: IS THERE A CONNECTION TO THE QUAKE??? RADAR RINGS? HAARP?
: Feb 28, 2001 - 02:21 PM
: Philadelphia's Mardi Gras Degrades Into Looting, Seattle's
: Turns Violent
: By Tina Moore
: Associated Press Writer
: PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Mardi Gras revelry turned violent early
: Wednesday in Seattle, Philadelphia and Fresno, Calif., with
: crowds fighting, smashing storefronts and looting.
: Police fought back on horseback and with pepper spray.
: Some 100 people were arrested in Philadelphia. About 70 people
: were injured in Seattle, and two of them were described as
: in severely critical condition with head injuries, one from
: a fall off an overpass.
: In Fresno, one person was stabbed as an unruly crowd stormed
: the city's Tower District, overturning portable toilets,
: smashing windows and hurling bottles at police officers.
: By contrast, the more notorious pre-Lenten partying in New
: Orleans was largely peaceful, even though upward of a
: million people - many in costume and some in little more
: than a smile - had jammed the streets as Fat Tuesday
: jiggled and giggled its way into Ash Wednesday.
: Philadelphia revelers smashed windows and dozens of people
: looted a liquor store and other businesses on South Street,
: a trendy stretch of bars and shops at the edge of downtown.
: It took police about an hour to clear the street.
: "Disappointing is the only word I can think to say,"
: city managing director Joe Martz said early Wednesday as he
: walked down the street strewn with trash, broken glass,
: empty beer cans and a few lace bras. "It's
: disgraceful."
: At a news conference Wednesday, Philadelphia Mayor John Street
: said he wouldn't call for cancellation of the annual event,
: although officials had discussed a curfew or other
: restrictions.
: "Those businesses who are pumping people full of booze
: from 7 a.m. in the morning until they basically explode
: should be held accountable," City Councilman Frank
: DiCicco said Wednesday.
: Philadelphia police had set up barricades to keep pedestrians
: on the sidewalks, but late Tuesday the crowds poured into
: the street. Eventually, police closed the street to
: vehicles instead of trying to push back the partiers.
: Just after 11 p.m., police started to clear the street with a
: line of officers on bicycles and horses. But after
: advancing about four blocks into the heart of the club
: district, they were assaulted with bottles thrown by
: revelers who stood their ground, police said.
: "What happened here tonight that disturbed me was the
: viciousness with the bottles," Philadelphia Police
: Chief Inspector Frank Pryor said. "We didn't touch
: anyone. We were very nice to them. But it seems they wanted
: a confrontation with the police."
: Most of the Philadelphia arrests were for public drunkenness,
: disorderly conduct and fighting. Most defendants were fined
: $300.
: The fights in Seattle broke out when as many as 4,000 people
: crowded into the streets.
: Police broke up the crowd with pepper spray. At least 21
: people were arrested on charges that included assault,
: rioting, reckless endangerment and hit-and-run driving.
: "I'm absolutely sickened at what I saw just several hours
: ago in Pioneer Square," Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske
: said at a news conference Wednesday. He said one of those
: arrested had been waving a cocked .45-caliber pistol.
: One of those injured was Ralph Radford, a free-lance
: photographer working for The Associated Press, who said he
: was jumped and beaten by three or four people. He was
: treated at the scene.
: Fresno's annual celebration turned ugly just before 9 p.m.
: Tuesday as hundreds of people began rushing gates of the
: event, police said.
: Vandals in the crowd of about 10,000 shattered about 40 shop
: windows, vandalized police cars and set trash bins ablaze.
: Numerous assaults were reported. A stabbing victim suffered
: minor wounds.
: "The crowd was not a Mardi Gras crowd," said Lt.
: Joseph Callahan. "It was a bunch of gang-banging
: juveniles causing trouble."
: In an annual ritual in New Orleans, a phalanx of mounted
: police officers, street sweepers and garbage trucks moved
: down Bourbon Street promptly at midnight in the French
: Quarter to ring down the curtain on a weeklong party.
: Before midnight, the Quarter's famous iron-wrought balconies
: had overflowed with partiers tossing plastic bead necklaces
: to people on the street. In exchange, many women gladly
: exposed their breasts - and were quickly surrounded by men
: with video cameras.
: "It's like nothing else in the world - the world's
: biggest freak show," said Wolf Martin, 57, a Los
: Angeles software engineer who was attending his first Mardi
: Gras in New Orleans.
: No major problems were reported, and New Orleans police were
: expected to release arrest figures Wednesday afternoon. The
: ankle-deep trash was to be weighed to get an idea of
: whether the enormous crowds set a record.
