Dear Editor: I am an engineering graduate student at UW-Madison and have attended Halloween on State Street for each of the last seven years. I have become very frustrated by the attitude of the police and the mayor over the last few years. Every year they claim to spend so much time planning the event, but the planning always results in minimal communication and excessive force by the police.
It seems to me most of the crowd would leave State Street at the threat of being pepper-sprayed, so why don’t the police warn us (if they have, I have never heard it)….It seems a little communication could go a long way.