From: bobworn@aol.com
Subject: SNET: Black Springbreak
Date: 9 Apr 2000 17:55:20 -0400
To: BOBWORN@aol.com

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Subj:    Black Springbreak
Date:   4/9/00 1:14:13 PM EST
From:   uaicms@juno.com
To:       bobworn@aol.com


"An assault victim covers herself after a crowd at Black Springbreak 2000
tore her clothing from her body as she walked through the crowd.  Shouts
of "There's a white girl, there's a white girl!" came from several males
just prior to the assault.  She was taken by Biloxi police to Gulf Coast
Medical Center after the assault for examination."

Source: Sun Herald, Biloxi, Mississippi Apr 9, 2000, headlines.
Gridlock. Revelers bring party, chaos to streets of Biloxi by John
DeSantis, The Sun Herald. (excerpted) Biloxi--Nothing like it has
happened on the Coast--ever.  Thousands of revelers drawn to Black
Springbreak 2000 virtually ignored formal events booked by promoters and
starred in their own show along a gridlocked US 90, jamming private
parking lots to a booming bass soundtrack, overwhelming police officers
with their sheer numbers, and frustrating shopkeepers, whose customers
couldn't or wouldn't get close to their stores.

Official crowd estimates ranged from 10,000 to 30,000, a number police
were unprepared to handle.  

"We cannot control the traffic," Harrison County Sheriff George Payne
said Saturday night.  "We have more numbers of cars than the
infrastructure can handle...we are doing all we can to maintain order."

Bawdiness Shocks: Stores Close Early. By Brad Branan, The Sun Herald,
Biloxi--Some business owners welcomed the idea of Black Springbreak 2000.
 But they ended up overwhelmed by the crowd of revelers and their
boisterous behavior.

The traffic prevented customers from getting to businesses, kept
residents from leaving their homes, and made travel interminable in
Biloxi and Gulfport.  The revelers also irrated and offended residents
along US 90 which was jammed Friday and Saturday with party-goers.  

John Lestrade Jr. shared some beers Friday with two party-goers outside
his house near Edgewater Mall, then made a favorable comparison between
Black Springbreak and spring breaks he's attended in Florida.

"It's like Panama City," the 20-year old student said, "But the people
are darker and the water is darker."

But his impression changed later that night when he and some friends
walked by the mall parking lot where the party had reached a fever pitch.
 He said a crowd of black men taunted him and one of them said, "What are
you doing here, Whitey?"

While struck in traffic on US 90 near Beau Rivage casino, Kim Cohran of
Biloxi said she was shocked by what she saw.  "A man pulled down his
pants and urinated in the street.  Then he took a video camera and taped
a young girl showing her breasts," said Cohran, who told three young
children in the car to close their eyes.  "I couldn't believe it.  I was
shocked, disturbed, I can't believe this town would let this
happen--that's indecent exposure!"

Frank Pellegrino first noticed the crowd Friday when he tried to get on
US 90 where he lives.  He saw the cluttered highway and heared police
helicopters whirling overhead.  "I thought there was a natural disaster,"
he said.

Not far from his house, young people partied in the mall parking lot
where many had celebrated late the night before.  They gathered around
cars thumping with loud music.  They hooted as young women danced and
stripped on top of vehicles.

At the same time, the beach remained almost bare and businesses eerily
quiet.  By 6 pm, Edgewater Mall, the Edgewater Conoco gas station and
other nearby businesses had closed early.  Owners were concerned about
unruly behavior and noted that traffic had prevented customers and
workers from coming in.  The Edgewater Conoco also closed early Friday
night after some revelers broke beer bottles on the floor of the store.

Jack Cordray, general manager of O'Charley's Restaurant at the mall, said
some revelers walked out without paying their checks.  He added, "We've
taken a very big loss this week.  The event was supposed to start
Thursday, so a lot of people on the Coast stopped going out Wednesday. 
Minutes earlier, Cordray caught a partygoer urinating on a wall outside
their restaurant. 

(Springbreak, continued)

Springbreakers were their own main event.  

"This is what it's all about, this right here.  The women," said John
Richardson, an 18-year old student, as his eyes followed two women
walking down the street.  "It's a good experience and I'm going to come
back next year."

On dash-mounted television screens, some watched pornographic movies.
Women displayed their curves and men their muscles atop car roofs and
hoods or parade-style in open convertibles, often videotaping each other.

By day and night, however, there were reports of men stripping clothing
off women while photographing or videotaping them.  Not all of the women
consented.  

Outside at Edgewater Village across from the mall, a steady stream of
autos drove in an impromptu parade past gawkers lined four deep.  A gold
Chrysler convertible with Alabama tags occupied by four well dressed
young women drew attention from the mostly male crowd.  A dozen young men
surrounded the car and one ripped a blouse off a woman seated in the
rear.

That drew more attention, as more than 20 men draped themselves over the
car, some videotaping the woman in her anguish.  Five police
officers--some with pepper spray canisters in hand--came to the women's
aid but were unable to take action against the perpetrator because of the
crowd's size.  An officer told the women to close the top on the car,
then left.  Later outside McDonald's restaurant on US 90, the car's
driver wept over dents on the hood and a broken radio antenna caused by
the men.

At a nearby Conoco gas station and convenience store, a steady stream of
customers purchased beer and other items as clerk Kelton McQuien
struggled to keep up with the orders. By 10 pm the store's floor was
already littered with broken glass and McQuien tried closing for awhile
to restock empty beer shelves.  As many as 20 partygoers rushed inside
and were sent back outside by police.  The store was then closed for the
night as another clerk spent hours cleaning.  "My bathrooms are ruined,
said store owner Gwen Edwards who did not heed a suggestion by biloxi
police that she close earlier.  "I didn't believe people would be so mean
and ugly."

Mike Taylor, a 21-year-old recent transplant from California said, "I
know people were expecting a big wild bunch but there's nothing here but
love," he said.  "What you have here is a lot of black love."

(Gulfport Police Officer Shoots, Kills 20 Year Old) Black Leaders Want
Calm Investigation, Gulfport.  by Todd Twilley, Sun Herald (excerpted)

A Gulfport Police Officer shot and killed a man Saturday visiting the
Coast for Black Springbreak 2000.  Mitchell L. Virgil Jr. 20, of
Columbia, was shot three times in the chest, according to witnesses and
one family member.  Virgil was the passenger of a black Chevrolet pickup
truck police stopped near the intersection of US 49 at 27th Street about
2:30 pm Saturday.  Witnesses say Virgil struggled with police before he
was shot.  Virgil was transported to Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, where
he was pronounced dead.  Reports from witnesses differed as to whether
Virgil had a gun but District Attorney Cono Caranna said "officers
discovered the passenger had a weapon.  The officers struggled to obtain
it," Caranna said when Virgil did not obey the officer's command to put
down the weapon, he was shot.

Virgil's grandmother, Alice Virgil of Columbia, said Mitchell came to the
Coast with friends on Saturday for Black Spring Break. She doesn't know
of Mitchell ever having trouble with the law.

"We are going to have to go down and investigate," she said.  "We want to
know why they shot him three times and not anybody else."  (article
excerpted due to length)

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