Oxford confidential - blackout 2008 edition: of protest stupidity, libraries as community relief, & other electricity-free tales
OXFORD, Ohio (ZP) — He fidgets with the brim of his ball cap. He’s already readjusted his oversize basketball shorts four times in just over five minutes.Homeboy finally settles into his carefully maintained slovenly student image after staring at his reflection in the storefront, adjusting his shirt one final time.It’s Thursday night, after all, and he’s just explained that this is his regular Young Honey night - a weekly occurrence where he and his friends prowl the Uptown Oxford bars in search of something underage and naive about the various natures of men, some poor, dumb, first- or second-year girl to buy drinks and go home with.Only after he looks perfect does he continue his drunken explanation of the Great Local U. Blackout Riot of 2008, quite possibly one of the dumbest student protests to ever grace a college campus.”Fuck the police! They weren’t gonna use fucking tear gas. This is ____ University we’re talking about. It’s not like we were blocking an interstate or anything.”Well, actually, the protesters managed to block off U.S. 27, the only major highway into or out of Oxford, smack dab in the middle of cleanup and relief efforts for a storm-ravaged area. And those cops homeboy’s so adamant about fucking? Six agencies responded, all from areas equally impacted by a blackout that encompassed, at one point, more than one million people in Ohio alone.All because anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 Local U. students decided Monday night to protest the university’s decision to reopen campus after it became apparent that Duke Energy would be able to restore power to most buildings by early Tuesday morning.The protest was held in front of the university president’s house. Funny thing. The president wasn’t home at the time. The protesters spent more than five hours chanting in front of an empty house.And according to various sources, at one point, those police officers had canisters out and ready to go. …
Tags: Campus, College, State, UniversityRelated posts
Tags: Campus, College, State, University