Wash U. has more hardcore music fans than us

I know the folks at the Maroon Sports Report will take offense to any reference of Wash U.'s superiority to the U of C, but to be fair, their music fans kick our asses. The best we can do is a half-assed attempt at smoking pot with George Clinton and Spoon. We don't go the extra mile and get belligerent and naked to the point where we have to be tasered in the ass.

According to Wash U's Student Life:

A Washington University student was tasered by a police officer while resisting arrest during a concert at the Gargoyle on Friday night.

The 22-year-old male student was intoxicated and had exposed himself, according to a Washington University Police Department (WUPD) news advisory, eyewitness accounts and the student himself.

He was jolted by a Taser stun gun three times before complying with the police and being taken away.

The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was disruptive at the concert, prompting B&D security personnel to escort him out to the lower level of the Mallinckrodt Center and tell him to leave at about 10:45 p.m. At this time, he was shirtless and wanted to go back inside and get his sweater because he had to walk home in the cold.

According to senior Oliver Hulland, the student was "being absurdly belligerent" and violently resisting the B&D guards.

Despite efforts by Hulland and others to pacify their friend, the student asked B&D personnel if they wanted him to walk home naked. He was "really flailing," according to Hulland and then pulled down his pants and underwear.

"B&D backed off because they didn't want to mess with a naked guy," said senior Mansoor Mahmood, who witnessed the event.

According to Chief of Police Don Strom, one officer initially responded to B&D's call for assistance. The officer instructed the student to pull up his pants or else face arrest. The student refused and the officer began handcuffing him.

Once the officer got one handcuff on him, the student decided that he did not want to be cuffed.

He pulled away and began resisting the officer, with the handcuff attached to one wrist. The officer pulled out his Taser and threatened to use it if the student did not settle down.

The student continued to physically resist arrest and the officer fired the Taser's electrified prongs into the student's back.

"He didn't scream or run; he just moved around with all his muscles tensed," said Mahmood.

The student, who remained standing the entire time, was not subdued by the first jolt of the Taser. Mahmood said that the student, while refusing to cooperate, did not offer significant resistance after being tasered.

The officer then touched the Taser directly to the student's buttocks and shocked him again, using a secondary function of the device called "drive stun."

When this did not appear to succeed, the officer again touched the Taser to the student's thigh and shocked him a third time, said Chief Strom.

The student described being tasered as an intense "burning sensation" primarily locating in his torso, spreading somewhat to his limbs and that the latter applications of the Taser were stronger than the initial jolt.

Witnesses say the officer directly applied the Taser for an extended length of time and a crowd of at least 20 onlookers were yelling at the officer to stop.

"He [the student] was kind of shaking and walking around," said Hulland. "The officer seemed pretty calm the entire time."

After the third tasing, the student surrendered and another police officer arrived. Shortly thereafter as many as six additional WUPD officers were on the scene. The student was handcuffed, his pants were pulled up and police walked him out through Bowles Plaza.

The student was taken to the hospital, where the Taser prongs were removed and he was examined. Hospital examinations are standard WUPD protocol following Taser usages. He was then booked in the St. Louis County Jail.

He was released around 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning and given a shirt to wear.

Chief Strom said that although WUPD has not filed applications for warrants yet, a news advisory stated that the department will recommend that the student be charged with Sexual Misconduct and Resisting or Interfering with Arrest, both misdemeanors.

As the situation developed, B&D and WUPD shut down Mallinckrodt, locking the doors so no one could return inside.

B&D ejected everyone from the Gargoyle; Diwali, an annual performance put on by Ashoka, had just let out of Edison Theatre.

"[B&D personnel] were shoving everybody out into Bowles Plaza," said senior Emily Soderberg, an attendee. Soderberg noted that people coming out of the packed Gargoyle concert were drunk, angry and yelling at the police.

WUPD says a crowd of about 100 people had formed in Bowles Plaza at the time that the student was led away.

"It really sucks when one person shuts down and ruins the entire concert," said senior David Kaminsky, booking manager/promoter for the Gargoyle.

According to witnesses, the crowd was chanting "F--- the police" and some people were yelling "You serve us" at the officers.

Police pulled several students inside for questioning, including Mahmood. Police grabbed him specifically because he was inciting the crowd, he said.

Mahmood described the concert as being "really rowdy" and said that many people went onstage alongside Girl Talk, the performer. He and others said the concert was enjoyable until it got out of hand. Gargoyle staff members repeatedly tried to usher people off the stage.

Chief Strom said that another incident report was filed that night in which a student accuses a Gargoyle student staffer of assaulting students during the concert.

After the Gargoyle was shut down, the performers and some attendees went to the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity house to continue the show. Girl Talk and its opening act, The DeathSet, continued playing at the house from approximately 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.

WUPD has used Tasers for about three years, and this is not the first time a Taser was used against a student, according to Chief Strom. The most recent previous use of a Taser was against a non-student burglary suspect earlier this fall.

"It is not our preference to exert force," said Chief Strom, who nonetheless concluded that its use was reasonable given the resistance of the student.

Student Life's website annoyingly requires registration to read the full article (seriously, Student Life, you're not the Wall Street Journal), so consider it an act of friendly college press rivalry that it's being posted unrestricted here (not nearly as brilliant as our east coast brethren).

I don't know which part is my favorite, describe being tasered as a "burning sensation" (who knew?) or the impromptu "fuck the police" chant from the crowd, or the fact that when the party was broken up they went to a frat with Girl Talk and continued to rock out anyway. All I can say is, bravo, Wash U. Bravo.