F r i d ay , O c t o b e r 1 7 , 2 0 1 4 — I s s u e 1 0
j the ournal Queen’s University — Since 1873
EDITORIAL
Queen’s has failed sexual assault survivors page 8
FEATURE
Aberdeen to be cleared
Election coverage
page 2
Police aim to push partygoers off streets to sidewalks B y S ebastian L eck Features Editor A police camera is currently installed on the corner of Aberdeen and William Streets, ready to be activated for Homecoming weekend. The camera, mounted on a telephone pole, is part of the Kingston Police Force’s (KPF) strategy for keeping the peace on Aberdeen St. during Homecoming, which runs from today to Sunday. In 2005, a car was overturned and set on fire by partygoers on Aberdeen St. Queen’s administration cancelled the Homecoming celebration indefinitely in November 2008; the weekend was only reinstated last year as an official university event. The police’s current strategy for monitoring Homecoming festivities involves a mixture of surveillance, preventative measures and crowd control. During the October 2013 Homecoming street party, police cleared the middle of Aberdeen St. and kept partygoers contained on the sidewalks. This strategy wasn’t always used, according to KPF media relations officer Steve Koopman. In Homecoming weekends prior to last year, the police had at times barricaded the ends of Aberdeen St. at Earl and Johnson Streets instead, containing the revelry within the block. Koopman said barricading the street led to mixed results. “Some people felt it was good to have the area contained,” he said. “Others felt that now that the students knew it was a cordoned-off area, it was a party area and people would therefore come there en masse.” Police currently prioritize keeping the street open for safe passage of emergency
vehicles, he said. “[In previous years] we did have a student fall off the lower roof portion, we had students who hit their faces on the sidewalk, we were having beer bottles thrown in past years and feet were getting cut open,” he said. While clearing the streets can push partygoers onto private lawns, Koopman said police are more concerned with keeping the street safe. “If the officer feels that safety’s being jeopardized, then, unfortunately, if someone is stepping on the lawn, as much as we understand that it would be a frustration point, would not take priority over the fact that we might have something very dangerous taking place on the street,” he said. Property owners or tenants can ask people to leave under the Trespass to Authority Act, Koopman added, and once a situation has calmed, they can ask police to help remove people from their lawn. In 2006, Kingston City Council passed a series of recommendations for making Homecoming weekend safer. Their recommendations included increasing video surveillance in the Aberdeen St. area for the weekend and improving the lighting around the street. In 2006, KPF Chief Bill Closs told the Journal that prior to that point, the police had conducted video surveillance using hand-held video cameras. According to Koopman, the surveillance cameras will be used to both identify problems as they emerge — such as fights or crowds forming on major streets — and to provide evidence of infractions after they occur. See Surveillance on page 3
Art battle
page 10
Puck Cancer
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