With St. Patrick's Day approaching, the University of Massachusetts (UMass) is already having trouble containing "extremely disturbing" behavior fueled by alcohol consumption.
According to the Associated Press, more than 70 people were arrested on or near the campus in Amherst. The event was the annual pre-St. Patrick's Day "Blarney Blowout" celebration.
Four officers suffered minor injuries in dealing with thousands of rowdy drunken people, which climaxed Saturday. Amherst warned students there would be heightened police presence and that penalties would be made more harsh and strictly enforced, but not too many were deterred.
Beyond the state known for Irish pride, other schools have struggled to control drunken behavior on the nation's most prominent drinking holiday. In State College, Penn., Penn State University pays downtown establishments and beer distributors not to sell alcohol on State Patties Day. The holiday is celebrated as an unofficial drinking holiday in place of St. Patrick's Day and is a school tradition.
A similar "unofficial St. Patrick's Day" is also celebrated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Despite experiencing no major injuries, the city reported 260 tickets issued for various infractions.
"Perhaps one of the worst scenes we have ever had with drunkenness and unruliness," Amherst police Capt. Jennifer Gundersen told the Republican. "It is extremely upsetting. It is very dangerous."
Public drunkenness is something one Amherst resident named Larry Kelley is familiar with. He has been very outspoken in his distaste for it and said this past weekend was one of the worst instances he has ever seen.
"Yesterday was the worst day in this town for public rowdy-ism," Kelley told the AP. "We still had a horrendous experience yesterday, horrendous."
Around noon, police dressed in riot gear attempted to quell a group of about 4,000 near an apartment complex. The officers had beer cans, bottles and snowballs hurled at them as the partygoers also wrecked the area.
The mob apparently regrouped at a frat house and, when officers arrived there, they were once again greeted with rocks, snowballs and bottles. The officers had to use pepper spray to control the scene once the group began its "assaultive behavior."
Charges flew left and right, including inciting to riot, failing to disperse, disorderly conduct, liquor law violations and assault and battery on officers. Some were released on bail early Sunday and some remain in custody.