear anything though. But the cop, Mr. Kaps(?) is way out of line from what we can see.....
So, this 21 year old student who had partaken in his "Domer/God given right" to imbibe some of the grape that the Lord hath bestowed on him to drink and add to his joyous occassion, may or may not have mouthed off to a "Domer Cop" that had been given the University and God-given right to bash the heads of Domer students that he believes are either lipping off to him or showing him disrespect and are what the cop deems to be "publicly intoxicated."
Classic. Absolutely Classic. I love Domer on Domer crime...
Here's the thing: About 2 years ago for anyone keeping score at home, Daddy "I'm not drunk" $warbuck$ showed up and the University of Notre Dame, Father Jenkins and $warbuck$ all decided that somehow, the Domer Football game day experience had "gotten out of hand". Hey, Domer Authorities: Have you seen and witnessed some of the crap that's been on the Domer field in the last 5 years? Drinking at Notre Dame would have to be a part of a student's life just to get through the pain of football season. Look at any bad program and I guarantee you when the product on the field is bad, alcohol sales in the local community skyrocket on home game days.
Anyway, they decide to work with the local authorities, all of them, and they decide they are going to "clean up" game day.
The problem with any endeavor like this is (See Duke bans Tailgating) that as soon as you take something away that's been understood and used responsibly by say, 97% of the fans that are in attendance, they get pissed. And they are going to find ways to work around the system. And they will. And responsible people might get a "little publicly intoxicated" as a result of having to use the work around solution. Please read this well written entry from NDNation about what it "was" like and "What" it became....
by Now Hang Up (2010-11-16 13:26:05) cannot delete Edit Return to Board Ignore Poster Highlight Poster Reply to Post
My freshman year was the last year of the old alcohol policy. For those who don't remember, essentially the rule was "If it's in your room, it's yours." I'll start by stating that my roommates and I drank far too much in college. Like, an unhealthy amount. But freshman year, our RA was our friend. He came and went during our parties and we didn't hide anything from him. If someone was too drunk, he'd come through and say "Hey, cut him off for a while." We knew we could go to him if there was a problem and he would help us out with what we needed. We weren't "above the law" in any sense of the word- we were fined a couple of times for various things- but we didn't fear his presence in our lives, even when he was enforcing the rules. We had good parties on campus- twice we had a DJ in the basement of Alumni for a dance party, with drinks in cleared-out rooms upstairs. FGR and the RAs monitored, wrote out fines where necessary, and otherwise left us alone. Sophomore year they changed the policies to make us safer, and our parties immediately became significantly less safe. Doors were shut and locked. Our RAs were the enemy, and they were not to be told what we were doing. Instead of having punch or mixed drinks, hard alcohol was stored under sinks and behind desks, and served up quickly in shot form. If someone was too drunk, well, he could stumble his ass to the bathroom alone, because I wasn't going to be fined too. Drinking games were played quietly and secretly. We didn't stop drinking, we didn't drink less, we just did it quicker and without supervision. Parties weren't nearly as social as they used to be, so we started going off campus more and more. After a freshman year of insisting that we wanted to live in Alumni all four years, we filled out applications to live in college park. Essentially, ND went from a true "in loco parentis" system, where the RAs and rectors were the authority figures but still a part of our lives and turned it into "us vs. them".
Now, add some hard-ass cops with badges and attitudes to the mix that have been given orders from God himself to somehow, "Clean it all up!" You're just going to end up with a mess on your hands and cops getting fired as a result of it all.
I'm not here to defend cops. Believe me, I think we have way too many now and with the reduction of taxes, state and local, hopefully there will be even fewer to deal with. I'm not here to defend underage drinking, either. But on a college campus, well, let's just say that I "get" that it might happen, on occassion. And, believe it or not, as I have expressed before that I don't think tailgating is a free ticket to public drunkeness on the borderline of being disorderly. I mean, this isn't the SEC...It's Notre Dame. For whatever that's worth....
Back to my point: if you are a town like Ann Arbor or South Bend that relies on the dollars that the game day attendees bring to the local economy, you figure out working solutions and more than anything you practice tolerance - BOTH WAYS! That's one thing I'll take my hat off to the Ann Arbor Police for. They really don't get too involved unless they absolutely have to and they let the fans do what fans do. Yes, on any normal day, there's probably just cause to have 50,000 or so people sitting in the holding cell in downtown Ann Arbor drying out. But on Game Day, at least for right now, it's understood that it's a party.
So, maybe the Domers can weed out and put up some sacrificial cops on the altar of keeping the parents and fans at bay with some public firings. And maybe the tea-totalers that are imbibing will find a way to do it in moderation in the future in South Bend. Or maybe a midwestern university that is becoming a bit of a laughingstock and now a public safety hazard for potential students (and the parents of those students) will say to themselves, "I can do better" and the university will continue to spiral downward into the abyss.
It's hard to say what will happen, but I wouldn't want my child to go to Notre Dame.
Period.
The MMQ
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