About five minutes after the initial macing, I witnessed a group of about ten cops walk over to two students. One student was wrestled to the ground. The other was grabbed by four cops, one on each arm and one on each leg. A fifth cop then hit the student in the face three to four times with extreme force. As soon as the student hit the ground he was surrounded by more cops. I was afraid they were going to continue hitting him, but luckily they realized forty to sixty students had seen the incident and were twenty feet away ready to make sure nothing else happened. I do not know what the students did but once surrounded by the officers I did not see them do anything. This was clearly a case of police brutality, and in my opinion the cop should be punished.

Prior to the macing, several individuals had stage-dived off of the ledge above the entryway. Shortly after all the people who wanted to go up there had jumped, two police officers opened a door and came out. Initially I assumed they were finally letting us in. All of a sudden everyone screamed and began trying to run. As I turned, I caught a quick glimpse of a large volume of liquid falling across the crowd. It looked as if someone had poured a bucket of water over our heads. A moment later, after I had the opportunity to finish turning, it landed all around me and those nearby. I was hit by just a tiny amount, on my forehead. After it hit me it occurred to me that it must be mace. It burned for quite some time.

The real pity was that this was meant to be a quick, joyful, and peaceful way to celebrate and let off steam during the last days of finals. It had already been done at both UNC and UVA, and it was YouTube videos of these flashmob raves that inspired the idea to do it here. It was only intended to last ten minutes. And with no provocation the police nearly started a riot. It was completely uncalled for behavior on the part of those officers who initiated the actions. My parents work for the county and in the judicial system, and I am the first to defend police as civil servants. But what I saw last night made me ashamed of my local police force.

Yeah, but... FINALS AREN'T OVER UNTIL TUESDAY!!!

Yes, those students were being disruptive! I sure do hate stupid people.

I would hope that if this happens in Knoxville, that as many people as possible are arrested. This looked like a bunch of frat type boys doing this stuff.

Finishing a semester let along graduating does not call for this.

Every student involved should be expelled.

Look, all of your life you hear "college is the best time of your life." I'm not sure about the rest of the readers on here, but I enjoyed it. Everyone knew the rave (not the riot) was only going to last ten minutes and then we all were going back to studying or whatever else we had planned. I’m proud to say that we had a flash rave party, and I promise anyone that attended would have no problem doing it again. Lighten up, it was a bunch of college kids having some fun and trying to break up the monotony of finals week. From reading all the other comments I guess we were the first people ever to have fun in Chattanooga.

This was the best part of this school year. Other schools actually have fun, which lets face it, thats why UTC has such a low retention rate, because cops act like this. If you watch unc rave on youtube, you see the librarians and security guards laughing and just letting it happen. No one would have gotten hurt, arrested, or anything if the Chattanooga and UTC police departments, which by the way it is really sad that they can't handle it themselves, wouldn't have become crazy and involved. It was a harmless "rave" and ONLY turned into a "riot" because of the Chattanogga Police Department and UTC Police. I guess Chattanooga is too boring and none of them had anything better to do. And sorry that everybody wanted to have a little bit of fun. We are (not) very sorry Chattanooga. How about you become alittle bit more of a college friendly city. I mean there is a nearly 10,000 student college right in the middle of the city. And by the way, there were alot more than just "frat guys" involved. How about you stop stereo-typing. We all let loose, too bad old people can't see that and think its inaapropriate. Its coll, you probably were the ones that would be sitting in the library angry because somebody was disrupting your studying. Sad.

Several of you say this would have lasted 10 minutes and ended and been peaceful -- and you all knew that, but how were the police supposed to know that?

They didn't know. They did their job. You should thank them that they stopped you before someone jumped off the building and broke his or her neck. (To sue, I'm sure) Or broke through the library doors and got trampled in a stampede. (Litigation, ditto.)

You took it too far and made clearly evident that you have no sensible judgment of your own. Way to copy Youtube, losers.

Once again, it was simple and fun. No broken necks, no birth of the anti-Christ… just some college kids having some fun. I’m not saying the police didn’t do their jobs, but really if you watch the video, there was more risk of having a “stampede” after the pepper spray was used. Chill out, we have fine judgment. By reading the comments on here you would think we were burning American flags and condoning the acts of Hitler.

I feel as if the people who planned this event did not have the intention to cause anything harmful. They just wanted to celebrate the end of the semester. This event has been peaceful and fun to other students at other universities. Often times ending in a school spirit chant, as at UNC. However, it was very disrespectful in regards that many people were trying to study for exams.

I will not support the Chattanooga Police Dept of their actions at this event. I have several friends who either attended the event or were studying in the library and all stories are the same - there was NO verbal warning. There have been many other situations where the police dept have misused their authority. Five policeman beating one student or an officer macing a young lady standing by herself waiting to get her books from the library are not ok situations.

How is that police brutality when you're dealing with about 1,000 disruptive, out of control people? It's stupid stuff like this that causes people to be trampled. It's pretty embarrassing that it happened in my hometown.

Ah, the joys of people getting what's coming to them. Anyone who was stupid enough to think that the library (outside of it or not) is a wonderful place to hold a party deserved anything that happened. Maybe this will serve as a wake-up call to these 1,000 or so people to use their brains now and then.

I have yet to hear any reliable reports that the police did anything wrong. Certainly any police brutality is inexcusable, but the people accusing the police of that are the same idiots who were at the event to begin with; not exactly trustworthy sources.

If anyone who was at this "party" feels unsafe now, feel free to leave UTC. I certainly wouldn't mind if there were 1,000 less people on campus next year. It's not as if we would be losing the best and the brightest anyway.

As a final note, I feel that this comment posted above is very representative of the mindset of the people who participated in this event: "Its coll, you probably were the ones that would be sitting in the library angry because somebody was disrupting your studying."

Poor spelling and grammar aside, this type of comment is typical of a sociopath, thinking that it is shocking that someone would be upset because he or she was unable to study in a building specifically designed for that purpose. Just as it would be reasonable to be upset if you were unable to watch a movie in a movie theater or unable to eat food at a restaurant, being upset at not being able to study in the library is an expected reaction, not an abnormal one. I'm realize that this is all probably over your head, however.

Summary: When you get this many fratboys (a.k.a. idiots) together, nothing good is going to happen.

Summary of the summary: People are a problem.

I feel like fun should just be outlawed in Tennessee. College is ONLY for studying. No one should talk going to and from classes, and smiles could punishable by making white sheets of paper gray. I also feel that we should never show school spirit or have any club other than our very prestigious academic clubs.

I mean really if you didn’t want to take part in it that’s all well and good, but PLEASE don’t rain on the kids who had a good time’s parade. No one forced you to get up and look out the window; no one forced you to turn off your iPod and start complaining. Have fun at college, and I promise you will have a lot better experience.

Look...with all that goes on now, who knows what a mob is going to do or not do. If I were the police officers, I would not trust what was about to happen either, and if I had a family member in that library, I would be relieved to know such a mob was prevented from going too far. As far as the Mace, why didn't you disperse the first time the police officers asked you to? After that it was your choice to have the consequences of not listening to those officers. Way to go bulbasaur...your comments are right on.

College students...have at it and have fun, but why does it always have to be in some real stupid ways where someone could die of alcohol poisoning or off campus housing becomes a brothel and an STD becomes a big possibility. Actually, death, being an alcoholic down the road and losing a great job or your family or not being able to have children or suffering from aids or another kind of STD the rest of your life does not sound fun to me. At the moment it is fun...that is a no brainer, but after that,there may not be any laughing. That is a big problem, college students are not showing any maturity like they used to, and they are not thinking of any long-term consequences. Some do after a few times, but many don't.

Typical brutality by the pigs. Not surprisng, since people who become cops only do so because they weren't smart enough to get into college and didn't get to experience fun stuff like this. They're just jealous and are taking out their hatred toward smart people by harassing them. It's what cops do best- harrass people. Sure makes you proud to know your tax dollars are going to the salaries of these idiots. Fire them all.

Really? You played the STD card? Geez get over yourself. Have some fun and GET OVER YOURSELF.

Thanks =]

Wow...so mature to call police officers pigs...stereotyping the fact that all of them could not go to college; however, I know one of them who is in my college class. Assuming that they are jealous? Hatred toward "smart" people? I am glad my tax dollars go to these; the same kind of people who lost their lives during 9/11 in NYC rushing to save people like you and me. Cave_demon...think beyond yourself. JYX667...I have never heard of the "STD card." I know many who will be suffering all their lives because of the "STD card." Grow up and realize...yeah, college is supposed to be fun, but using four years of your life to possibly ruin the rest of your life is thinking like you are still in middle school or high school.

Bad move by UTC and Chatt. Police. Lawsuits on the way, and well justified.

First, that was nowhere near 1000 people. Ole C.C. is a lapdog for the admin. Was when I was there, and it seems he still is now.

Second, that crowd didn't look like a bunch of "frat guys" It looked like a pretty good mix. The girl who took the video on youtube is about as far from the greek scene (yeah it's also pretty small) as you can get.

Third, that crowd wasn't a riot. It might be a "mob" in the sense of an unorganized group with a common mindset, but come on. No couches burning? No Cars overturned? No rocks hurled at police? UTC STUDENTS IS THAT THE BEST YOU COULD DO? I keed I keed. But come on - really - C.C.s' (not the pizza place but pretty close) press release said that students were "jumping from the building" - I guess, technically that's true, but reality isn't exactly what you would imagine that statement to mean. Yeah, some students climbed up OVER THE DOORWAY and were crowd surfing. BIG DEAL.

Fourth: Maybe some of Chattanooga's finest asked some of the students in front to disperse. But from what I can see, they didn't exactly make an announcement of it to everyone. No bullhorn? No request to the GROUP to peacefully disperse? In other words, if the cops don't treat it like a "riot" before spraying, they can't claim it was a "riot" ex post to save their butts. I wasn't there, but from what i read, and the video I saw, the police didn't seem to act in good faith. Heck, the student's were chanting UTC! UTC! this was not an anti-authoritarian, anti-university, or anti-police - it was college kids in a flash mob - none of which have a history of violence.

Fifth: Since when is anybody denied entrance into Lupton? It's a public place, subject only to the laws of the state, and the code of conduct of the University. Were some student's breaking that code? Undoubtedly. Did that give the School the right to keep out everyone, lock the doors, and call the cops? Get a life, whoever made that decision. That was an abuse of power, and an affront to the ideal that college is supposed to be about honest intellectual freedom even if displayed in a flash mob. Do you really expect students to read Homer, Virgil, Dante, The Enlightened, The Romantics, Austin, Hardy, Marx/Engels, Nietzsche, Hegel, Gandhi, MLK, et al . . . and then sit in their rooms and do NOTHING? BTW I read all of that in my time at UTC. WooHoo for liberal arts

Here's to those students that participated in something bigger than themselves. Even if the flash was "pointless", you are learning the power of a united group, and you are pushing the boundaries of communication that current technology affords. Shame on those authorities that could not understand it, and instinctively reacted out of fear.

Cheers

Recent UTC Alum
GMUTC

Man all I can say is why can’t we talk about any situation dealing with policemen and college kids without throwing out 9/11 or STD’s. Come on you are better than that. The Flash Rave was the single greatest even I have attended at UTC. If you are too dull and boring to enjoy it, that’s on you, but seriously we are mature, we can deal with stress the same as you, and most of all we can have some fun during finals week.
I think what makes some people on here the maddest is that the kids at the flash rave had fun at college instead of studying. Let’s be honest with ourselves, the rave took place at 11 at night. If you are studying at 11 you #1 have real bad time management skills and/or #2 probably aren’t studying at all, you are most likely taking with your friends.
Please get over yourselves it was fun and it’s just ridiculous that anyone would think we were rioting.

Actually, what makes me the maddest is the fact that people like you go to the same school as me.

Well get over it because I'm here to stay.

I love UTC, but you can't tell me that we have the most pride in our school. The rave (even if mace was used, even if 5 got arrested, even if you didn't like it) brought all aspects of the student body together. So have fun raining on everyone's parade, but I promise if you just cool out you will have a better experience at college.

My mom once said if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all so I will just swallow my words.

Have a good day =]]]

I am surprised at the backlash the UTC police are getting over this. Mob mentality isn't known for good decision making, and the same is true for those that give over their own decision making to mob logic. If I had gone to this event, disrupting my peers who were studying for finals and been maced for being an idiot, I would do my best to move on and not succumb to the same stupidity again. I certainly would not claim any entitlement to behaving like an idiot, or immunity for my own foolish actions.