I know that we're all trying to move on from what happened on Friday, but this nonsense has stirred up a bit of anger that I've been carrying for a while. I've long felt that the Athens that I arrived at in 2000 and the one that I left in 2004 were very different places. During that time period I could sense a general shift in the student body towards a more violent and confrontational disposition.

After I graduated I moved to Chicago and have lived in probably a half dozen neighborhoods over the years. A couple of those were of the non-gentrified variety, and while very nice they had a heavy gang presence. There was quite a bit of violence in those neighborhoods, yet I have never seen anything that compares to the violence I saw on Court Street on an almost regular basis. The 20+ person melee I witnessed outside of Courtside (including some of their employees) at 2AM on Halloween 2004 is still probably the craziest thing I have ever seen. You may think that the average student can avoid these confrontations but you would be wrong. They have a tendency to find you even when you're simply minding your own business.

I could go on but I think those that have been there recently will understand exactly what I am saying. Court St. on a weekend can be a very scary place and I think it's time that someone does something about it. Students will always drink and get high but it should be absolutely unacceptable for a student to attack another student. There is no place at a university of higher learning for that type of behavior and those that repeatedly engage in it should be expelled. I understand that the fight on Friday involved several non-students but the culture of violence has been firmly implanted in Athens by mostly student behavior. It started with them and it can end with them.

Lets hope this incident Friday will help encourage the administration to take a long look at student violence and hopefully adopt a policy of zero tolerance.

Alan, how much time have you spent walking around Court St. after the bars close on a weekend recently? Also, no one is going to start anything with an older adult.

In the last year of my studies in Athens I can count at least 4 situations in which someone try to fight me or one of my friends. In all of those situations the confrontation was unsolicited.

My junior year one of my best friends was beaten so bad outside of the Union that he had to be life-flighted to Columbus. He didn't wake up for a day or two and it was a very scary situation for all of us. Again this was just the most serious event. There were dozens of others that I witnessed.

I have no idea if this still happens since I left in 2004 but while I was there it was a violent place. Of course, I love Athens more than any place in the world and that's why I'm troubled by this.

Al, while I agree that he is engaging in a bit of hyperbole here, I would have to admit that the level of student-on-student violence seems to have been increasing over the years.  Back in the day, bar violence was relatively rare.  Today, it seems you almost don't raise an eyebrow when you read about a fight in some local establishment.  It may be, in part, that these things are reported more openly today, but I really don't think that's the major part of the story here.  Again, I think the comparisons to inner city urban neighbors is a real stretch, but I think the general issue of too much violence in our fair city -- both on and off campus -- is a legitimate one for discussion.

I know circumstances can be fast but shouldn't the first requirement for a bouncer be a cell phone with Athens P.D. on speed dial?

This discussion lends some support to my belief that most of the problems at OU aren't caused by OU students.  Only about a third of the arrests at Halloween were OU students. 

It also seems to me that the Courtside bouncers are too thin skinned.  Granted they shouldn't have to put up with a lot of physical abuse, but they seem to be unwilling to avoid escalating a situation.  Some friends of mine started the Longbranch in the early '70s, so I knew the bouncers and sat with them more than a few times while they checked IDs.  I don't recall one time where they left the bar to go after somebody who was out of line.  They escorted them to the door and let them go on their way.  I realize that times have changed, but it seems to me that it's still good PR for a business to not put its patrons in the hospital on a regular basis.