I understand many people will support the police mindlessly, but I personally felt that their response was horribly timed, unprofessional, and illogical. The use of pepperspray in a crowd of children to arrest 6 minors is simply pathetic, especially as there were no weapons present, and most of the crowd was completely obedient.

These are the same clowns that flashbanged a pregnant woman at the wrong address in a no-knock raid last year. Considering the city’s police budget and the sorry performance and accountability it seems to pay for I feel that perhaps we could use less police in Annapolis.

Here is a fact… As the fight became out of control and the stampede headed my way, I looked around and there was no police to be seen. Regardless of how APD handled the situation there should have been a much more visable presence of law enforcement.

And yes, police were very slow to arrive. I was front row for the action. All in all, I think everyone was lucky as my first thought was a huge stampede. It really was a surreal scene with the screaming and running. I was thinking some major event was happening.

What would have happened if bullets were shot or knives were drawn? And yes, just a few yards away from the incident was a large command RV. By the way I snapped several pics of the fight….

Let’s assume it escalated and the police were forced to use tasers or guns. Wouldn’t their use of them be considered noteworthy? Had they not used pepper spray, the headline might have read “Police Break Up Large Fight”; but they used a weapon at their disposal that is not typically used–and that in and of itself is note and newsworthy.

It was not the intent to criticize the police. Quite the contrary–they needed to do what they needed to do and they did it with minimal injury.

You make it sound like this was a piece just fired off without thought. We had conversations all day (phone and email) with the police, the city, the restaurant, and three witnesses. The final wording was even sent to the City before publication to insure that nothing was misrepresented and the comment back to me as “that is very fair, thanks”.

So, not sure what else you are looking for, and if you took it as sensationalism, that is something you must have read into it. And, yes, Shubbie is correct, the purpose of a headline (and a secondary one) are to entice the reader to continue reading.

Let’s dissect the head line. Annapolis Police—the police were in annapolis and employed by the city of Annapolis. used pepper spray– pepper spray was employed. to subdue holiday melee— Factually accurate.

Now go get drunk and stagger down main street.

@ Dave: Give me a freaking break. I’m 25, I’ve lived in DTA for 2 years now, I have stumbled down Main Street many a time after drinking a little too much. There is absolutely no excuse for a fight to break out, a knife fight or a gun fight (because those have happened on Main Street, too). And as frustrated as I might be with the police response, effective crowd control like the type that was necessary Sunday night is difficult to perfect. The police have to protect the public and protect themselves, because if they’d gotten hurt in the brawl, they would have been of no help to us.

I just don’t understand why the headline and the story are so focused on the police, when the public would have been better served by an article on the fight itself, with suggestions for better crowd and safety control.