I’VE BEEN IN riots and this was not a riot,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said at a news conference at midmorning Sunday. “… I believe it was the right amount of force at the right time.”
Dinse said windows in several buildings and at least one vehicle were damaged during the clash, which began when individuals in a boisterous crowd in the thousands became unruly after the Bud World beer garden attraction was closed after reaching capacity.
Dinse estimated damage could reach “the low thousands,” but both he and Mayor Rocky Anderson objected to early reports that characterized the incident as a riot.


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“We want to emphasize that this was a relatively minor disturbance,” Anderson said. “… Frankly, I anticipated far worse than this and far earlier (in the Games).”
Dinse said between 180 and 200 helmeted and riot-gear clad officers responded to the area near Main and 200 South Streets after receiving reports that the crowd was getting out of hand. The gathering was declared an “unlawful assembly” about midnight and officers began slowly pushing the crowd, many of whom were chanting “USA, USA!”, down Main Street to the south, Dinse said.
Rob Garcia, 18, of Salt Lake City told the Associated Press the crowd was yelling at police, and officers forced people against cars.
“The police were pushing people,” he said. “The cops just jumped across and set up a barricade.”
Two revelers fight in the street during a riot. Several shop windows were broken, but no injuries were reported.
While many in the crowd obeyed orders to disburse, some individuals began hurling glass beer bottles at the officers, who responded by firing about 40 rounds of “impact devices” at the lower extremities of members of the crowd, he said. The action quickly scattered the crowd.
Eighteen adults and two juveniles were arrested during the clash, and most were charged with public intoxication and failure to disburse, Dinse said. Most of those arrested were locals, but at least one was a Canadian citizen, he said. Police were reviewing videotape of the incident in hopes of identifying crowd members who hurled the bottles at police.
The arrests were the first mass police action since five women protesters were jailed on Feb. 8, shortly before the Opening Ceremony.
Dinse said the only injuries reported were bruises and welts sustained by members crowd members hit by the foam-tipped bullets and officers hit by bottles.
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Normally, drunken revelers wouldn’t be roaming through the streets of Salt Lake City. The state’s strict Mormon heritage usually makes for quiet nights. But during the Games, things have been considerably more active.
But in the wake of the incident, Dinse said police would no longer tolerate public consumption of alcohol, which officers had been widely ignoring in previous days. Anderson also said Bud World, which had been open until midnight throughout the Games, would close at 5 p.m. on Sunday. He said the decision to close early was made by officials of Anheuser-Busch.
About $310 million has been devoted to Olympic security, and nearly 15,000 security workers are at the games. But Sunday’s disturbance was handled by local police, according to a spokesman for the Olympic Joint Information Center.