EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The broken glass was swept up, the
broken windows were boarded over and the burnt cars were all gone Sunday
as Michigan State University and East Lansing residents ventured out into
the warm spring sunshine after a night wracked by violence.

But the anger and disappointment felt by many over the rampage that left
eight cars torched, 24 windows broken in downtown businesses and 24 people
arrested – so far – didn’t go away.

MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo had planned to send his team back to East
Lansing on Sunday after a strong but disappointing showing against Duke
Saturday night in the NCAA semifinals.

But the team decided to stay in Florida when their first appearance in
the Final Four in 20 years was overshadowed by bonfires and battles with
police that broke out even before the game had ended.

”It’s totally embarrassing and ridiculous. That upset me more than anything,”
Izzo said Sunday at the team hotel in Sand Key off the coast of Clearwater
Beach, Fla. ”If any Michigan State students hear me, if you have season
tickets, I’ll buy them from you and I hope you never come to a Michigan
State game again.”

Of the 24 students arrested as of Sunday, 11 were MSU students, East
Lansing Police Capt. Louis Muhn said. Ten were East Lansing residents, seven
lived in Lansing and seven were from outside the area. Two were charged
with arson, while 19 were charged with disorderly conduct and one with malicious
destruction.

Two students under age 21 were arrested for possessing alcohol.

Muhn said police will be looking closely at videotapes to identify those
breaking the law. A toll free hotline will open 8 a.m. Monday to take calls
and tips from those who have information, and rewards will be given for
information, East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said.

MSU President Peter McPherson said that in addition to any criminal charges,
any student who endangered the lives of other students during Saturday night’s
melee would be suspended for a couple of semesters.

”Any MSU student who is found to have burned a car will be kicked out
of school,” he said. ”Seldom have I been as angry as I am today. Michigan
State University has no tolerance for behavior like this.”

Although thousands of people packed into sports bars, restaurants and
campus’s Munn Arena to watch the game against Duke, McPherson and East Lansing
officials said the violence wasn’t tied to the game.

”This was not a victory celebration. This was not a celebration at all.
This was not even a bunch of people feeling bad about their basketball team,”
Meadows said. ”This was a group of people who decided they were going to
riot.”

He noted that the first bottles were thrown at police officers and the
first fire was reported shortly after 10 p.m., before the game even ended.
Police found evidence of furniture stockpiled for bonfires. Some students
were wearing T-shirts printed with words celebrating the riot even before
things got out of hand.

”These students would have rioted if our debate team made it to the
Final Four,” Terry Denbow, MSU vice president of university relations,
said with disgust.

University officials, who have been working with students and community
leaders on a policy to decrease alcohol consumption since a melee last May,
said they think they are making progress, despite Saturday’s eruption of
violence.

During the melee, students at the Cedar Village apartment complex next
to campus rolled, stripped and burned a DeWitt Township police car. An East
Lansing fire truck had a windshield broken out by a brick, and one sheriff’s
car had its windows broken out. Partygoers also blocked an ambulance leaving
to take the injured to a hospital.

In downtown East Lansing, people began smashing glass doors and windows
at a Taco Bell restaurant around midnight after the manager became fearful
of the crowd and closed the restaurant.

On Sunday morning, the door to Bruegger’s Bagels had ”OPEN” spraypainted
across the plywood boarding up its smashed entrance.

Down the street, two large display windows at Jacobson’s department store
stood empty, their glass broken out. The Student Book Store had three windows
boarded up.

Larry Irish, a manager at the bookstore, said the rampage was unusual.
When students built bonfires and fought with police last May in downtown
East Lansing over a university drinking policy, they didn’t break any windows
or burn any cars.

”You just get too many students packed into too small an area and throw
in alcohol, and that’s what happens,” he said. ”Hopefully in the future,
it will happen less and less.”

John Langham, assistant manager at Bruegger’s, said the riot was upsetting,
but not the norm. He worries, however, that the university’s image still
suffers.

”It’s definitely a negative image,” he said. ”It’s just making it
worse for the students who want to go here.”

Izzo reiterated the point during a phone call relayed to reporters during
McPherson’s news conference.

”If they don’t think it’s going to affect our recruiting, our image
and everything else, they just don’t understand how important image is,”
he said.

About 230 police officers, including mounted patrols, were on the scene
Saturday night and into early Sunday morning. But with students moving from
downtown to Cedar Village, onto campus and back downtown, police had difficulty
keeping up with the troublemakers.

About 300 canisters of tear gas were used to dispel groups of students
that threatened police or firefighters, Muhn said. One Meridian Township
police officer was treated for second-degree burns, and 10 to 15 people
were taken to hospitals for treatment. Police got control of the situation
at about 4:40 a.m., he said.

East Lansing resident Sally Silver of the Bailey community neighborhood
group said she could see fires from her home several blocks from downtown
East Lansing.

”The university should have a policy that expels students who start
fires and riot,” she said, adding that residents were outraged and frustrated
by the students’ behavior, especially since it has happened repeatedly in
the past 20 months.

”You never know when it’s going to erupt,” she said. ”This is really
intolerable behavior.”

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