St. Patrick's celebrations

[danbrotherston]

You cannot call peaceful assembly an illegal riot just to justify taking away peoples rights.

I'm so sick and tired of this discussion because it is nothing more than prejudice against students.

It's not prejudice against students, at all.  

However, the activities of the students: 1) Public intoxication, 2) Blocking a roadway, 3) Underage drinking, are all illegal.

You could also add that there is a capacity by-law being broken too.

And as I had mentioned before, these unsanctioned event don't contribute to the enjoyment of the region (therefore, the students are prejudiced against all non-students) nor do they contribute financially towards the costs related to the event, which we now have the numbers for. $713,000 to benefit a very small and selfish, ignorant, portion of our population, for the sole purpose of getting drunk. This greatly exceeds the costs for the 9 day Oktoberfest that we have, which, for all intents and purposes, pays for itself.

If those students want to contribute $40 each to cover our costs, then fine....

1) What is public intoxication.  You do that when you leave a bar.  It's not illegal unless they're being disorderly or disrupting the peace, that generally wasn't happening at this party, it was quite orderly and calm, and when it was not the police ticketed and/or arrested those individuals.

2)  Blocking a roadway, ffs, they were using a street, it's a residential street, it's intention is to be a public space, it's usually used for cars, but it isn't wrong to use it for a party.  And, the police closed the road in the interests of public safety, because the people there did not fit on the sidewalk, so actually, the police legally closed the road.

3)  See number 1.

Enjoyment of the region, sure, I don't enjoy many events that occur in the region including this one, but many people *do* enjoy the events on Ezra St., I'm not going to judge those who do.  Those who do are students or visitors to the region, and that's just fine, those groups of people are both entitled to enjoy our region same as I do.

As for costs, again, I don't know what the general policy is, and I don't know why those costs were incurred, if you want to argue for an organized event, I am absolutely there, it should be an organized event.

Maybe you're not prejudiced against students, I never said you specifically were, but just like I don't agree with treating all students involved in this event the same as those who were breaking the law, you probably don't agree with being treated the same as everyone who is obviously prejudiced against students who rants about this event, and that's totally fair.  Although I will point out when you call those students (22,000 of them all) "selfish and ignorant" I do have to wonder.