Cops Crack Down In Heights

This is the first of two stories analyzing the effect of escalating police activity in the Heights.

Police busted a rising number of parties in University Heights over the past few weeks, and UB officials say more is in store for students who don't keep their parties legal and quiet.

Between Wednesday and Friday of last week alone, over 30 parties were broken up, said Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs.

According to Black, police are crashing the parties because of three major issues. He cited the illegal sale of alcohol, unsafe party conditions, and rising tensions between students and their neighbors in the Heights.

"We're not out to lock everybody up, but actions do get taken," said Mark Antonio, Buffalo chief of police for the C and E districts that include the Heights.

Antonio said that when party hosts charge students at the door, it implies the illegal sale of liquor without a license. And even if they aren't charging at the door, most parties violate the state's alcoholic beverage control laws for distributing alcohol to minors.

"Most of the officers on patrol are young and let the kids be kids to a certain degree, but we will take beer from them and break up these parties if it's warranted," Antonio said. "The reality is that if you're going to be loud and stupid, you're going to get locked up."

Black said students who host Heights parties run the risk of both criminal and civil prosecution.

"If we don't live by the law, we have to understand that there are consequences," Black said. "This applies to the speed limit, income taxes, and the sale and consumption of alcohol."

And if students are underage and involved in an alcohol violation, the university may contact parents regarding the incident.

According to Black, there is a law called FERTA that restricts UB from releasing student records to parents, but if it's a violation involving alcohol, FERTA no longer applies.

Many students said none of this would affect their decision to go down to parties around South Campus.

Sarah Goldberg, a freshman exercise science major, said she'll keep going to South on weekends and believes most students will do the same.

"I'm still going to want to go to parties, but I'll just have to be more careful," she said.

Ian Shub, a freshman biotechnology major, said weekend parties are a classic part of college life.

"I hate that the cops are cracking down on parties. That's no fun," he said. "That's what all students are looking forward to, hanging out and partying on the weekends."

But according to Black, all the weekend partying has created a problem for Heights residents, who have found themselves at odds with UB students, especially when parties get out of hand.

"We know we have good students, we just need them to be good neighbors," Black said. "You can imagine the tension that arises in a community over these types of activities."

Black also made it clear that while the effort to reduce problems associated with parties is centered in Heights, non-UB students and partygoers are also at risk of prosecution.

"We better not enforce these rules and regulations on just our students. We have to target everyone," Black said. "It's not fair to enforce them on students if others are participating."

Students involved in fraternities in the Heights declined to comment on any of the issues surrounding crackdown.

Some of the community members UB officials and the University Heights Task Force are trying to protect, however, openly disagree with such policies and feel the police are cracking down in a way that hurts more than helps.

Sean Yantz, a University Heights resident, said police have stopped by his house more than four times in the past week.

"This house was a frat house about five or six years ago, so we're on a list of potential problem homes," Yantz said. "I'm sure we're going to be getting another call from the cops soon, because they were trying to get names multiple times in a span of a few days. This doesn't make me feel comfortable or happy. If I haven't done anything wrong, then the police shouldn't be coming by."

Colin O'Malley, a junior international studies major who lives in the same house, was recently referred to the Student Wide Judiciary for hosting an off-campus party, a charge he said is unwarranted.

"A cop came down here on a traffic stop and before you know it, there's four other cop cars on the street. Sean and I were sitting on our front porch watching all of this along with some of our neighbors when the police came down the street and asked for our IDs," O'Malley said. "The police clearly said that we were not going to get in trouble. They have a list of problem houses they need to check out and need to show that they've done their job."

But the following weekend, University Police stopped by the house four separate times looking for O'Malley, according to Yantz.

"Some of my housemates felt harassed by them," said O'Malley. "I went to the SWJ a week later and the police had reported there had been a party, which we clearly hadn't had."

"We've never had a single party here that would warrant that kind of a response," Yantz said. "We respect our neighbors and have a good relationship with them. We pick up our trash, keep the property looking decent, and we haven't had any problems. I feel that we're being unfairly targeted because we're on some list of problem houses. It's disruptive and annoying for the police to be coming by so often, insinuating that they can get you on something."

Eric Bifaro, one of Yantz and O'Malley's housemates, said he felt the crackdown was an invasion of privacy.

O'Malley, the only student of the three, said he's most concerned about UB's role in the current situation.

"I think in general it's ridiculous that the university is trying to control my actions when I'm living in a house that's not affiliated with UB," O'Malley said. "I've lived in that house for two years and plan to live there for two more. Being disrespectful to the community is being disrespectful to me, and the police force is being disrespectful to the community at large."

UB officials said police will continue to break up parties as long as the problems on their list continue.

"We're not riding through the neighborhood looking for parties, but we're not going to ignore the parties that warrant police response or complaints," said Barbara Ricotta, dean of students.

Barbara Ricotta said she feels many of the Heights parties need to be broken up because they become too big to be considered safe.

"We're concerned because large parties provide for unsafe conditions in those types of houses," Ricotta said. "Furthermore, we want to stress to these students that they need to be good neighbors and act appropriately."

"It's not 20 people at a house having a party, it's two to four hundred," Black said. "We're witnessing extreme behavior that creates the response."