According to police sources, overall, arrests were down. The number of fights, while present, were down.
However, one cannot simply ignore the tragedy.
Former Davis High Sshool and UC Davis baseball star, and current DHS Assistant Coach Scott Heinig died on Sunday, hours after apparently falling and hitting his head.
“Davis Police Detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding this incident and believe that alcohol may have been a factor” and are “not releasing any further details as this is an ongoing investigation.”
So, did the Safety Zone and heavy police presence work? Perhaps. Problems in the core of town were down. However, the Vanguard received reports that the safety zone simply served to drive drinking to the north. People along Eighth Street noted unprecedented amounts of pedestrian traffic.
The police presence seemed to deter drinking and problems in the downtown.
However, a Davis Enterprise reporter talked to a UC Davis graduate from San Francisco who thought that the elevated safety measures “ruined Picnic Day.”
“Honestly, it’s been nothing but love out here — people I don’t even know coming up and hugging me,” the Enterprise quoted the individual who added that, however, he will likely skip Picnic Day next year.
Three incidents that we directly witnessed probably illustrate the problem. The presence reduced crime, but it left out-of-town police, with few connections in the community, without much to do. They were seen congregating in huge numbers on G Street, but not a whole lot was happening.
The first incident of note was at the corner of A and Third Street right across from campus. We talked to the individual, arrested apparently for public drunkeness and disturbing the peace. But while he may have been intoxicated, he was sitting minding his own business when approached by police.
He was on his phone when they asked him a question. When he did not respond quickly enough, they took him to the ground and cuffed him. We caught this on video. He has bruises on his face and his knee from the arrest.
While waiting for transport, he was surrounded by seven officers as he was handcuffed to the ground.
The second incident was seemingly innocuous, a car driving down Third Street with a broken tail light. They pulled him over and then spent the next 30 minutes doing field sobriety tests before letting him go. In this case, it involved about five CHP Officers.
Why does this matter? Well it illustrates how little was going on if they were pulling over people for broken tail lights. That is certainly a pretext stop, but when things are out of control, you do not see a lot of those type of stops.
Third, we observed a group of officers at the corner of G and 2nd Street. They were motioned to the Ace Parking lot on G and seven of them approached a couple who was in the midst of a verbal argument. You can imagine the look on the guy’s face as he saw not one, but seven officers approaching on foot.
Where does this leave Picnic Day? We have a pretty mixed view. The extra security measures, the covenant, and the safety zone probably worked too well. The numbers were diminished. Downtown still lacked some sort of organized activity to keep people away from drinking and bringing people who were not college age into the downtown area.
As tragic as the death of Scott Heinig is, it really could have happened any day. People drink, they act foolishly, and they forget that there are consequences. This is extremely tragic. But it should not weigh in on people’s view of Picnic Day itself.
Still, I do not think it was a very fun scene in the downtown. It seemed very sterile to us. People were lined up to get into bars. The bars were serving drinks.
In my view, the extra police presence was as much a problem as it was a help. Make no mistake, it definitely cut down on crime. But that came at a cost, in my view. There were a lot of people, hassled by the police downtown, who were minding their own business. There were too many police with too little to do and that created a problem.
I understand few people who will read this sympathize with this issue. But if the city decided to do the same next year, I hope they have clearer guidelines for out-of-town cops.
In a way, I think it would be better to simply not sell alcohol in the downtown area during Picnic Day. That would change the atmosphere. It would change the culture.
The city does need to address the fact that the safety zone pushed some of the problems north. I am not criticizing the officials, they did what they had to do in order to save Picnic Day. But having watched a lot of what happened after 4 pm, I wonder if that is really what we should have done. And perhaps that was the point.
Perhaps it is time to put the focus back on campus events and away from the downtown. Or the downtown could plan its own activities which would might have worked to better effect anyway.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
One could also say having all those cops who seemingly had nothing to do actually did their job; they prevented last years nonsense, possibly allowing Picnic Day to continue another year. People still had fun. I saw all kinds of people out there laughing and smiling.
I think law enforcement was smart to send that many officers into the down town. After lat years antics it wouldn’t be smart to send two officers into an area with thousands of intoxicated individuals to handle a disturbance call. It only takes a couple of drunks to turn a public intoxication arrest into a mob scene.
I have some pretty mixed feelings on things as well… but I would at least like to say this much for now:
I was really impressed by the shift in operations of many downtown businesses. While it was a bit annoying to wait in line to get into most places, having places less crowded made them far more civil. Bistro 33 was, true to their word, only serving people who had tables (last year wasn’t far from being a mosh pit). I spent several hours at the Davis Beer Shoppe, and witnessed the owner asking several groups of “bros” to either quiet down or leave. There was grumbling, but it worked (mostly, there was at least one ejection).
Anyhow, seemed to go well, but agreed it felt like things just got moved out of downtown. While I only saw one or two people puking downtown, I instead saw several more at the MU area. Campus felt more crowded than usual, and the Campus-to-Ciocolat area looked like downtown did last year. There was a pretty heavily advertised block party on Facebook… down near Sycamore I think?
The police thing was a bit weird. I’ll look forward to hearing more about it. Of all the people I saw get stopped or talked to by police, not a single one appeared to be doing anything wrong or out of step with the rest of the crowd. Felt like Highway Patrol pulling someone over for going 75 when everyone else on the freeway was going 75-80. I realize there may likely have been things I didn’t see going on, and maybe the folks were just being warned to keep it safe. Though for comparison’s sake, I was at the Cherry Blossom Festival in SF last week; the main thing cops were doing there was taking pictures with participants, and otherwise standing around so that their presence was felt if it was needed.
(also fyi, I think your server’s timestamp hasn’t been adjusted for daylight savings time)
I was downtown Sat. night and felt everything was relatively calm and under control. Sure when you have @ 100,000 people come into our city there are going to be a few problems and it’s easy to cite a few incidences where maybe the police were overzealous but overall I have to say the city did a very good job. My only gripe would be the cops seemed to be in bunches of four and felt they could’ve been better utilized if they had been more spread out.
Amusing anecdote… the most annoying thing that happened directly to me (besides being identified as a “bro” by other bros… sorry, I’m not drinking your Natty Ice) was when my girlfriend and I were filling my bike tires at outside the bike shop downtown. Despite our efforts to fill up next to the wall, heard some guy yelling “God what the hell, taking up the whole fucking sidewalk!” about us to his friend.
I started to look up, admittedly assuming it was some drunk student, but he lost in the crowd. I sighed a little, and clearly had an annoyed look on my face. A 40 year old woman smiles at me as she passes by, pats my shoulder, and says “… and he was an old guy, too!”
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of Scott Heinig. It is w deep regret that we have learned of his passing…
Last year people complained there was not enough of a law enforcement presence downtown, to such an extent that Davis Police Chief Landy Black felt he had to publicly apologize. Which to me was infuriating to watch, since downtown merchants selling booze at 6 am, irresponsible student parties, and advertising to bring in lots of outsiders was largely to blame IMHO. So Chief Black works extremely hard to pro-actively correct these problems and arranges to make sure Picnic Day remains safe so it is not discontinued – and all he gets are gripes there was too much of an outside police presence? Would you rather have NO Picnic Day?
I would like to express my congratulations to all – law enforcement, downtown merchants, students, UCD – for making Picnic Day a more family oriented event AS IT WAS ENVISIONED, rather than a drunken rout. Last year people were assaulted on the street or while going into a store; many people were passed out lying on the ground on the streets, buses were taken out of service bc of all the vomit that had to be cleaned up, etc. ad nauseum. Sounds like this year was considerably more calm and controlled…
Elaine,
The complaint is not that there was too much police presence. The complaint is that some of the enforcement appeared to have been a bit over the top. It’s like the difference between being happy to see police and knowing that they’re patrolling your neighborhood, or freaking out when you see police thinking they might ticket you for going 27 mph in a 25 zone.
According to the figures in the Enterprise, that might well have been the case. Despite that things were much smoother and quieter this year (which so far seems attributed to business owners, as well as relocation of many activities out of downtown or front lawns and a significantly lower turnout of visitors), the number of arrests and citations was about the same as last year. That’s a little surprising and concerning.
And while things were definitely better for many reasons, lets not pretend that there weren’t incidents. Some people were definitely passed out on the street, as well as some on campus. People were assaulted, fights happened. The oddest I’ve heard so far still was the guy who had to call the cops on the people having sex in his garage…
Overall, I still think it went pretty well. I had a good time. Again, thanks to the business owners for their conduct… although I did hear things were worse at night, but that’s probably just how things are.
JK: “The complaint is not that there was too much police presence. The complaint is that some of the enforcement appeared to have been a bit over the top.”
Don’t you think it is difficult to come up to a “perfect standard” being artificially set here? You admit things went well, or at least from what you could tell they went well. Obviously if people are passed out on the streets or having sex in garages (good grief!) then the public still has a lot to answer for in engaging in improper behavior. Yet most of the griping seems to be aimed at law enforcement. Sigh…
I don’t think that anyone ever said it wasn’t difficult to come up with a perfect standard. I know that I (and I think David too) made some equivocating comments about the positive merits and possible explanations for police concerns. The fact is that it was still an issue worth noting, and that probably needs to be tuned a bit before next year.
And yes, things still happened. Things will always happen. It’s a party day in a college town. People do stupid things while drunk or setting off fireworks on the Fourth of July too… I’m not in favor of us being a nanny state. There’s a balance, and we’re getting there.
Much to the disagreement of many comments I’ve made here and elsewhere before Picnic Day, the guilt-based measures leveed on businesses worked very well. I was very impressed by that.
*correction, I realize that it sounds like I said setting off fireworks is stupid. I meant to make an example that when doing so, people end up blowing off fingers every now and then.
As I walked through the downtown area I overheard little snippets of conversation like “Hey, dude, there’s a lot of cops this year, so just watch yourself, okay?” That tells me there was an expectation that required modification towards civilized behavior. What a drag.
In any case, there’s nothing like being handcuffed to transform a first class jerk into Eddie Haskell in Mrs. Cleaver’s kitchen. If you didn’t see behavior that warranted being arrested, you might have not seen what was going on four minutes earlier.
Again, pretty sure there have been more than a couple of statements of exception about possible unseen circumstances.
Fact is things went a lot better, but the factors aren’t entirely clear. The more young folks I ask, the more I hear that things were just moved to parties out of downtown (people got tired of “45 minute lines”) or to campus. There were also allegedly only 2/3 as many folks as last year. I’d guess different event advertising has to do with that, as well as different weather patterns. Also, all the frat parties moved indoors or to back yards instead of the lawns; only thing that changed was the public face of it.
There were still as many arrests and citations. Maybe that’s a good thing, I can certainly think of circumstances where it would be. Who knows yet. Many yougner people thought it became boring downtown. Personally, I liked it better, but again I mostly credit the business Covenant with that, which I’m glad to say I was wrong about. That worked out quite well.
What part of “zero tolerance” for alcohol-fueled criminal acts did these folks not get? Given the outrage over the behavior last year, I’d say the cops did a great job. Given the results this year, I’m surprised anyone could have found something about which to complain. But, then again, some people never are satisfied with the actions of authorities.[quote]”When he did not respond quickly enough, they took him to the ground and cuffed him. We caught this on video. He has bruises on his face and his knee from the arrest.”[/quote]David, you need to put your video on YouTube so the rest of us can see what you witnessed. Your three incidents might mean more than they appear to (three possible problems getting checked out). But, then again, they probably don’t.
Have you even considered whether any drunk drivers were removed from our streets during the “pretext stop” tactics? Or how many were discouraged from driving while drunk–and “getting out of control”–by the police presence?
Would you wanted to have the police flip coins to decide how many should respond to calls from the Ace parking lot disturbance simply to avoid “the look on the guy’s face”? Your other example relies on the word of a drunken troublemaker–how much credibility can you have in his account?[quote]”In my view, the extra police presence was as much a problem as it was a help….There were a lot of people, hassled by the police downtown, who were minding their own business. There were too many police with too little to do and that created a problem.”[/quote]David, I’ve tried and tried to accept this as at least an honest assessment, but it’s difficult since you’ve provided not even a whit of example. A lot of people minding their own business hassled by police–how many, hassled how, with what results? What problem did law enforcement create? You were on the scene, won’t you please tell us what happened that offended your sensibilities?
I’m sorry you couldn’t find fun downtown. Our grandkids and I enjoyed the parade and the special shopping at downtown businesses. Next time, head east to the campus where most of the action, and the real fun of Picnic Day, always is conducted.
Hey, bro, to call the cops “over the top” is misdirecting the problem from those really responsible for the figures in the [u]Enterprise[/u]. As reported, “the majority of arrests in the city this year were for public intoxication, while last year’s arrests were for more serious crimes.”
When past practices of “letting the kids have a good time” finally led to last year’s mess, the word went out that Davis wouldn’t tolerate Picnic Day law-breaking of any kind. Dealing with 75,000 temporary visitors–some seeking a drunken spree–required everyone’s best efforts. I’d say we got it this year.
[u]The Aggie[/u] printed a reminder, including a big box noting the consequences ($235+$160 more if offending in the safety zone) for urinating in public or for noise, smoking and open container violations. Being drunk in public and underage drinking were parts of the “zero tolerance” enforcement on-campus and in the city. Some UCD students went for a softer, subtler Facebook event approach: “Handle your Shit! Save Picnic Day!”**
[b]Justin[/b], you should add law enforcement to your list of factors that made for a improved Picnic Day this year.
________________
**P.S.: I love it that some gremlins auto-censor naughty words even before we submit comments to the [u]Vanguard[/u] (while in “preview” mode). Now that I’ve seen it in action, I’m tempted to try a few more, but I’d need reminders from George Carlin about the other six.
Just Saying:
Zero tolerance is a good buzz word. But what does it mean? You going to arrest everyone who has had a drop to drink? Or does it mean that everyone causing a disturbance gets arrested? I’m by the way fine with the latter.
However, the people I saw arrested, just as Justin indicated did not appear to be acting any differently than anyone else. That was only one part of the equation.
I’m not going to put it on Youtube, the guy was charged with a crime and I am a witness at least to some of what happened.
“Have you even considered whether any drunk drivers were removed from our streets during the “pretext stop” tactics? Or how many were discouraged from driving while drunk–and “getting out of control”–by the police presence? “
Yes, I have considered. It’s part of the balance. The good part of the balance is reduced crime. The less good part of the balance is the rest that we saw.
“Would you wanted to have the police flip coins to decide how many should respond to calls from the Ace parking lot disturbance simply to avoid “the look on the guy’s face”? Your other example relies on the word of a drunken troublemaker–how much credibility can you have in his account?”
Now I’m not following you. I watched the whole thing (and even filmed it). I think it was an overresponse, but it also showed that not much was going on.
“David, I’ve tried and tried to accept this as at least an honest assessment, but it’s difficult since you’ve provided not even a whit of example. A lot of people minding their own business hassled by police–how many, hassled how, with what results? What problem did law enforcement create? You were on the scene, won’t you please tell us what happened that offended your sensibilities? “
I’ve given you examples, Justin Kudo made a similar point.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t find fun downtown.”
I wasn’t looking for fun downtown.
“When past practices of “letting the kids have a good time” finally led to last year’s mess, the word went out that Davis wouldn’t tolerate Picnic Day law-breaking of any kind. “
Like I’ve tried to argue, it’s a fine line. We reduced the problems but there were other problems.
I have mixed emotions about the police presence. Clearly, it was a deterrent downtown. Most of the cops were very friendly, walking around talking to people. I saw several inebriated folks talking to cops in a friendly matter and the cops were encouraging them to be safe. We saw a girl wearing impossibly high heels fall flat on her face in the crosswalk. While cops were watching, her friends made sure she got up and walked away, to the satisfaction of the police.
I was in the French Quarter last weekend, and downtown Davis was Sunday school compared to a festival night in New Orleans. The police in Davis seemed much more friendly and, with only one exception, all interactions I saw were appropriate. The one exception was a car of four African-American guys get pulled over by the “undercover” SUV. The official reason for the stop was a passenger in the back seat wasn’t wearing a seatbelt (I don’t know the outcome). As David says, yes, pretext. But, I hate to see the Davis reputation of who gets stopped promulgated. There were clearly worse things going on within a block, and it’s kind of like how members of the Davis bike club don’t get stopped for blowing stop signs, but those new foreign exchange students always do.
Anyway, from the “just north of the zone” (live on D between 5th and 6th), it was a bit busier than normal, although we have seen far larger parties in our neighborhood. There were about five parties in Old North, and all seemed to be under control and it seemed like people were pretty exhausted (and quiet) by 9pm.
I wasn’t here last year, but I believe that it worked, despite the tragedy and a few broken signs (which happens every weekend in Davis).
[quote]”Zero tolerance is a good buzz word. But what does it mean?”[/quote] It has a very clear meaning, well understood by the general population, I’d say. [u]Random House[/u]: “a policy of very strict, uncompromising enforcement of rules or laws.”
The objective of zero tolerance policing is to stop more serious criminal activities. It calls for set responses to specific crimes that have been shown to be precursors to worse crimes. (I was thankful for you that neither loitering outside the bike lane or red zone violations were on the ZT list!)
For Picnic Day 2011, ZT meant: “Expect to be automatically cited or arrested if you break certain laws.” And, no, of course, it doesn’t mean we’re “going to arrest everyone who has had a drop to drink,” only those who are drunk in public or who otherwise are drinking illegally.
That you feel those arrested “did not appear to be acting any differently than anyone else” really doesn’t mean anything if police observed them breaking laws.[quote]”I’m not going to put it on Youtube, the guy was charged with a crime and I am a witness at least to some of what happened.”[/quote]Should we conclude, then, that your video confirms his guilt and doesn’t document any kind of inappropriate police behavior?[quote]”Now I’m not following you. I watched the whole thing (and even filmed it). I think it was an overresponse, but it also showed that not much was going on.”[/quote]Sorry I wasn’t clear. In the Ace case, you suggest that a group of seven officers somehow acted in a startling, unsuitable manner because all responded when they were summoned to the disturbance. In the disturbing-the-peace/drunk-in-public case, you’re hinting that it’s a police brutality episode.
Both charges would be overblown if those are your intended take-aways. Added together (and considered in the very worst light possible), your three episodes certainly don’t come close to justifying your oft-repeated conclusion that law enforcement became a Picnic Day Problem.y. At most, your reports indicate a few police might have been a problem for three or four people (some of whom were breaking the law).
Sorry about misinterpreting your comment that, “…I do not think it was a very fun scene in the downtown. It seemed very sterile to us….” Everyone should have fun on Picnic Day, even if they were working as you were.