An orderly crowd first filled the lawn in front of Old Main when news of Mr. Paterno's firing came via students' cellphones. When the crowd took to the downtown streets, its anger and intensity swelled. Students shouted "We are Penn State."I'm interested in the way this protest resembles the Wisconsin protests and the Occupy [Your City] protests and the way it does not. We have a growing culture of protest in America right now. There are certain clichés, like: "We are [X]." So: "We are the 99%" is echoed here as "We are Penn State." There's a group claiming to embody far more people than are present at the protest. There are the vuzuvelas.
Some blew vuvuzelas, others air horns. One young man sounded reveille on a trumpet....
Just before midnight the police lost control of the crowd. Chanting, "Tip the van," they toppled the news vehicle and then brought down a nearby lamp post. When the police opened up with pepper spray, some in the crowd responded by hurling rocks, cans of soda and flares. They also tore down street signs, tipped over trash cans and newspaper vending boxes and shattered car windows.
Some students noted the irony that they had come out to oppose what they saw as a disgraceful end to Mr. Paterno's distinguished career as a football coach, and then added to the ignobility of the episode by starting an unruly protest....
As the crowd got more aggressive, so did police officers. Some protesters fought back. One man in gas mask rushed a half dozen police officers in protective gear, blasted one officer with pepper spray underneath his safety mask and then sprinted away. The officer lay on the ground, rubbing his eyes.
But the Pen [...]
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