Mass Street Madness: Did the Royals World Series celebration go too far?

photo by: Mike Yoder

A street sign remains askew Monday afternoon at Seventh and Massachusetts streets following a large downtown celebration of the Kansas City Royals' World Series title Sunday night.

I hate to be a fun-sucker, but can we have a celebration without destruction, Lawrence?

After the Royals took the crown last night in the World Series, fans took to the streets with screams of joy. Fireworks boomed, car horns blared and people flocked to Massachusetts Street.

But then things got ugly.

Folks were climbing downtown light posts, stomping on car hoods, stopping drivers in the middle of the intersections and surrounding their vehicles. A few people even made away with some Massachusetts Street street signs, to the bemusement of the crowd below.

Amid the crowd, I kept wondering, “Where are the police?” I saw several patrol cars, but no officers. That is, until about four swarmed from seemingly nowhere around midnight, zoomed through the crowd and tackled one of the young men who had been tugging away at a stubborn street sign that just wouldn’t come off.

Once police had the man on the ground, he did not resist arrest and a situation that seemed like it could have tipped in the wrong direction did not. But as the officers were cuffing the suspect, crowd members yelled swear words at law enforcement and shrieked “police brutality” and “(expletive) the police.”

It definitely felt near riotous instead of celebratory. People were trampled in the ordeal, some fights broke out and even I was knocked to the ground.

Later, the “party” continued south down Mass Street, with crowds circling in around a car in the intersection at Ninth and Massachusetts streets that was playing music. Dancing broke out, but then several loud bangs were heard. I couldn’t tell if they were fireworks or ammunition.

It continued throughout the night with explosives being set off all over downtown and within mere feet of crowds gathered. The Lawrence Police Department’s 911 call log this morning looked like a war broke out on the Fourth of July with all the sound of gunshots and fireworks reports.

Later this morning, of course, we learned of the vandalism and criminal damage at Kansas University after apparent Royals fans took down the football field’s goal post and flipped Port-a-Johns near the stadium.

https://twitter.com/nobrokebrospls/status/661087022908579840

https://twitter.com/nickkrug/status/661206537981943808/

Still, the Douglas County Jail booking logs this morning are not full with those arrested around and after midnight with celebrators gone awry. Just the one arrest from the man who took down the Seventh and Mass street sign on suspicion of criminal damage to property and interference with the duties of law enforcement. There’s also a littering arrest and two DUIs.

You know, I remember when “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” chose KU to film its World Series giveaway segment last week, some criticized why the show would pick Lawrence as it “wasn’t a baseball town.” Well, congratulations, Lawrence, I think we’ve proved our allegiance to the Royals – though perhaps we should have done it in a safer way.

This, of course, topped off a triple-whammy of a weekend with KU Homecoming, Halloween and the end of daylight saving time with the bars staying open until 3 a.m. Saturday. I’ll have more on antics from those circumstances later.