At about 3:15 a.m., a group of about 60 students went down to the Middletown Police Headquarters to file civilian complaints regarding the handling of the evening’s events on Fountain Avenue.
Some students took charge of distributing the forms while others sat and waited for a pen, which were in short supply. The students’ written complaints offer a candid look into the evening’s events.
“Four or five students asked to enter my house to flush their eyes out with water in my sinks. These students were in tears and needed assistance entering the house,” wrote Andrew Perechocky ’08 who lives at 25A Fountain Ave., directly next to the confrontation.
Sophie Finkelstein ’09 was standing on the street when the police fired the pepper spray guns.
“[One girl] got sprayed right in the eyes,” she wrote. “She had just been standing in the street, right next to the cops, and she told me that she did not hear the cops warn that they were going to start spraying/shooting and all of a sudden they just turned and got her.”
In her complaint, Finkelstein asserted that the police officers’ actions were unjustified.
“No one started anything violent, it was only the police who began to get violent with the students,” she wrote.
Andrea Gentile ’08 called 911 twice to assist individuals who were having difficulty breathing after coming into contact with the pepper spray.
“The first time I called, I was told an ambulance was on its way,” she wrote. “After 10 minutes, I called a second time. After another 10-15 minutes, medical personnel arrived at the house.”
Justin Denis ’08 witnessed Andrew Price ’09 get attacked by a police dog.
“I witnessed an officer with a dog chase a student into a house…the dog locked his jaw on the student’s right leg as he cried for help,” he wrote. “The officer asked the student to ’put his hands behind his back,’ to which the student replied ’I can’t, get your fucking dog off me.’”
Denis objected to the officer’s conduct.
“I asked the officer for his badge number,” Denis wrote. “He did not comply. He told me to ’Get the fuck out of the street.’ I continued to ask the officer for his badge number to no avail. I followed him to his car where I was able to copy down his badge. The name on his shirt stated ’Clark.’”
Kathryn Zyskowski ’08 was standing on a friend’s porch when the confrontation began.
“All of a sudden the police stared shooting tear gas towards the porch, not towards anyone in particular, but the porch,” she wrote. “We were doing nothing illegal, just watching the block party.”
President Michael Roth was briefly at the station. He requested to see the arrested students, but was refused access to them.
Students complained of the unhelpfulness of the Middletown Police during the process.
“People were having trouble finding pens [to fill out police reports], and Officer Fuchs responded that they could go to CVS and buy some,” said Raphael Gerraty ’09. “[Students] said that they could see some pens in the other office, and Fuchs was refusing to get them until students turned a camera on. Then he complied.”
Gerraty also noted the patronizing attitude of some officers at the station.
“I was standing near the window, and I saw Officer Keegan motioning towards the crowd [of students] in front of the window as if he were still holding a pepper gun,” he said. “The cops standing around him were laughing. I noticed Public Safety Officer Higgins standing next to him, also laughing.”
A cameraman for News Channel 8/WTNH was waiting to record student reactions as they exited.
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