Takes 17 police to quell street riot involving 200 fighters

Would rapid bus transit help?

Madison police Lt. John Radovan reports that at 1:58 this Saturday morning 11-30-19:

A passer-by called dispatch about approximately 15 people physically fighting inside Qdoba Mexican Grill.  At the same time an employee of the restaurant ran up to a MPD officer on the 600 block State St and told him there were several people inside Qdoba causing trouble and fighting.  This officer and others responded and observed the disturbance inside.

As they started to contact involved parties inside the restaurant to stop the fight detain them things spilled outside, with non-involved individuals congregating to the scene and becoming hostile to the officers, trying to pull them away from those the officers were attempting to detain.

Pepper spray had to be threatened and was used by multiple officers.  Additionally many bystanders congregated to the area to watch what was going on. As he arrived on scene a responding MPD sergeant said in his report, “I observed approximately 200 people in the street, several causing minor disturbances, and observed several people detained by officers, some of whom appeared to have been recently decentralized as they were lying on the ground.  The scene was complete chaos, bedlam, insanity…the likes of which I have never seen in my 12+ years as a Madison Police Officer.”

A total of 13 City of Madison Police Officers and 3 or 4 UW-Madison Police Officers were needed to gain control of the situation.  Multiple adults were either taken to the Dane County Public Safety Building for resisting an officer and/or disorderly conduct or given citations and released at the scene.  Other than some scraped knees no injuries were reported by involved subjects or officers.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Better put in an order for a gross more electronic ankle bracelets.

What do YOU think?