Spring Break
What's that racket about noise violations?
The city's looking for a quiet way to curb assaults, but now many students are really making noise
by Mike Hartnett
Issue date: 11/22/05 Section: News
A loud knock has never created such an uproar in
Newark.
Senior Adam Sidor heard it on a chilly Friday
night in October, three days before Halloween.
Sidor was visiting friends in their home on West
Delaware Avenue. There was no party, he said, just 15
people hanging out and listening to music. A half hour after
arriving, Sidor was standing near the front door talking to a friend when he heard the loud knock.
He opened the door and was greeted with a flashlight in his face.
"Do you live here?" asked a Newark Police officer.
"No," Sidor said.
"Well give me your ID so I'll know you will come back, and
I want you to get everyone that lives in this house out here right
now," the officer demanded.
"What's the problem?" Sidor asked.
"Just get everyone that lives here right now," the officer
responded.
"OK, sir," Sidor said. "I'm just going to close the door and I will be back with the people who live here."
"Not with my foot here you aren't."
A bit confused, Sidor asked if that was legal.
The officer's response? "Go get people now."
When Sidor returned with the tenants, the officer told
them there was a call for a noise complaint. Sidor asked
who called, but the officer said, "It doesn't matter, the music
I'm hearing right now is indication of a party."
"The music is coming from one of the resident's personal
computers in his bedroom," Sidor said. "Why is this trouble tonight instead of every other night when he plays his music at this volume?"
"Shut up!" the officer interrupted. "I am sick of hearing
rom you; all you are doing is causing trouble. Just let me do what I have to do."
Sidor began explaining to the officer that he had met with police that afternoon to understand the new zero-tolerance policy, which links the recent increase in violence with parties.
The officer did not let him finish. He handed back Sidor's license and told him to "Get the hell out of here." Sidor got in his car and left, along with the other guests, confused and enraged.
"At the time of the unfortunate incident with the officer, there was no party," he said later in an interview. "This type of environment is obviously not the place that a violent incident will likely occur. Not allowing people the right to assemble and listen to music just because unwanted guests might show up is not right, lawful, moral or fair in any way whatsoever."
Sidor said he understands the new policy is obviously designed to protect the safety of students. But, like many others, he thinks the policy goes too far if the officer's behavior that evening was any indication of how it will work.
Behind zero-tolerance
On Oct. 20, one week before Sidor's incident, Newark Police announced a zero-tolerance plan to crack down on the recent increase in alcohol-related assaults in the community.
Under the new policy, police will no longer issue warnings or wait until a complaint has been made to take action on loud parties or noise violations.
University Police officers are partnering with Newark Police to enforce the policy. The officers are paid overtime through a grant from the Office of Highway Safety that is targeted at reducing underage drinking.
Newark Police Lt. Thomas LeMin said the policy is based on the correlation the department believes exists between off-campus parties and alcohol-related crimes, especially assaults.
"We hope to prevent the sexual assaults, fights, thefts and damage from criminal mischief that are all too often associated with parties where large numbers of underage people are drinking," he said.
According to Newark Police, as of Nov. 12, the number of arrests for aggravated assaults doubled from nine at this time last year to 18 this year.
The number of arrests for noise violations presents more striking numbers: as of Nov. 12, there have been 387 arrests for noise violations, an increase of 80 from the same date in 2004, police said.
One month into the policy, pink noise violation slips continue emptying students' wallets by the hundreds of dollars. The line grows longer each morning at violation hearings, and while most groggy students do not say much at 8 a.m., they have been anything but quiet outside Alderman's Court.
DUSC: Noise does not equal violence
The Delaware Undergraduate Student Congress is leading the fight to immediately suspend the policy.
While DUSC commends the police for being proactive in curbing assaults, the student organization believes the policy does not correctly address the issue.
"Students are being targeted by a flawed policy based on a non-existent relationship between noise and violence," senior Joe D'Agostino, DUSC city relations chairman, said.
The organization made numerous requests for police to provide evidence that links noise to the recent increase in violence, but the data does not exist.
"These crimes are occurring on the streets, not in parties," D'Agostino said.
At a city council meeting Nov. 14, DUSC attacked the policy head-on. More than 150 students poured into a crowded meeting hall to support a DUSC petition, signed by more than 1,000 students to date.
In addition to declaring there is no correlation between noise and violence, the petition stated that neither the university nor Newark police departments have shown evidence of how many students have been assailants. Students argue the policy is targeting students, not protecting them.
"In actuality, students are more often the targets of violent crime, not the assailants," D'Agostino told the packed room full of students and residents.
As council members debated the policy, acting Police Chief William Nefosky emerged from his seat in the back of the room and was handed a microphone.
"There is some issue out there about this policy targeting noise complaints," Nefosky said. "The issue is not noise, it is parties. I've directed all officers to target parties."
Senior John Cordrey, president of DUSC, responded to the comment, asserting the policy only mentions noise.
Councilman Karl Kalbacher, District 3, asked Nefosky if any studies had been conducted in past years to determine whether a correlation existed between violence and parties. Nefosky could not produce any data.
Since Oct. 1, there were 16 assaults in which the victim did not know the assailant, Nefosky said. Nine of the assaults occurred at parties. However, he did not know whether the student in each case was the victim or assailant.
Responsible vs. uncontrolled parties
Councilman Kevin Vonck, District 6, agrees with police that problems like assaults stem from large, uncontrolled parties. But, as a graduate student, he has a slightly different set of opinions.
"The problem is that this generation - my generation - has largely lost the ability to party responsibly," he said. "Our data may be more qualitative than quantitative in Newark, but there are documented incidents of violence that are directly related to large, uncontrolled parties."
However, a universal zero-tolerance policy unfairly targets responsible party hosts who control factors such as the amount of guests, alcohol flow and noise volume, he said. Since there is such a gray area for defining unlawful noise, the accused must be given a chance to rectify the problem before criminal charges.
Certain situations warrant zero-tolerance, he said, especially when the crowd is unruly and uncontrolled; when guests are uncooperative; when there are imminent safety concerns; or when there have been multiple complaints or a history of offenses.
But if these conditions are not present, Vonck said, party hosts should first be allowed to end the party on their own.
"It allows our officers to spend more time focusing on more serious safety issues in Newark," he said.
Police 'immediately assumed it was out of control'
Junior Caitlin Redding never thought eating s'mores with friends on her back porch would pose a serious safety issue.
On a Thursday night in October, the same day the policy was announced, Redding invited her female Ultimate Frisbee teammates to her house to hang out and make s'mores.
The girls were playing music, she said, but it was drowned out by a basement band next door. There was also a bonfire in that same neighbor's backyard.
While the girls danced on the porch and munched on snacks, Redding's brother, a graduate student who lives with her, told her that he and his friend were leaving. Her brother walked onto his front lawn finishing a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon as a police car rolled up.
The officers told Redding's brother to sit down in the backseat of the car, while they walked in the backyard to confront the girls.
"Who lives here?" asked one of the officers.
"I do," Redding said. The officer told her someone called in a noise complaint. Redding had to send everyone home and follow the officers to the backseat of a second patrol car.
"What are you charging me for?" Redding asked as she sat in the patrol car confused, watching the officer write a citation.
"Disorderly premise and a noise violation," he responded.
After the police officers left, Redding and her brother walked back inside to read their citations. They were in disbelief.
The citation read: "Hosting a party in which guest urinates on neighbor's property." Her brother's citation also said possession of open container of alcohol.
"If the cop read the citation to my face, I would've said, 'There are 20 girls here, I don't think they are peeing on a neighbor's house,'" Redding said. "It is ludicrous. If the officers told us to go inside, that would've stopped the problem. They immediately assumed it was out of control.
"It was a girl's club team coming over and making s'mores. I don't understand how they can relate that to violence."
Targeting students, only? Not on the mayor's watch
Mayor Vance A. Funk III's phone has been ringing nonstop lately from parents calling to complain the city is not providing enough protection for their children.
When he hears arguments that students are being targeted by the city and treated as second-class citizens, Funk is quick to fight back.
"Not on my watch," he said. "I bend over backwards to help the students."
As a university alumnus and former fraternity member, Funk said he is more tolerant than most Newark residents who are agitated by student house parties.
"However, when it comes down to malicious mischief, vandalism and assaults, that is something we cannot tolerate at all," he said.
Funk agrees with the relationship between uncontrolled parties and assaults, but he said only time will tell if the policy is successful.
In almost every assault case, he said, the initial problem started in a crowded home where everybody was drinking.
D'Agostino and DUSC question the increase in noise violations when city and police officials like Funk and Lt. LeMin assert that assaults mostly stem from crowded parties involving underage drinking.
"This policy has become a quality of life issue, not an alcohol issue," he said. "If you look at examples of arrests made of students listening to music in the comfort of their own homes, without any complaint, what kind of violence is that addressing?"
Vonck echoes DUSC's argument, asking whether Newark Police is spending its resources and time in the best way.
"We want to spend it tackling big, rowdy parties that are out of control and may lead to more serious crimes," he said. "But in terms of going and busting up every party and spending time to make arrests, it doesn't seem like a good use of resources."
Who's profiting from zero-tolerance?
Junior DJ Helmstetter and his roommates share a concern with many other disgruntled students - is Newark Police using noise violations to make a profit?
Helmstetter and his three roommates heard the loud knock Halloween night at their costume party. An officer told them he could hear music from the parking lot, Helmstetter said, and instead of one violation, each roommate was charged separately.
As the officer wrote up four tickets, Helmstetter and his roommates questioned how much money police were making off their party. The policeman only responded that Newark Police "is a business."
Mayor Funk rejects the notion that the new policy is a moneymaking scheme to fund the police department.
"The expenses to run a police department are astronomical, they don't even compare to money they get from fines," he said.
The profits from noise violations go to a general city fund, Funk said. The fund pays for a variety of costs, including cleaning up Main Street, funding city officials' salaries and paying city bills.
The fine for a noise violation ranges from $150 to $1,000 and/or imprisonment for six months to one year, according to Newark Police. Violators do not know how much they will be fined until their hearing.
Helmstetter has accepted the costly fine. Now, he is angrier about the university's role in off-campus arrests. Only after his violation did he discover that he and his roommates will also be reprimanded by the university.
"It had nothing to do with the university, whatsoever," he said. "The university should not be involved at all. One of the reasons people move off campus is so they don't have to worry about RAs and be a little more secluded."
Cynthia Cummings, director of Campus Life, said the Judicial Affairs Office will review all cases where students are charged with noise or other violations under the zero-tolerance policy.
"Why should we ignore students' illegal behavior just because it occurs off campus?" she asked. "Students' behavior off campus affects the community of which the university is a part."
'Police officials are sincere, but it does not mean they are right'
Mark Sisk can relate to the flood of phone calls Funk receives from parents. But parents call asking him for a different type of protection for their children - legal protection. As a Newark attorney who represents nearly 100 students, Sisk said he is skeptical of the new policy.
The police officials are sincere, he said, but it does not mean they are right. The policy brings people to their attention who might not previously have had problems.
In the last five years, Sisk said, there has been an upward trend in non-students coming to campus to commit crimes, usually because they try to take advantage of affluent students when they are drunk.
The new policy will not deter students from drinking, Sisk said.
"They're going to drink anyway," he said. "They'll go outside the city and maybe on the road, where maybe they wouldn't have before."
Vonck is also concerned the policy will only make students more rebellious.
"As house parties move deeper into dark, cramped basements, the potential for tragedy from alcohol poisoning, fire, or stampede is high," he said.
Alternative Solutions
Aside from the lack of data linking noise with violence and whether students are the assailants or victims, DUSC also argues the policy fails to establish a scientific measurement for noise. Instead, officers rely on their interpretation of "audible."
By relying on individual judgments, D'Agostino said, the policy allows officers an inappropriate level of discretion.
"Without an empirical method of determining the level of noise emitted, it is impossible to ensure a check on the power of police," he said.
DUSC's petition compares the policy to traffic laws, for which a scientific method has been established to determine if a vehicle is speeding. DUSC questions why the same cannot be applied for assessing the criminality of noise, literally, by measuring noise with decibel meters.
That method has been applied in Dewey Beach, Del., where noise levels of more than 55 decibels at more than 100 feet from the residence are considered violations.
Vonck agrees that it is impossible to ensure consistency of enforcement without an empirical method, but he questions the decibel system.
"Do we really want to require our officers to take decibel readings around a property, often in darkness where property lines are unclear?" he asked.
Dialogue about the policy must continue until a practical solution is reached by all sides, he said.
"We need to recognize the desire of students to congregate and socialize," he said. "We need to recognize the rights of all citizens for peace and orderliness in neighborhoods after dark."
However, many ideas are proposed and days it takes to reach a solution, students have made their own promise, loud and clear: until police can present data showing a relationship between noise and violence, they will not stop letting their voices be heard.
Newark.
Senior Adam Sidor heard it on a chilly Friday
night in October, three days before Halloween.
Sidor was visiting friends in their home on West
Delaware Avenue. There was no party, he said, just 15
people hanging out and listening to music. A half hour after
arriving, Sidor was standing near the front door talking to a friend when he heard the loud knock.
He opened the door and was greeted with a flashlight in his face.
"Do you live here?" asked a Newark Police officer.
"No," Sidor said.
"Well give me your ID so I'll know you will come back, and
I want you to get everyone that lives in this house out here right
now," the officer demanded.
"What's the problem?" Sidor asked.
"Just get everyone that lives here right now," the officer
responded.
"OK, sir," Sidor said. "I'm just going to close the door and I will be back with the people who live here."
"Not with my foot here you aren't."
A bit confused, Sidor asked if that was legal.
The officer's response? "Go get people now."
When Sidor returned with the tenants, the officer told
them there was a call for a noise complaint. Sidor asked
who called, but the officer said, "It doesn't matter, the music
I'm hearing right now is indication of a party."
"The music is coming from one of the resident's personal
computers in his bedroom," Sidor said. "Why is this trouble tonight instead of every other night when he plays his music at this volume?"
"Shut up!" the officer interrupted. "I am sick of hearing
rom you; all you are doing is causing trouble. Just let me do what I have to do."
Sidor began explaining to the officer that he had met with police that afternoon to understand the new zero-tolerance policy, which links the recent increase in violence with parties.
The officer did not let him finish. He handed back Sidor's license and told him to "Get the hell out of here." Sidor got in his car and left, along with the other guests, confused and enraged.
"At the time of the unfortunate incident with the officer, there was no party," he said later in an interview. "This type of environment is obviously not the place that a violent incident will likely occur. Not allowing people the right to assemble and listen to music just because unwanted guests might show up is not right, lawful, moral or fair in any way whatsoever."
Sidor said he understands the new policy is obviously designed to protect the safety of students. But, like many others, he thinks the policy goes too far if the officer's behavior that evening was any indication of how it will work.
Behind zero-tolerance
On Oct. 20, one week before Sidor's incident, Newark Police announced a zero-tolerance plan to crack down on the recent increase in alcohol-related assaults in the community.
Under the new policy, police will no longer issue warnings or wait until a complaint has been made to take action on loud parties or noise violations.
University Police officers are partnering with Newark Police to enforce the policy. The officers are paid overtime through a grant from the Office of Highway Safety that is targeted at reducing underage drinking.
Newark Police Lt. Thomas LeMin said the policy is based on the correlation the department believes exists between off-campus parties and alcohol-related crimes, especially assaults.
"We hope to prevent the sexual assaults, fights, thefts and damage from criminal mischief that are all too often associated with parties where large numbers of underage people are drinking," he said.
According to Newark Police, as of Nov. 12, the number of arrests for aggravated assaults doubled from nine at this time last year to 18 this year.
The number of arrests for noise violations presents more striking numbers: as of Nov. 12, there have been 387 arrests for noise violations, an increase of 80 from the same date in 2004, police said.
One month into the policy, pink noise violation slips continue emptying students' wallets by the hundreds of dollars. The line grows longer each morning at violation hearings, and while most groggy students do not say much at 8 a.m., they have been anything but quiet outside Alderman's Court.
DUSC: Noise does not equal violence
The Delaware Undergraduate Student Congress is leading the fight to immediately suspend the policy.
While DUSC commends the police for being proactive in curbing assaults, the student organization believes the policy does not correctly address the issue.
"Students are being targeted by a flawed policy based on a non-existent relationship between noise and violence," senior Joe D'Agostino, DUSC city relations chairman, said.
The organization made numerous requests for police to provide evidence that links noise to the recent increase in violence, but the data does not exist.
"These crimes are occurring on the streets, not in parties," D'Agostino said.
At a city council meeting Nov. 14, DUSC attacked the policy head-on. More than 150 students poured into a crowded meeting hall to support a DUSC petition, signed by more than 1,000 students to date.
In addition to declaring there is no correlation between noise and violence, the petition stated that neither the university nor Newark police departments have shown evidence of how many students have been assailants. Students argue the policy is targeting students, not protecting them.
"In actuality, students are more often the targets of violent crime, not the assailants," D'Agostino told the packed room full of students and residents.
As council members debated the policy, acting Police Chief William Nefosky emerged from his seat in the back of the room and was handed a microphone.
"There is some issue out there about this policy targeting noise complaints," Nefosky said. "The issue is not noise, it is parties. I've directed all officers to target parties."
Senior John Cordrey, president of DUSC, responded to the comment, asserting the policy only mentions noise.
Councilman Karl Kalbacher, District 3, asked Nefosky if any studies had been conducted in past years to determine whether a correlation existed between violence and parties. Nefosky could not produce any data.
Since Oct. 1, there were 16 assaults in which the victim did not know the assailant, Nefosky said. Nine of the assaults occurred at parties. However, he did not know whether the student in each case was the victim or assailant.
Responsible vs. uncontrolled parties
Councilman Kevin Vonck, District 6, agrees with police that problems like assaults stem from large, uncontrolled parties. But, as a graduate student, he has a slightly different set of opinions.
"The problem is that this generation - my generation - has largely lost the ability to party responsibly," he said. "Our data may be more qualitative than quantitative in Newark, but there are documented incidents of violence that are directly related to large, uncontrolled parties."
However, a universal zero-tolerance policy unfairly targets responsible party hosts who control factors such as the amount of guests, alcohol flow and noise volume, he said. Since there is such a gray area for defining unlawful noise, the accused must be given a chance to rectify the problem before criminal charges.
Certain situations warrant zero-tolerance, he said, especially when the crowd is unruly and uncontrolled; when guests are uncooperative; when there are imminent safety concerns; or when there have been multiple complaints or a history of offenses.
But if these conditions are not present, Vonck said, party hosts should first be allowed to end the party on their own.
"It allows our officers to spend more time focusing on more serious safety issues in Newark," he said.
Police 'immediately assumed it was out of control'
Junior Caitlin Redding never thought eating s'mores with friends on her back porch would pose a serious safety issue.
On a Thursday night in October, the same day the policy was announced, Redding invited her female Ultimate Frisbee teammates to her house to hang out and make s'mores.
The girls were playing music, she said, but it was drowned out by a basement band next door. There was also a bonfire in that same neighbor's backyard.
While the girls danced on the porch and munched on snacks, Redding's brother, a graduate student who lives with her, told her that he and his friend were leaving. Her brother walked onto his front lawn finishing a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon as a police car rolled up.
The officers told Redding's brother to sit down in the backseat of the car, while they walked in the backyard to confront the girls.
"Who lives here?" asked one of the officers.
"I do," Redding said. The officer told her someone called in a noise complaint. Redding had to send everyone home and follow the officers to the backseat of a second patrol car.
"What are you charging me for?" Redding asked as she sat in the patrol car confused, watching the officer write a citation.
"Disorderly premise and a noise violation," he responded.
After the police officers left, Redding and her brother walked back inside to read their citations. They were in disbelief.
The citation read: "Hosting a party in which guest urinates on neighbor's property." Her brother's citation also said possession of open container of alcohol.
"If the cop read the citation to my face, I would've said, 'There are 20 girls here, I don't think they are peeing on a neighbor's house,'" Redding said. "It is ludicrous. If the officers told us to go inside, that would've stopped the problem. They immediately assumed it was out of control.
"It was a girl's club team coming over and making s'mores. I don't understand how they can relate that to violence."
Targeting students, only? Not on the mayor's watch
Mayor Vance A. Funk III's phone has been ringing nonstop lately from parents calling to complain the city is not providing enough protection for their children.
When he hears arguments that students are being targeted by the city and treated as second-class citizens, Funk is quick to fight back.
"Not on my watch," he said. "I bend over backwards to help the students."
As a university alumnus and former fraternity member, Funk said he is more tolerant than most Newark residents who are agitated by student house parties.
"However, when it comes down to malicious mischief, vandalism and assaults, that is something we cannot tolerate at all," he said.
Funk agrees with the relationship between uncontrolled parties and assaults, but he said only time will tell if the policy is successful.
In almost every assault case, he said, the initial problem started in a crowded home where everybody was drinking.
D'Agostino and DUSC question the increase in noise violations when city and police officials like Funk and Lt. LeMin assert that assaults mostly stem from crowded parties involving underage drinking.
"This policy has become a quality of life issue, not an alcohol issue," he said. "If you look at examples of arrests made of students listening to music in the comfort of their own homes, without any complaint, what kind of violence is that addressing?"
Vonck echoes DUSC's argument, asking whether Newark Police is spending its resources and time in the best way.
"We want to spend it tackling big, rowdy parties that are out of control and may lead to more serious crimes," he said. "But in terms of going and busting up every party and spending time to make arrests, it doesn't seem like a good use of resources."
Who's profiting from zero-tolerance?
Junior DJ Helmstetter and his roommates share a concern with many other disgruntled students - is Newark Police using noise violations to make a profit?
Helmstetter and his three roommates heard the loud knock Halloween night at their costume party. An officer told them he could hear music from the parking lot, Helmstetter said, and instead of one violation, each roommate was charged separately.
As the officer wrote up four tickets, Helmstetter and his roommates questioned how much money police were making off their party. The policeman only responded that Newark Police "is a business."
Mayor Funk rejects the notion that the new policy is a moneymaking scheme to fund the police department.
"The expenses to run a police department are astronomical, they don't even compare to money they get from fines," he said.
The profits from noise violations go to a general city fund, Funk said. The fund pays for a variety of costs, including cleaning up Main Street, funding city officials' salaries and paying city bills.
The fine for a noise violation ranges from $150 to $1,000 and/or imprisonment for six months to one year, according to Newark Police. Violators do not know how much they will be fined until their hearing.
Helmstetter has accepted the costly fine. Now, he is angrier about the university's role in off-campus arrests. Only after his violation did he discover that he and his roommates will also be reprimanded by the university.
"It had nothing to do with the university, whatsoever," he said. "The university should not be involved at all. One of the reasons people move off campus is so they don't have to worry about RAs and be a little more secluded."
Cynthia Cummings, director of Campus Life, said the Judicial Affairs Office will review all cases where students are charged with noise or other violations under the zero-tolerance policy.
"Why should we ignore students' illegal behavior just because it occurs off campus?" she asked. "Students' behavior off campus affects the community of which the university is a part."
'Police officials are sincere, but it does not mean they are right'
Mark Sisk can relate to the flood of phone calls Funk receives from parents. But parents call asking him for a different type of protection for their children - legal protection. As a Newark attorney who represents nearly 100 students, Sisk said he is skeptical of the new policy.
The police officials are sincere, he said, but it does not mean they are right. The policy brings people to their attention who might not previously have had problems.
In the last five years, Sisk said, there has been an upward trend in non-students coming to campus to commit crimes, usually because they try to take advantage of affluent students when they are drunk.
The new policy will not deter students from drinking, Sisk said.
"They're going to drink anyway," he said. "They'll go outside the city and maybe on the road, where maybe they wouldn't have before."
Vonck is also concerned the policy will only make students more rebellious.
"As house parties move deeper into dark, cramped basements, the potential for tragedy from alcohol poisoning, fire, or stampede is high," he said.
Alternative Solutions
Aside from the lack of data linking noise with violence and whether students are the assailants or victims, DUSC also argues the policy fails to establish a scientific measurement for noise. Instead, officers rely on their interpretation of "audible."
By relying on individual judgments, D'Agostino said, the policy allows officers an inappropriate level of discretion.
"Without an empirical method of determining the level of noise emitted, it is impossible to ensure a check on the power of police," he said.
DUSC's petition compares the policy to traffic laws, for which a scientific method has been established to determine if a vehicle is speeding. DUSC questions why the same cannot be applied for assessing the criminality of noise, literally, by measuring noise with decibel meters.
That method has been applied in Dewey Beach, Del., where noise levels of more than 55 decibels at more than 100 feet from the residence are considered violations.
Vonck agrees that it is impossible to ensure consistency of enforcement without an empirical method, but he questions the decibel system.
"Do we really want to require our officers to take decibel readings around a property, often in darkness where property lines are unclear?" he asked.
Dialogue about the policy must continue until a practical solution is reached by all sides, he said.
"We need to recognize the desire of students to congregate and socialize," he said. "We need to recognize the rights of all citizens for peace and orderliness in neighborhoods after dark."
However, many ideas are proposed and days it takes to reach a solution, students have made their own promise, loud and clear: until police can present data showing a relationship between noise and violence, they will not stop letting their voices be heard.
