After the incident last semester on Fountain Avenue, The Hartford Courant covered the event heavily, featuring a story on the front page. Rick Green, a local columnist and former Middletown resident, wrote an opinion piece that was critical of what he described as Wesleyan students’ misguided sense of activism. Having covered Middletown for The Courant in the late ’80s and early ’90’s, Green has examined the long history of the University’s town-gown relations.
Argus: Was this story really front-page worthy?
Rick Green: I think so. Because of the long history between the Middletown cops and Wesleyan students, and the difficulty with the neighborhood, I think it’s fair game, especially because of the reaction on all sides. The police were indignant and the students were indignant. I also think this got so much attention because of how quickly it got out of hand.
A: How was covering Middletown back in the day?
RG: I was in Middletown in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and there were these sorts of issues even before the firebombing thing.
A: Why did you decide to enter the fray?
RG: The reason I wrote about this is because of the way students got indignant about it because they felt that their civil rights got violated because they wanted to party at one in the morning. It’s not some valiant cause or something—we’re not talking about education or the poor or Iraq. It’s the right to get wasted and play music on the street. If you’ve been drinking and the cops show up and tell you to get off the street, that’s what you do. The cops come, you book—that was always my rule.
A: Do you think Wesleyan has ever been an “activist” school?
RG: You could argue Wesleyan has a good tradition of protest—but that’s why I saw this as a cheapening of that.
A: What did you think about the crazy anonymous comment wars that this event incited?
RG: That’s how I first got dragged into it. I saw the comments on The Hartford Courant website and on Wesleying, who did a good job covering this one. I assume the comments attracted Wesleyan alumni from across the country. All the comments about police brutality—I found it amusing that people were reacting like it was civil rights in 1964.
A: Did you think the cops’ behavior was justified?
RG: That would raise a lot of questions on my mind. I can’t defend what they did.