TEXAS-BOUND?
MAYA IN ACTION
Terps, Longhorns may start two-year series
M.I.A.’s new mind-warping LP packs a punch
SPORTS | PAGE 8
DIVERSIONS | PAGE 7
Thursday, July 15, 2010
THE DIAMONDBACK Our 100TH Year, No. 147
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Residents More Route 1 riot charges dropped warned of JUSTICE IN NUMBERS peepers As seven more people are cleared, only five of 28 arrested still await their court dates BY RICHARD ABDILL Staff writer
Police question two men on Dickinson Ave. BY SOHAYL VAFAI Staff writer
Seven people arrested in the March 4 riot on Route 1 have been cleared in the past week, leaving only five of the 28 people who were detained still facing charges for their alleged roles in the incident. Only one case has made it to trial, and it was thrown out before the defense even had to make an argument. The students and other revelers celebrating a Terrapin men’s basketball victory were charged without suf-
ficient evidence, or with evidence that outright contradicts police claims, according to attorneys for the students and to a Prince George’s County Police spokesman. “Thus far, 28 people were arrested and nobody has been convicted,” said Terrell N. Roberts, an attorney for several of the students. “That at least suggests that something went wrong here.” County police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis said his department’s procedures turned out to be insufficient to keep things straight during the tur-
moil of the riot scene. Internal and state investigations are also evaluating claims of police brutality, and four county officers remain stripped of their police powers. “There’s no question that we need to improve the documentation when we need to make arrests,” Ellis said. “In this case there was a lot of chaos. ... Compared to just a standard disorderly conduct arrest, I don’t know that the amount of paperwork would have been the same.”
Ghost hunters scour Rossborough Inn BY SARON YITBAREK For The Diamondback
“Can you tell us how old you are?” asked Alan Cohn, loudly and clearly, speaking to the potential ghost in the dark room. “What state are you from?” An apprehensive silence blanketed the space as three certified members of the Maryland Society of Ghost Hunters and two observers crammed into a Rossborough Inn office on a Sunday night last month for an Electronic Voice Phenomena session. The group was searching for evidence of a ghost some believe haunts the historic inn, much of which now serves as office space. Rumors abound of flickering lights in a supposedly empty room, a window opening on its own — and visits from Betty, who managed the inn during the Civil War era. The hunters ultimately pronounced the building “not haunted” in a report released over the weekend. But they were on edge in Rossborough’s Room 304 on June 27, where a few computers sharing a desk with antique-style lamps are a small nod to modernity among the high-backed chairs and regal benches that sit on the original circa-1812 hardwood floor. “Can you give us some sign of your presence? Can you knock?” Cohn continued to ask the ghost. Seconds later, there was a ticking noise and the room dimmed. Silence. “Was that you?” Cohn asked a moment later. “No, it was the motion sensor light,” said Duane Oden, a fellow ghost hunter. A nervous laugh broke the tense air. When the questions ran out, the ghost hunters switched tactics, moving to a more
see PEEPING TOMS, page 3
Support can stop suicides, research finds University students participated in study BY SOHAYL VAFAI Staf f writer
see SUICIDE, page 6 TOMORROW’S WEATHER:
■ 28 — people charged ■ 23 — cases without a conviction ■ 3 — upcoming court dates ■ 2 — cases yet to be assigned a court date
see RIOT, page 3
Two men may have watched a man and a woman having sex through the window of a Dickinson Avenue home early Sunday, but police said the possible Peeping Toms were not charged because there was not enough evidence they had committed a crime. A University Police officer patrolling the 7500 block of Dickinson Avenue near Norwich Road saw two men dressed in black walking away from a house just before 2 a.m., police spokesman Paul Dillon said. One of the men, talking on a cell phone, was walking away from the house and motioning for the other to follow, Dillon said. The officer “noticed that where the guy came from there was a window to the basement where a guy and a girl were,” Dillon said. A resident of the house said in an interview he was having sex in the basement; Dillon would not say whether the police believed that activity was watched. Some residents of the house were students, but Dillon would not say whether the possible victims were. Dillon said when the officer stopped the men — who had no university affiliation — they said they were leaving a house party. The officer had no way of telling whether they had been looking through the window, so police could not charge them with any
A lack of social support can encourage suicidal thoughts, according to a recent study of more than a thousand students at this university over a fouryear span. For the study, published online in May by the Journal of Af fective Disorders, researchers conducted face-toface inter views with each of the 1,085 students annually during the research period to determine the occurrence and predictors of suicidal thoughts. Of the group, 151 students — or 12 percent of the total — thought of committing suicide at least once, and 10 said they actually attempted or planned to commit suicide, though none successfully did so. Researchers evaluated other information they received from those students in the annual inter views and identified social support as a “key protective factor” in preventing suicides in college students. “I think sometimes when people think about people who have mental health disorders, they isolate them,” said Amelia Arria, one of the study’s authors and the director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at this university. “But they need social support and encircling rather than isolation.” A majority of the participants with suicidal thoughts — 60 percent — did not show signs of severe depression, according to
Thousands of students crowded downtown streets early March 4.
see GHOSTS, page 2 MATTHEW CREGER/THE DIAMONDBACK
Going green, one stall at a time University’s new bathroom supplier will provide recycled toilet paper BY RICHARD ABDILL Staff writer
The university is flushing a 20-year-old relationship down the toilet in order to go green. After three years of searching, the university has dumped its decades-long bathroom supply contract with Kimberly-Clark for a four-year deal with competitor Bay West. Bay West will spend the rest of the summer replacing thousands of paper towel and toilet paper dispensers in all academic and administrative buildings with new units set up to accommodate recycled paper, said Harry Teabout, the director of Building and Landscape Services. “It’s been quite an ordeal,” Teabout said, adding that the university chose not to renew
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its Kimberly-Clark contract partly because of the rising costs of replacing broken machines from the early 1990s. Bay West will give the university about 2,500 toilet paper dispensers and another 2,500 paper towel dispensers for free as part of the new deal. But the environmental impact is perhaps more significant. “Using toilet paper made from virgin trees is the paper-industry equivalent of driving a Hummer,” Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Wired magazine in April. While most toilet paper includes some recycled content, the university’s will be made entirely from recycled materials.
see PAPER, page 6 NEWS . . . . . . . . . .2 OPINION . . . . . . . .4
FEATURES . . . . . .5 CLASSIFIED . . . . .6
Old toilet paper dispenser units like this one will be replaced in most university buildings. RICHARD ABDILL/THE DIAMONDBACK
DIVERSIONS . . . . .7 SPORTS . . . . . . . . .8
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