Comments on: Friday Foto

By: Renee

Renee — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:24:39 +0000

@Danielle: There’s no such thing as an “illegal” party. And respect is a pretty tenuous thing. I’ll bet that students would respect the city and property owners more if each didn’t milk them as cash cows the other eleven months of the year.

@Bill: Actually, the car was just there – it had been stolen, but most Queen’s students don’t have the skills to steal a car (they never established who stole it.) Queen’s students only do tipping and arson – it takes a pro to steal a vehicle.

@pw: (Wait, isn’t farming is heavily subsidized by our tax dollars?) You’re right, there’s a reason they hold raves in out-of-the-way places, aside from the drug-use stuff – nobody cares if a plowed-over field gets assaulted. But what R.Joyce says is correct: lots of other places handle this sort of thing, in their cities, just fine. Moving it would be one way, but obviously that isn’t going to help here.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:18:05 +0000

I think RJ forgot that queen’s students stole a car and then flipped the next night. Queens students (i am an former one) need to get over themselves.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:19:12 +0000

RJoyce, I think you’re missing the whole point. This isn’t all about money. It’s about respect and safety. This party is not, and never was, sanctioned by the city. The students (or townies or whoever we’re blaming today) are taking it upon themselves to throw an illegal, unwanted “party” on a residential street. Yes, maybe Kingston or Ontario as a whole (nice generalization there) needs to “loosen up” but until these people respect the city, how could Kingston possibly want to throw a party like this? Plus, this has nothing to do with partying, these people want to get incredibly drunk and destroy things as well as put others and themselves in serious danger. You really think the cops and the city should just sit there and let it happen? Money is important, but it comes down to a lot more than that.

By: pw

pw — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:28:41 +0000

RJoyce
Re your last paragraph.
If it wasn’t for boneheads like those that ‘attend’ Aberdeen there would not be the expense.
Perhaps Queen’s should look at ‘recruiting’ students who really go to school to learn.
Perhaps the Aberdeen event should be in rural Kingston; then you would need very little police presence, as us country folk (who put food on your table in your hands) handle things.

By: RJoyce

RJoyce — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:03:45 +0000

Apparently we learned that the bill for policing this year is over $300,000.

You can buy a lot of professional street-cleaning, gardening, carpentry, and ample complimentary suites at the Ambassador Resort for half that.

For half of that $300,000 you can organize just about any other alternate event you can imagine, not that boozing with friends is substitutable, so keep that in mind.

Give the cops carte-blanche and, guess what, you get expensive cop-centric solutions. How’s that working-out?

I think most folks who have commented on this thread have never actually been to successful and massive street celebrations. You should travel a little, or a lot, and see how the protective mother complex does, in fact, really suck.

Ontario’s been like this for centuries. Give it up. It’s uni-dimensional, very boring and, in the case of Kingston, it’s expensive and embarrassing.

Our new police chief should have been recruited directly from Port Dover. Half of $300,000 would have easily done-it.

By: Renee

Renee — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:32:08 +0000

I don’t know, I was there the Year of the Car, and the cops began the evening by pushing and shoving, way before the real drunkards arrived. They were determined to show their authority. I responded to that by getting pissed off, but I wasn’t drunk – I fail to see how somebody with lowered inhibitions would have handled it better. (I left pre-car-tip, mind you.) The next year, when they brought in the professionals from TO who had actual TRAINING in handling crowds, there were far fewer problems. Where I’m from – Victoria – they had annual concerts for awhile with 20-30,000 people in a five-block radius, and barring a few drunk and disorderlies, there was absolutely no trouble (although the weed smoke floating atop the crowd might have helped with pacification efforts.) No, I place the blame squarely on the “irresponsible students/stupid townies” vibe that the city and students have each respectively cultivated.

By: michaelwc

michaelwc — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:46:54 +0000

Why can’t we all just admit that there is no one group to blame for this situation? We all dropped the ball in this case; city, police, students, faculty, and the parents…Maybe instead of everyone pointing their fingers at everyone else, we should just find a solution. I have witnessed past Aberdeen parties and took some time to peruse this most recent one as well. While admittedly it was still a little bit out of hand it was far less tame and more contained than in past years…Let us all hope that this trend continues in this direction and be glad that there were no serious injuries this year…

By: AlisonF.

AlisonF. — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:28:38 +0000

I know this. I’m taking photos this year and I’m turning them over to the police if I have one more year of property damage. You pay almost five hundred a month property taxes and then see if you want to put up with this RJoyce. I agree with offloading the costs on to student fees and then let’s see how many get invited here from out of town for a “party” that has zero to do with homecoming at all.

Because of the way things have gone the last five years, I don’t particularly care if Queen’s ever has another homecoming or not. And if the partying gets out of hand some people need to go to jail. The residents of this city are sick and tired and fed up with this. Apparently bending over backwards to work something out ended up with having the police blamed when in fact things were out of hand to the point the police needed to be stepped up to that point.

I’ve had siding ripped off my home, beer bottles everywhere and kids with alcohol poisoning passed out in my drive way. Not to mention the being very ill and having our emergency dept over flowing with kids. This area is too small for this many drunken fools to show up here for one day. This isn’t Daytona Beach. Go somewhere else and stay out of Kingston. The by laws are going to be enforced this year so if you live in my street don’t even think about walking around outside with booze or stepping onto my property to do damage because I’m pressing charges this year.

By: pw

pw — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:26:13 +0000

RJoyce…You project that you have all the experience in the world when it comes to outdoor parties.
I grew up in Kingston in the 60s, when there were beligerent motorcycle clubs (Satan’s cjhoice, Black Diamond Riders, The Hells).
I’ve been to some of these biker parties (which were highly illegal, more so back then / todays we tolerate much more.
I can only comment that these ‘sloven’ bikers (some with Queen’s degrees) had MUCH more class than the immature, unrespectful idiots that pass themselves off as members of a community acting out their fantasies (with the support of many ‘buddies’) during the ‘Aberdeen’ Party.

If it was left to me; I’d hook up my liquid manure spreader with the jet and give them a little shot of pig fixin’s.

Just a suggestion…if the city was to block off Aberdeen Street with concrete barriers; why not leave it blocked off (after the ‘party’) and let those that live there clean it up or live in their squallor until they do…forget the street sweeper and snow plowing.

Grow up

Respectfully :)

By: rq

rq — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:21:42 +0000

@RJoyce, have you actually been to the Friday the 13th at Port Dover? I used to live in the area and from my experience the event is one of the most heavily policed events in Ontario. In fact the small town brings in police from all over Ontario just to keep the peace for the event. The presence of all those cops is the most likely reason that crime and disturbances do not ruin the town. Is may also explain why it has turned into an event that middleage men on motorbikes feel comfortable bringing their wives and babies to.