Crime stays relatively light during Fling

As Penn students partied the weekend away, University Police kept watch to make sure all Spring Fling events were safe and, above all, legal. According to University Police Chief Maureen Rush, crime was fairly low over the weekend, resulting in a "pretty successful Fling all in all" for both students and police. In total, Penn Police issued 21 citations -- 19 for alcohol violations and two for fighting. Five people were sent to the hospital, also due to drinking and fighting. Rush, who is also the interim vice president for public safety, said that none of the hospital cases were serious, "but there were a couple instances where people were just face down on the ground." "We got to them before anything criminal or medically happened to them," she said. Rush said there were about 12 major parties that police were forced to shut down, the most notable of which occurred Saturday night on 42nd Street. Police were able to control the situation without making any arrests. "People just spilled out in street, and there was fist-fighting when police arrived," Rush said. "A lot of people started giving officers a hard time, but [the officers] were professional and knew what they had to do," she said. But Rush added that there were few general problems while clearing parties. "For the most part, most of the people really understood that they had to go and they left," she said. At several of the weekend's block parties, police slowly drove their motorcycles on the sidewalks to help disperse crowds. Rush said the department's goal for Fling was to have enough officers "on the scene of each large disturbance to effectively handle the situation without escalating the situation." "That was our plan and it worked very well," she said. Of the 23 major Spring Fling-related incidents, the most serious was an aggravated assault that happened early Thursday morning near Superblock. And while Rush said that "most people had the routine down at this point," there were still some troublemakers. "One [person] was actually fighting with Liquor Control Enforcement after being cited," Rush said. LCE officials handed out a total of 31 underage drinking citations over the weekend. Rush said that the majority of underage drinking incidents occurred inside dorm rooms -- mostly in the Quadrangle -- instead of at larger parties. One Quad incident on Saturday involved a student shooting a BB gun. "No one was hurt, but [bullets] could have been ricocheting off of people," Rush said. "Most people had fun, and did what they had to do safely when police were called," Rush said.

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