Aja Frost
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The Cal Poly students who attended Deltopia this past weekend had no idea the night would take such an ugly turn. For most of the day Saturday, the mood was fun but not excessive, according to four students Mustang News spoke with who visited Santa Barbara.
To determine what led up to riots that resulted in more than 100 arrests at the Isla Vista street party, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department is launching an investigation.
“The violence may have stopped, but our work has just started,” spokesperson Kelly Hoover said.
The Sheriff’s Department is looking for video that will help them identify who was responsible for assaulting law enforcement and participating in the violence. From-out-of-towners (FROs) are a likely culprit, Hoover said.
“Preliminary estimates show that around 80 percent of those arrested or cited were from out of town,” Hoover said. “The FRO’s aren’t invested in our community, which is a problem. But that doesn’t mean that UCSB students are blameless.”
Hoover cites the local students who invited their friends from out of town to come to Deltopia and let those friends stay at their homes, along with those who promoted the event through social media.
Idean Moslehi, a philosophy freshman at Cal Poly, stayed with friends who attend University of California, Santa Barbara so he could go to Deltopia. He said his friends enthusiastically encouraged people to come visit.
“They’re the type that will invite their seven best friends down to party,” he said.
Moslehi got to Santa Barbara on Thursday night. Though the neighborhood was already packed with people, the atmosphere was relaxed, he said.
“It wasn’t wild; no one was drinking,” he said. “But Saturday morning at 10 a.m., when I went out, there were already people walking around holding beer and setting up.”
Journalism freshman Arinee Rahman also got to Del Playa Drive at approximately 10 a.m. There were police officers everywhere, merely milling around keeping order, Rahman said.
“They weren’t trying to stop anyone from drinking or having a good time,” she said. “And even though music wasn’t technically allowed to be played, that didn’t stop anyone.”
Rahman and Moslehi both said people, especially those on the balconies, were throwing things, including beer bottles, but in a spirit of fun. At noon, according to Moslehi, the majority of partiers were going in and out of houses, having a good time and playing drinking games, but sticking to beer and not hard liquor.
“During the daytime, Deltopia was the perfect amount of crazy,” Rahman said. “But after the sun went down, things started to get ugly.”
At approximately 6 p.m., Rahman and her friends decided to leave.
Moslehi was still in Isla Vista when the riots broke out. He said once it got darker, people started gathering in groups and marching around.
“I saw quite a few police in helicopters,” Moslehi said.
At 10 p.m., biomedical engineering junior Matthew Mertz got a text from his friend saying he was barricaded in a house on Del Playa Drive. The cops wouldn’t let anyone leave, he said, and a mob was forming. Mertz went outside and saw helicopters and spotlights everywhere, along with blaring sirens.
“I left the place I was staying at approximately 10:45. You could see the tear gas and hear flash bangs in the distance at the corner of Camino Pescadero and Del Playa,” Mertz said. “Being curious, of course I checked it out, and then the cops tear gassed the crowd I was in.”
People at the front of the crowd had tied their shirts around their mouths and heads and were throwing bottles and aggressively shouting at the police, who were standing there firing plastic projectiles into the crowd, Mertz said.
“Some people were obviously Isla Vista locals who wanted these people to get off their property and trying to protect their cars; others were shouting, ‘Fuck the police’ and wanted things to escalate,” he said. “A separate group of police came from a street behind us and surrounded us, firing tear gas into the crowd. Immediately everybody ran in any direction possible away from the gas — it felt like wasabi or chili powder in the eyeballs.”
After Mertz recovered from the tear gas, he went to a party on Trigo Road until he got a text from a friend saying the mob was re-forming. Mertz stayed inside the rest of the night, but said he saw cops patrolling the streets in gas masks.
But Hoover said the police were there to ensure everyone’s safety.
“We’re dealing with the emotions of what happened — that there were people that were throwing rocks and bottles and bricks at the law enforcement that were there to protect them,” Hoover said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s uncalled for. And it’s hurtful.”