Freedom Flyer 4

Sir: Residents of the Gatewood area were appalled at the gross behavior exhibited by over 1,500 students at the Oct. 19 Homecoming "party" held at 75 Gatewood Place.

Lest other London residents think they are just "over-reacting," imagine 1,500 drunken students within 100 yards of your front or back yard, many bent on provocation, destruction of property, etc. Fifteen hundred drugged and drunken drunken students on one small residential crescent was no "party" at all - it was a violent, mean-spirited and unruly mob, with no consideration whatever given to those whose properties and security were directly threatened by "party" attendees.

Incredibly, Free Press coverage of the event totally ignored the residents and property owners in the area, and focused instead on the comments of the students themselves, one of whom actually had the nerve to say: "It's disappointing the London police have no tolerance for this sort of thing."

For everyone's information, the "sort of thing" being defended by that student included:

Loud chanting, carousing, screaming, and yelling until 4 a.m., including the "bullshit-bullshit-bullshit" chant loudly shouted when the police announced that tear gas would be necessary to disperse the crowd;

The parking and driving of cars on lawns and property;

The blocking of driveways;

Urinating on residents' cars and lawns by over 100 rowdy students;

Break and enter attempts into homes, ostensibly for the purpose of using their washrooms, by those who somehow assumed that some of the homes were "part of the party";

The smashing of hundreds of beer bottles on driveways and streets, or the hurling of those beer bottles at front and back lawns;

The threatening of residents by some students throughout the night and into the following morning, including every imaginable obscenity;

The deliberate striking of one resident by a student who intentionally drove his car at him;

The theft of lawn furniture from one of the homes.

Due credit must be extended to the police for their calm, reasonable and non-provocative approach to dealing with what was evidently a near-riot. It was only because of the deliberate and widespread belligerence of the students that police were eventually forced to resort to the use of tear gas. Unfortunately however, the tear gas also affected most of the Gatewood residents, since it went right into their homes, and proved to be a quite painful experience for some.

One homeowner in the area, whose wife was in poor health, had lived in London only one week. It is a tragedy that this terrifying experience should be their introduction to living in London and it should be an embarrasment to us all.

Sadly, it was left to the homeowners of the Gatewood area and to the owner of the townhouse at 75 Gatewood Place to clean up their lawns, driveways, and crescent the next morning - not one student was out there helping.

They are a peaceable, family neighborhood in a new suburb and it simply is not right that they should be subjected to such a frightening and arrogant display of drunkenness from students, whether their permanent place of residence is in the city, or whether they arrive in London as our guests to further their education. As taxpayers, this event has made Gatewood residents resentful of the fact that they help provide 80 per cent of the cost of students' university education and that the city government gave the University of Western Ontario a $70,000 grant this year.

The Gatewood area residents feel that council should reconsider this annual grant in lieu of the cost of policing these Homecoming mobs, not to mention the clean-up efforts and discomfort they were forced to face. There were, at times, 25 to 30 police officers trying to disperse these students - which not only cost the taxpayer money, but also made the rest of the city more vulnerable while so many officers were tied up in one area.

Gatewood residents look forward to having the city and police make some sort of preparation to avoid this kind of confrontation next year. There's no guarantee that a serious injury to the police, students, or residents might not occur if this behavior is allowed to repeat itself.