This year’s Naked Quad Run ended earlier than usual and ended in at least one arrest, but organizers otherwise called it a success.
Students reported seeing a male student handcuffed and arrested at the annual event, which took place on Friday night on the Res Quad, as he tried to help another student who was being chased by police officers.
The student, who was dressed in boxers, was led away to a police vehicle around 10 p.m., the witnesses, who wished to remain anonymous due to the nature of the event, said; a Daily video of the arrest (below) shows a police officer leading the student away from the scene.
Warning: The following video contains strong language.
NQR, which traditionally takes place on the night of the last day of classes of the fall semester, this year ended earlier than it had in recent years as police officers began kicking participants off the Res Quad course around 10 p.m., according to students in attendance.
The decision to end the run earlier was made ahead of time, according to student organizers, but many students were unaware of the change and showed up around 10 p.m. or afterward, when the run in at least the past few years had remained well attended.
A reception run by Programming Board started at 9 p.m., as noted in a student body-wide e-mail sent out by the Tufts Community Union Senate and Programming Board on Wednesday. As in the previous few years, no start time for the actual run was mentioned in the mass e-mail, although a TuftsLife posting by Programming Board said the “event” would start at 9:15 p.m.
Police officers at 10 p.m. or shortly thereafter began blocking the course and telling students they could no longer run, according to some student participants. The students said that the officers even used physical force to prevent students from running, seemingly targeting male students and pushing at least one into a metal barrier.
In one instance, according to witnesses, officers pinned a naked male student to the ground. When the officers were not paying attention, the student ran away; the student who was eventually arrested appeared to help the naked student escape, physically preventing officers from catching him.
Officers arrested the latter student, witnesses said. “People started booing when the cops arrested him,” one student, who saw the incident occur, said.
The leaders of Programming Board, the main student organization involved in the planning of NQR, said that they thought community quiet hours and safety concerns might have led the university to end the event early.
The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) and the advisor to Tufts Emergency Medical Services deferred questions to the university’s Office of Public Relations. The Daily put in a request for comment with the office yesterday and will update this post upon receiving a response. [UPDATE 12/16/10: The university provided the Daily with a response on Tuesday. Updated coverage here, and the full article here.]
Senior Adam Fischer, one of two co-chairs of Programming Board, said that no big injuries or pile-ups occurred during the run.
“They’re taking a potentially dangerous situation,” Fischer said of TUPD, “and making it as safe as possible.”
Fischer and senior Sarah Habib, the organization’s other co-chair, said that aside from the arrest, the event proceeded smoothly. Free donuts and complimentary t-shirts went quickly, and a DJ from WMFO Freeform Radio was popular, they said.
“It was a very successful event,” Habib said. “It takes a lot of work to put on NQR to make it safe for the runners. It’s a large coordinated effort throughout the university.”
Video by Aalok Kanani. Andrew Morgenthaler contributed reporting to this post.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
“The bystanders who asked for them were just that, bystanders.”
the bystanders keep the police honest, comrade!
The amount of entitlement displayed by some of the comments here is absolutely sickening. Having NQR is a privilege, not a right. We should be grateful that the University allows this event to happen and provides the resources for it to occur in a safe manner. Let’s not forget that what occurs at NQR could be construed as criminal (ever hear of indecency laws?). Fortunately TUPD and the University are both reasonable enough to see that this event can still be held in a safe and constructive way. When the University says the event is over (and TUPD is an extension of the University, as it is charged with enforcing its policies), the event is over. Not for nothing, the actual run itself lasted longer than last years, but started and ended earlier (but hey, don’t let that get in the way of a good story, Tufts Daily). Disobeying a law enforcement officer anywhere else is surely a one way ticket to jail. The rest of the students who kept running despite being told to stop by the police should be grateful they didn’t end up like the student in the above video.
As far as the arrest goes, the fact that any arrest of a student needs to take place at a University as prestigious as Tufts is a disgrace. One would think that Tufts students would be above punching a police officer and disobeying lawful orders. As for the badge number issue, it can be assumed that the accused student will have access to the badge numbers of the arresting officers, allowing him to file a complaint if he feels he was mistreated. The bystanders who asked for them were just that, bystanders.
they seemed to shut it down a lot quicker this year. usually they wait til there are only 20 or 30 people still running. this year there were still a couple hundred going when they started stopping people
This is terrible. I cannot view the video now because I am at work, but as an alumni who really enjoyed this tradition (although I only actually ran once) it is disappointing that TUPD would decide to end the night early without making this announcement prior.
That seems like a really huge blunder.
Of course assault on anyone is unacceptable, but what do police think will happen if they unexpectedly, forcefully, and abruptly end an event such as this?
And then they refuse to cooperate with students and provide their badge numbers?
Again, I don’t condone the actions unruly students (who deserve punishment), nor do I condone the aggressive actions of TUPD (who probably also share some culpability) but I can certainly sympathize and encourage the spirit of civil disobedience in the face of an arbitrarily authoritative action such as this.
TUPD supposedly consists of honorable officers of the law who are supposed to hold themselves to a higher standard. This sounds more like the actions of gruff bullies than the arbiters of “safety” that TUPD wants to see itself as.
Really disappointing.
Don’t you think it’s important to mention that the student being “pinned to the ground” had just punched a Middlesex County sheriff in the face… twice? And that the arrested student practically clotheslined a TUPD officer who was chasing the first “pinned” student? It seems to me that leaving out those details paints a pretty biased and distorted picture of what happened at NQR. Quality work, Tufts Daily.
And to Eva, I think the numerous rumors started after the event are really to blame for the suspicion Tufts students have against TUPD. I had multiple people tell me that “groups of people were pepper sprayed” and “they arrested like 10 people just for running NQR”. Both are completely false. No one was pepper sprayed (well, law enforcement didn’t use pepper spray, maybe another incident like Halloween Senior Pub Night?) and one arrest was made because a student assaulted an officer. I’m not sure about the badge number business; if that’s true, then I agree that that’s a problem. But overall, I think it’s insane to blame TUPD for the way the event ended.
I would not call this year’s NQR a success, I would call it a huge breach of trust between TUPD and the student body, as well as a low point in the history of the tradition. Serious flaws in the coordination and execution of the event need to be addressed and fixed by the university, including their policy on their support of the event and the role of the officers there. Instead of “taking a potentially dangerous situation” and making it “as safe as possible,” they created mayhem, confusion, unnecessary violence and suspicion amongst students that some TUPD officers’ are not invested in establishing a positive relationship with students. Officers refused to give students their badge numbers, which makes accountability for individual officers almost impossible. Without any other university representation, that left NQR poorly handled.