Members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Special Response Team were mobilized at the foot of Palmer Street Saturday afternoon, waiting in riot-response gear for orders from Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle.
After seeing little action, those state troopers and their special response vehicle left this year’s decidedly calm Palmer Fest just as the sun was setting.
Attendance seemed comparable to past years, but the enforcement of the city’s nuisance party ordinance kept the streets open and parties calm, Mayor Paul Wiehl said.
“The streets are open for the most part, which is the biggest thing,” Wiehl said. “It has to do with the interpretation of the law and how it works.”
By 7:30 p.m., at least eight parties had been shut down by police because of alcohol violations, excessive amounts of litter and crowded sidewalks, Pyle said. Palmer Fest ended around 8:30 p.m.
Despite the hoards of revelers and litter, Wiehl said he wasn’t tense about the potential for a riot and trusted Pyle’s judgment.
“I leave it up to the police to decide when to close parties,” Wiehl said. “(Palmer Fest) unfolds the way it unfolds.”
Law enforcement officers made 74 arrests at Palmer Fest and Palmer Place Fest, 47 of which were made by the Ohio Investigative Unit, according to an Athens Police Department news release.
The two fests resulted in 124 arrests in 2012, and 159 in 2011, according to a previous article in The Post.
Though Pyle said most fest attendees were compliant with demands made by law enforcement, officers needed to enter at least one front yard on horseback to break up a crowd.
Despite this show of force, police officers and partygoers maintained a “friendly” relationship, said Susi Miller, a junior foreign exchange student from Germany.
Miller said she was surprised American partiers would be accommodating to demands from police.
“(Americans) are so afraid of socialism and police power,” she said.
She added the police presence at Palmer Fest is not much different than what some Americans fear: law enforcement in a socialist government.
On Friday night, police officers responded to one incident at Palmer Place Fest, after several partygoers poured beer on officers from a balcony, said Bill Miller, head maintenance supervisor at Palmer Place Apartments.
Rainy weather and rule changes from Cornwell Properties deterred crowds from getting too rambunctious at Friday’s Palmer Place fest.
“I thought it would be a lot crazier, but it was actually pretty calm,” Bill Miller said. “This isn’t anything compared to the past couple years.”
sh335311@ohiou.edu
