Tires were slashed in motel parking lots and a Kansas University student was hospitalized after being struck by a baseball bat during a disturbance that reportedly involved troublemakers from Kansas City.

Just a typical Friday night in Lawrence? We certainly hope not.

Troublesome incidents over the weekend raise questions about safety and law enforcement in Lawrence. If such trouble continues, it won’t be long before Lawrence gains an unsavory reputation that may be hard to shake.

Tires reportedly were slashed on about 25 vehicles from Nebraska parked at local motels Friday night. The incident probably was connected to Saturday’s KU football game against the University of Nebraska, but people who would commit such a crime don’t deserve to be called KU fans. True fans would like to see the tire-slashers hunted down and prosecuted.

Fans of opposing teams — or any visitor to Lawrence — should be able to expect that both they and their property will be treated with respect. Although only property and not people were injured, the tire-slashings are simply inexcusable. Such juvenile displays are not what Lawrence or KU is about and police should take whatever steps are necessary to catch the perpetrators and prevent any repeats of this action.

Perhaps even more troubling was an incident early Saturday morning in the 900 block of Indiana Street. Police reported that about 100 people were attending parties in the area when a fight broke out. On Saturday, residents of the area denied the presence of any parties, but there was ample evidence of an unruly situation that a police representative described as “mayhem” in the area.

The result was a KU student being hit with a baseball bat, breaking his nose and perhaps causing a concussion. The student apparently had used the bat as a threat when telling people to get out of his yard. Two suspects allegedly took the bat from him and hit him with it. Residents of the area blamed the trouble on a group of seven or eight men they thought were from Kansas City who showed up in the neighborhood after the bars closed.

It’s troubling that people from other communities may be attracted to Lawrence as a place to stir up “mayhem.” Whether or not the trouble was started by men from Kansas City, police need to get a grip on such dangerous situations.

Lawrence police have historically taken a measured, even hands-off, approach to confronting and breaking up crowds. In some cases, looser enforcement may keep situations from erupting into violence, but in other cases, firmer action is called for. A group of 100 people carousing in a residential neighborhood at 2 a.m. would seem to be one of those cases — even before a student was seriously injured.

There is no more important factor to a community’s quality of life than for people — both residents and visitors — to feel they and their property are safe. When parents send their children to KU, when people come to Lawrence to attend an athletic event or when people make Lawrence their home they need to have a reasonable expectation that they will not suffer harm or property damage.

Providing that atmosphere must be the top priority of city and law enforcement officials. It’s time to nip these problems in the bud before Lawrence gets a reputation as a place where troublemakers can have a good time without suffering any consequences.