Just as the number of partygoers in Dartmouth basements will be augmented by the visiting alumni during Green Key, security forces at the College also plan to bolster their efforts this weekend. According to College Proctor and Director of Safety and Security Harry Kinne, Safety and Security is arranging for extra personnel to be on campus for the weekend.
"We'll gear up like we normally do for our big weekends," Kinne said. "We'll have officers on an extra patrol."
Kinne also noted that this year's weekend looks to be fairly routine and said that Safety and Security's goal, as always, is to keep the students safe.
Hanover Police plan to have the regular amount of officers on duty.
"[There will be] no changes in staffing levels," Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said. "Over the past several years, the Green Key Weekend has not really been much different than any other weekend in the spring."
Although authorities said that big weekends such as Green Key are often no more problematic in terms of run-ins with Safety and Security and Hanover Police than any other Friday and Saturday nights, the weekend's wild reputation prompts a probe into some of the more memorable incidents involving Hanover Police from the past three Green Keys.
Three years ago, police found themselves dealing with a number of partygoers who were of a legal drinking age.
"With alumni you're usually dealing with people who don't have age issues regarding alcohol, but people who have too much to drink," Giaccone said. "We have to find the appropriate placement for them."
At 10:42 p.m. on May 14, 2004, Safety and Security spotted a 25-year-old alumnus vomiting on the Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity lawn at 7 Webster Avenue. Safety and Security called Hanover Police, who took the intoxicated individual into protective custody and released him to a friend.
Early the next morning, at 1:54 a.m., Hanover Police found an intoxicated 21-year-old male non-student passed out on the Green. The student, who according to police was enrolled at the University of San Diego at the time, was first taken into protective custody, but was later found to have an outstanding warrant for his arrest stemming from an unlawful alcohol possession charge pressed against him the previous Green Key weekend. His failure to resolve his court process meant that he was faced with the criminal charge of failure to appear in court, which potentially carried a penalty of jail time.
Last year's incidents, although still alcohol related, were a little more unusual. At 3 a.m. on Thursday, May 18, a police officer on patrol near downtown Hanover heard loud shouting coming from the direction of Massachusetts Row and soon after spotted two male Dartmouth students walking down the middle of West Wheelock Street, shouting loudly. In an attempt to quiet the two men, the officer shined his spotlight at them. Still yelling, the two began to run down Main Street.
After observing one of the students grab a milk crate and throw it against the brick wall of the Dartmouth Bookstore, the officer flashed his lights and began to chase the students. With the help of another officer, the police were able to corral both of the males. One of the students was 21 years old and therefore only taken into protective custody, while the other male, who was 20 years old, was arrested for unlawful possession and intoxication.
At roughly the same time, police arrived at Dick's House to take the statement of a victim who had been severely injured in an assault. Between 2 and 3 a.m., the male victim was sitting with a woman in his car in the parking lot of Chi Gam when two men of indeterminate age came out of the fraternity's basement. One of the men dumped the remaining beer out of a can he had been drinking from onto the car's hood and then threw the empty can at the car's windshield. Agitated by this action, the victim stepped out of the car to confront the man but was stopped by the man's friend, who tried to apologize, explaining that his friend was drunk.
While his friend was apologizing, the man who had thrown the can began to relieve himself on the victim's car. When the victim attempted to stop this, the man who had been apologizing struck the victim in the face, which was followed by a subsequent blow by the man who had been urinating. The two continued to punch and kick the victim as he fell to the ground until eventually fleeing the scene. The victim suffered a chipped tooth, as well as other injuries.
Matthew Kelly and Dan Duray contributed to the reporting for this article, and information regarding past incidents of police involvement is courtesy of Giaccone.
