Details on MSU LB Tyriq Thompson arrest highlight a toxic MSU/EL football culture

Submitted by Arb lover on

MLive FOIA'd the 9/1/2018 arrest of MSU LB Tyriq Thompson by East Lansing police, and the narrative supports the trend that EL Police give extreme deference to MSU football players, and that MSU football players do not feel they need to follow the lawful orders of police. You can read the police report on scribed at that same link.

If you are simply disgusted with sparty culture, I apologize for the thread; move on about your business. I'm posting because I don't believe even MLive understood the totality of the situation, what it takes for EL police to arrest an MSU football player.

In short, the responding officer made contact with Thompson, determined that it was his party and his house, and asked him to turn off the music and have the guests leave (as the level of sound was in violation of the local noise ordinance).

After RO's continued attempts to have people leave Thompson's residence and property and witnessing Thompson's lack-luster attempt at requesting his guests leave, it was clear that the party in which Thompson was hosting had, in fact grown out of his control and it was obvious that Thompson continued to have loud music and voices leaving his property almost 45 minutes after RO's initial contact (and order to disperse) with Thompson.

A couple of things, and as a 10 year (now former, thanks income tax!) EL resident, I challenge any Spartan fan to tell me I'm wrong about these.

1) EL police issue noise citations upon first contact if they observe a violation, but did not do so here for almost a full hour, contrary to clear police policy as police cannot be aware of a continuing violation without acting on it.

2) EL police, when at an excessive noise party with alcohol, especially a large party like this, and especially the first weekend in the school year where many inexperienced freshmen walk around clueless, will immediately start to ID and card participants, issuing citations to underrage drinkers, but made no effort to do so here for almost an hour. This is also EL police policy; simply imagine the reprecussions if an underrage person died of excessive drinking at a party police were currently at and were not attempting to enforce the law.

3) EL police arrest a property owner if the party does not immediately and continuously wind down. Making arrests for refusal to disperse is their best and easiest way of getting people to leave, but this policy was ignored.

4) EL police, especially on a weekend night, will immediately call for backup for any large noise violation party in excess of 100 people, but did not do so here. It was also early enough in the evening that police resources were not an issue.

Simply put, EL police gave deference to an MSU football player. This player meanwhile displayed what is the MSU football culture of entitlement, in that he believed the rules did not apply to him, regardless of what an officer ordered him to do over the course of 45 minutes.

As a side note, the EL police department refused to release Thompson's name or any of his personal characteristics allegedly because he had not at the time "pled guilty or been convicted of a crime".

You may recall that the EL police department released Grant Perry's police report, unredacted, before he had been convicted of a crime or pled guilty, but then again he was not a MSU football player. Such concludes my rant.

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Tyriq Thompson

ScooterTooter

September 14th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^

Congrats to the OP. You managed to post a thread so petty and overwrought about MSU and EL that literally every person in the thread except for yourself is defending MSU and EL. Must be an MGoBlog first.

Joined: 06/01/2017

MGoPoints: 5841

TK

September 14th, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^

Delete this. This is an RCMB level stretch. Those guys would act like a Michigan player was murdering kittens if they got a parking ticket. This is almost as bad. We are not them.  

Joined: 09/23/2014

MGoPoints: 18078

Scared Chicken

September 14th, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^

And?

So, an MSU footballer held a party that featured loud music and drinking college students? Then the police were hesitant to arrest any of those students? Forgive me but that sounds like a run of the mill college party. 

Joined: 09/12/2018

MGoPoints: 78

A State Fan

September 14th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^

I'm glad to see the comments on here are reasonable, because this is bull shit OP.

It's been a few years since I was on campus, but (as a non-athlete), EVERY interaction I had with EL PD was reasonable. They broke up parties I was at (while I was underage and over-21), and as long as you're respectful, they tell you to call it a night and head home. The times I've seen people hit with MIPs are for being stumbling drunk, or confrontational with police. 

None of your first 3 bullet points are anywhere close to my experience. If an officer feels like there's too much for them to handle, I have seen them call for backup like in #4. But it's usually 3 cop cars sitting outside the house, with officers hanging out in the yard just to make sure the crowd disperses. 

Plenty of reasons to have MSU outrage, but this ain't it.

Joined: 04/04/2014

MGoPoints: 1482

Jangalang

September 14th, 2018 at 12:37 PM ^

Tyriq WAS arrested, correct?  It's not like he was given a ticket for littering...

I don't see what the big deal is here.  I can see if he continuously did it and the police just showed up every time, gave him a high five, had a beer and said have a good night...then there might be reason to rage.

I have a Bush Level of hate for Sparty too, but this seems to be a stretch...remember they are college kids too.

Joined: 02/01/2017

MGoPoints: 2943

CarrIsMyHomeboy

September 14th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^

This isn't the story to cherry pick. May it be a sign of underlying impropriety? Yeah, that's not impossible. But a guy got a second chance before getting his noise violation? The scale of badness here is so small. I don't care.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 7324

what would Bo do

September 14th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^

I've been at parties shut down by police in AA, EL, and other cities.  Never once was a noise violation immediately written before a warning was given.  Never once was the property owner arrested.  The cops said turn the music down and tell people who aren't sleeping here to walk, not drive, home.  In every case, those underage weren't given MIPs unless they gave the cops trouble.  There have been a ton of troubling stories out of EL lately, many of which speak negatively of the police department.  Nothing to see here.

Joined: 12/27/2011

MGoPoints: 1152

oriental andrew

September 14th, 2018 at 12:43 PM ^

I was cited for a noise violation once. I went to court and they lumped all the noise violations together. Judge went through and called names, addresses, and times of the violations. He chuckled when he got to mine because it was issued just before 10pm. None of the others was before midnight.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 55986

Alumnus93

September 14th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^

Side note, Vada Murray (RIP) as a police officer knocked on our door to check on party we were having, bunch of us engineers, on Benjamin..... invited him in, he saw nothing of note, and left.

 

Joined: 09/10/2009

MGoPoints: 9684

I'm Batman

September 14th, 2018 at 12:49 PM ^

I dont know guys. The OP might have a point. Why didn't SWAT just ram down the door, and do a full tactical assault on this party? The fact that body cavity searches were not performed on all 300 people just goes to show what kind of preferential treatment they give to these Sparty's. If i wasn't so busy cleaning the streets of Gotham, i would roll into EL this weekend, crash through a couple skylights, and incapacitate some criminal underage drinkers myself.

Joined: 08/18/2014

MGoPoints: 4257

Khaleke The Freak

September 14th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^

It’s corrupt as there is and nobody in the media or government seems to give a damn...I’m at a loss for words.

Joined: 05/20/2017

MGoPoints: 6801

SFBlue

September 14th, 2018 at 12:55 PM ^

Cops harassing college kids at parties is as old as college life itself. East Lansing police are especially nasty. I recall provocation from the cops, and being hassled just walking from one party to the next. Against that backdrop look the cops SHOULD be cutting college kids breaks. Even if they are football players. 

Joined: 11/02/2009

MGoPoints: 15699

Vote_Crisler_1937

September 14th, 2018 at 1:20 PM ^

Arb Lover,

this is a ridiculously stupid thread and you should feel terrible.

I am a former athlete at Northwestern. Most off campus housing at NU is among the normal residents of Evanston. My 6 roommates and I were next to a family with two preteen kids. We had a great party house including a huge deck and a hot tub. Thus we partied a lot in the Fall. The cops showed up all the time. We maybe got 2 tickets in 3 years. Maybe. Mostly they came by, chatted, got a few people to leave, and told us to disperse then left. No citations for underage drinking were ever issued and nobody was ever close to being arrested. If you think we received preferential treatment, the sorority girls on the corner and frat guys directly behind us got the same deal for noise complaints. There were many complaints from the aforementioned family next door and the elder widow across the street. 

This is very similar to what I experienced in Ann Arbor, Providence Rhode Island, East Lansing, Amherst Mass, and every other place I have been to an off campus party that got loud. Which is all of them. 

Arb Lover, this makes me think you have never been to a college house party before. 

Joined: 11/07/2011

MGoPoints: 15502

Maize4Life

September 14th, 2018 at 5:43 PM ^

Yep pretty much if u r a athlete at MSU the EL police, campus police and local, county, and sheriffs office will let you get away with ANYTHING and its been the case for a decade now..They are in cahoots with Dantonio and Izzo as well and thats been proven

Joined: 11/26/2017

MGoPoints: 3890

Clarence Boddicker

September 14th, 2018 at 6:36 PM ^

I swear I clicked this thread thinking Sparty had done some more monstrous shit...only to find a noise violation. The snarky take-downs made up for the time wasted in reading the o.p.'s J'accuse.

FAIL

Joined: 05/27/2011

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