Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Church Point: Closed After Dark?

There has recently been some discussion as to whether or not the Point is off limit after dark, mostly as a result of the Class of 2011 Seven Wonders Tour.  During this year's tour a couch was burned (despite pleas from Jamie Phillips) which resulted in a nearby tree catching on fire.  The reason that the fire was so dangerous was, in my opinion, less because of the couch burning but mostly because of the location.  In recent years the Point has been eroding and the water levels in the Chesapeake were very high in May and June, which forced the bonfire to be held on a small patch of sand very close to the trees.  Obviously this could have been avoided if the couch hadn't been burned, but if there had been more sand it probably would have been okay.

Anyway, this was obviously a horrible situation and pissed everyone off.

I attended Alumni Weekend a month or so ago and had a great time, but I talked to some people who said that they were trying to hang out at the Point on Friday and Saturday night but were forced away by Public Safety.  A week later I heard similar things from others so I decided to ask the new Director of Public Safety Dave Zylak about it.

According to an email from Zylak Church Point is not closed after dark, and the Public Safety officers reported that they had not been asking anyone to leave.

CONFLICTING REPORTS!

So, either people were lying about being told to leave the Point (unlikely), Public Safety officers were lying about what they were doing (possible but unlikely), or real police were telling people to leave (unlikely).

So, we may never have a full understanding of what happened, but we do have confirmation from the Director of Public Safety that the Point is not closed after hours (unless if you are tryna camp there or damage the property or litter).  This may clear things up.

16 comments:

  1. They've been having problems lately with hispanic families living down at the Point during the beginning of the summer, so that's probably why PS was asking people not to go down there. They didn't want any conflicts between the students and the squatters.

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  2. I once learned from a professor at St. Mary's that, "with every new law, you create a whole new class of criminals."

    Seems to me PS is determined to enforce delinquency upon the entire student body...

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  3. Yeah I don't know who decided to make the comment about hispanic "squatters", but that's flat out made up. Ask Father Ball at Trinity, or Public Safety, or the Sheriff's Department. It's just flat out not true. I've been down there plenty of nights where there were Hispanic families FISHING, with the men working the rods and the women playing with the kids, but squatting? Give me a break. Here's a tip bro: How about instead of demonizing local people who are just trying to get by, you take a look at the drunk idiots who built a bonfire directly under the trees and then threw furniture on it.

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  4. Agreed, lots of people fish down there but I can't imagine anyone 'squatting'

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  5. Back in May, my friends and I were forced to leave the Point by St. Mary's County Police. The single officer first told us he had been listening to our conversation from a bush for 15 minutes. He then proceeded to tell us we were trespassing on private property. He later told us we were trespassing on public property. We had a fire going, which he adamantly argued was irresponsible on our part because we were destroying the environment (we were right by the water, nowhere near the trees, and the fire was very small). On top of all this he accused us of tearing up the steps leading down to the Point to make the fire! He took down all our names and threatened us a lot. He kept going on and on about how we didn't live in St. Mary's County so what we were doing was akin to entering a stranger's backyard and starting a fire, so I think a lot of this was based on a prejudice against us as students. I meant to get in touch with PS about this, but I had too much work towards the end of the semester to bother... what a fucking dick though, am I right?

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  6. Apparently after July 1st in St. Mary's county you have to have a permit to have a fire.. The end of Point bonfires? Panic?

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  7. We were at a bonfire there at the end of the semester that got broken up by PS, who told us that they were illegal (ie you have to have a permit from the church). That's before July...were they just giving us crap, or are such things true?

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  8. I dunno! I would suggest asking the director of public safety.

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  9. That couch was burned despite pleas from a lot of people.

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  10. BTW it's stuff like burning couches that cause people to get cranky about students hanging out there. Why don't people get that? Stop acting stupid and people will stop treating you like you're stupid.

    Just saying.

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  11. "Stop acting stupid and people will stop treating you like you're stupid."

    It deserves repeating.

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  12. That's understandable, but I didn't burn that couch, nor would I ever do something so inexcusably retarded, so why should I be persecuted for going down there at night to enjoy such a beautiful spot? The only thing me and the guy that burned the couch have in common is that we are both students. No different than barring black people from somewhere because a black guy caused some trouble once.

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  13. Time to educate your fellow students that their stupidity is costing you (and them) and that they should knock it the fuck off.

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  14. I have no control over the behavior of other people, and it seems like a lot of people tried to stop the morons who burned the couch. So maybe the school should take action against those individuals instead of punishing everyone for something that I cannot change and had no involvement in.

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  15. In fact, I would like to call on anyone who was there to divulge the identities of these knuckle dragging shitheads.

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  16. That is exactly the right attitude to have. Don't let them ruin things for you when you had nothing to do with it. Find them and get them to stop.

    This goes for a lot of other stuff that's been happening on campus recently. Take back your campus!

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