Philadelphia — Mardi Gras revelry turned violent early Wednesday in Seattle and Philadelphia, with crowds fighting, smashing storefronts and looting, and police fighting back on horseback and with pepper gas.
More than 200 people were arrested in Philadelphia. More than 40 people were taken to hospitals in Seattle and two of them were described as in severely critical condition, one from a fall off an overpass.
By contrast, the more notorious pre-Lenten partying in New Orleans was largely peaceful, even though upward of a million people many in costume and some in little more than a smile had jammed the streets as Fat Tuesday jiggled and giggled its way into Ash Wednesday.
Philadelphia revelers smashed windows and dozens of people looted a liquor store and other businesses on South Street, a trendy stretch of bars and shops at the edge of downtown. It took police about an hour to clear the street.
"Disappointing is the only word I can think to say," city managing director Joe Martz said early Wednesday as he walked down the street strewn with trash, broken glass, empty beer cans and a few lace bras. "It's disgraceful."
Philadelphia City Councilman Frank DiCicco said people acted like "wild animals."
Seattle police broke up the crowd there with pepper spray and said at least 21 people were arrested on charges that included assault, rioting, reckless endangerment and hit-and-run driving. One man was arrested with a handgun, Officer Pam McCammon said.
Fights broke out when as many as 2,000 people crowded into the streets near a theater that held a midnight grand ball.
In an annual ritual in New Orleans, a phalanx of mounted police officers, street sweepers and garbage trucks moved down Bourbon Street promptly at midnight in the French Quarter to ring down the curtain on a weeklong party.
Before midnight, the Quarter's famous iron-wrought balconies had overflowed with partiers tossing plastic bead necklaces to people on the street. In exchange, many women gladly exposed their breasts and were quickly surrounded by men with video cameras.
"It's like nothing else in the world the world's biggest freak show," said Wolf Martin, 57, a Los Angeles software engineer who was attending his first Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
No major problems were reported and New Orleans police were expected to release arrest figures Wednesday afternoon.
The ankle-deep trash was to be weighed to get an idea of whether the enormous crowds set a record.
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