Penn State Students in Clashes After Joe Paterno Announcement

The demonstrators congregated outside Penn State’s administration building before stampeding into the tight grid of downtown streets. They turned their ire on a news van, a symbolic gesture that expressed a view held by many that the media exaggerated Mr. Paterno’s role in the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal.

“I think the point people are trying to make is the media is responsible for Joe Pa going down,” said freshman Mike Clark, 18, adding that he believed Mr. Paterno met both his legal and moral responsibility by telling university authorities about Mr. Sandusky’s alleged 2002 assault on a boy in a school shower.

Demonstrators tore down two lampposts, one falling into a crowd of students. They also threw rocks and fireworks at police, who responded with pepper spray. The crowd undulated like an accordion, with the students crowding the police and the officers pushing them back.

“We got rowdy and we got maced,” Jeff Heim, 19, said rubbing his red, teary eyes. “But make no mistake, the board started this riot by firing our coach. They tarnished a legend.”

An orderly crowd first filled the lawn in front of Old Main when news of Mr. Paterno’s firing came via students’ cell phones. When the crowd took to the downtown streets, its anger and intensity swelled. Students shouted “We are Penn State.”

Some blew vuvuzelas, others air horns. One young man sounded reveille on a trumpet. Four girls in heels danced on the roof of a parked SUV and dented it when they fell after a group of men shook the vehicle. A few, like Justin Muir, 20, a junior studying hotel and restaurant management, threw rolls of toilet paper into the trees.

“It’s not fair,” Mr. Muir said hurling a white ribbon. “The board is an embarrassment to our school and a disservice to the student population.”

Just before midnight police lost control of the crowd. Chanting, “Tip the van,” they toppled the news vehicle and then brought down a nearby lamppost. When police opened up with spray, some in the crowd responded by hurling rocks, cans of soda and flares. They also tore down street signs, tipped over trashcans and newspaper vending boxes and shattered car windows.

Some students noted the irony that they had come out to oppose what they saw as a disgraceful end to Mr. Paterno’s distinguished career as a football coach, and then added to the ignobility of the episode by starting an unruly protest.

Greg Becker, 19, a freshman studying computer science, said he felt he had to vent his feelings anyway.

“This definitely looks bad for our school,” he said sprinting away from a cloud of spray. “I’m sure Joe Pa wouldn’t want this, but this is just an uproar now, we’re finding a way to express our anger.”

As the crowd got more aggressive, so did police officers. Some protesters fought back. One man in gas mask rushed a half dozen police officers in protective gear, blasted one officer with spray underneath his safety mask and then sprinted away. The officer lay on the ground, rubbing his eyes.

Paul Howard, 24, an aerospace engineering student, jeered the police.

“Of course we’re going to riot,” he said. “What do they expect when they tell us at 10 o’clock that they fired our football coach?”

Other students expressed sadness instead of anger. Kathryn Simpson walked crying arm-in-arm with a friend.

“I’m here because I just need to be with the rest of my school right now,” she said. “This is devastating for us.”

When the unrest began, merchant Douglas Albert stood outside his downtown shop, Douglas Albert Gallery, to keep it safe.

“I’ve been in State College for 42 years and I’ve never seen anything like this; this is uncharted waters,” he said looking at the overturned news van, on which one young man was dancing.

Students pounded on the sides of upright news vans as officers herded them down the street they and shouted, “Flip it over!” Some took off their shirts and tied them around their mouths for protection from the fog of pepper spray that left countless students hacking. A few wore ski goggles. Many climbed on the tops of parked cars, denting and sinking the roofs, to get a better view of the spectacle.

Police finally dispersed the crowd by around 1:30 a.m. by marching, a dozen abreast, down College Avenue shouting and spraying any students that didn’t hustle away. Soon state police cruisers could speed down the street toward the backhoe that was procured to flip the news van back upright.

Mixed in the crowd were a few dissenting opinions. Dan Smith, 21, a junior studying secondary education, said he thought the board was correct.

“The hardest part, because he was a hero to me, is coming to grips with what he did, or actually what he didn’t do,” Mr. Smith said.

Like Mr. Smith, Kevin Goff, 19, a freshman studying film, didn’t protest Mr. Paterno’s firing. He came out just to see the show.

“My friends were like, ‘I don’t want to get maced,’” he said. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to miss seeing this, so I guess that means I do kind of want to get maced.’”

Mark Viera contributed reporting.

via nytimes.com