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Kentucky Fans Riot: Shooting, Fires, Arrests Occur As Twitter Focuses On Lexington Police Scanner

The Huffington Post  |  By Posted: 04/ 3/2012 9:43 am Updated: 04/ 3/2012 2:30 pm

Kentucky Police Lexington Scanner
Police prepare for crowd control on Limestone Street in Lexington, Ky., Monday, April 2, 2012.

After Kentucky defeated Kansas to win the 2012 men's basketball national championship, the party got rowdy in a hurry back in Lexington. Just as they did during the riot following the Wildcats' win over Louisville in the Final Four, overeager -- and, in some cases, overserved -- fans flooded the streets of Lexington. According to Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts, several dozen arrests were made within minutes of the game's conclusion.

Having just dealt with the couch burning and car flipping following Kentucky's national semifinal win over intra-state rival Louisville, the local police had a preview of what they would be dealing with as Monday evening gave way to early Tuesday morning.

Again couches were ignited during celebrations and police found themselves trying to handle another volatile situation. Roberts informed The Associated Press that police had made arrests relating to criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, alcohol intoxication and setting fires within the first two hours after the game ended.

Once basketball fans tuned away from the game coverage on CBS and tired of the highlights on ESPN, many of them turned to the Internet to follow along with the mayhem in Lexington. The hashtag #LexingtonPoliceScanner became the No. 1 worldwide trending topic on Twitter shortly after 2 a.m. Within the next half hour, those listening to the live audio of the local police scanner, or just following along on the social media service, found plenty to joke about but also saw just how frightening the situation had become.

Initially, the focus of the tweets, and seemingly the police, was the proliferation of couch fires and drunken mischief. As police fanned out across Lexington, it could be hard to keep track of the myriad calls coming in and all the police codes being used. With so much going on, the star of the #LexingtonPoliceScanner feed quickly became the dispatcher. For the most part, she handled everything with an admirable calm, earning herself some unlikely admirers in the Twitterverse.

During one particularly frantic stretch, a report of a streaker was called in to dispatch within moments of another officer calling in a juvenile with a gun and no means to handle the situation. At another point during the evening, the trending term "Limestone and Virginia" gained enough strength that it became the target of Twitter spammers. This location was trending because a shooting was reported there.

Police Lt. Clayton Roberts would later confirm that one man had been wounded by a gunshot during the night, telling The Associated Press that the shooter was not apprehended and stating that the wounded man suffered serious injury that appeared not be life threatening.

HERE ARE SEVERAL TWEETS FROM THE #LEXINGTONPOLICESCANNER THREAD:

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After Kentucky defeated Kansas to win the 2012 men's basketball national championship, the party got rowdy in a hurry back in Lexington. Just as they did during the riot f...
After Kentucky defeated Kansas to win the 2012 men's basketball national championship, the party got rowdy in a hurry back in Lexington. Just as they did during the riot f...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
dbrett480
01:57 PM on 04/14/2012
When riots like these happen, it's best to bring in the Sheriff's department. They know how to handle rowdy animals.
10:35 PM on 04/05/2012
As a Lexington resident and a UK fan I can tell it was certainly a fun time this past weekend. About 15,000 people came out and celebrated, supported our local businesses and had a great time. Out of about 15,000 people, 50 were arrested. Most of those people were really drunk, and just looked for trouble. The UK president and the City of Lexington did an excellent job of preparing for the celebration, advising everyone to have a good time and not be violent. We all want for every event to be peaceful and without violence, but it is hard to control the masses of people. It is sad to see the media just writing about the 50 people not about the other thousands who enjoyed good food, drinks, our families and friends.
10:35 AM on 04/04/2012
It was a good night for the purveyors of couches.
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RedPistolet2
He who's not busy being born is busy dying.
09:44 AM on 04/04/2012
1:43: Subject is surfing on top of a moving car.
1:44: Police request silver bullets from armory.
1:45: Police learn of subject's basketball abilities.
1:46: Police shoot driver, identified as Stiles.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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zlohcuc
"Serving millions from atop the Allegheny"
09:24 AM on 04/04/2012
KY fans riot? What would have happened if their team had lost?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Truthiness4Me
Sick of republican men and their vagina obsession
08:36 AM on 04/04/2012
I will never understand what setting cars and furniture on fire has to do with winning.
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AbeMartin
The best person fer a job is never a candidate
09:35 AM on 04/04/2012
MizAbeMartin and I visited LittleAbeMartin's college apartment and saw what he and his apartment mates had done to their sofas, beds and carpets.  I fully understand why the sofas and furniture were burned at UK.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ezra Black
Long Live New Orleans
05:49 AM on 04/04/2012
No fires , no over turned cars , no shooting , just good ole fun in the french quarters ... take notes on how to party and how to celebrate ...

http://youtu.be/p8SdW-osZ5Y
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mstock57
Go commando
12:38 AM on 04/04/2012
Again? Only in McConnell's state.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ashleynicole728
08:13 AM on 04/04/2012
Don't judge all of us, most of the idiots/fanatics reside in Lexington. I live in Louisville, and I tend to avoid traveling to Lexington by any means possible.
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AbeMartin
The best person fer a job is never a candidate
09:46 AM on 04/04/2012
Oh, ashleynicole728, don't be to hard on the people down the road.  When the UofL Cardinals won the first time in 1986, that things nearly got out of hand at Papa John Schnatter's family pizza shop.  Ooops.  That was in Jeffersonville, IN. not in Louisville.  I forgot that I-65 north of the Ohio River was in the middle of its 30 year long IDOT expansion and the goodly folk of Jville were upset that they hadn't been able to get home for three weeks because of the traffic jams.
10:32 AM on 04/04/2012
Louisville fan, eh?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
enlightened45
12:29 PM on 04/04/2012
Nope, everywhere. Read the news occasionally, dude.
11:33 PM on 04/03/2012
As someone actually from Lexington I thought the story was exaggerated. Yea, a few people got out of hand and did stupid things like set fires. But most of the evening was a peaceful large crowd having a great time.

As for the shooting, it might have been drug related as the guy that got shot had several warrants for drug charges from Indiana and he refused to talk about who shot him.
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Crisdean Wulver
We've got our priorities screwed up.
04:16 AM on 04/04/2012
I'm sorry, but even a few people getting out of hand like this is too many. It's shameful and should be strongly condemned. Things can get worse and they probably will. Sports riots are a problem all around the world. If they haven't gotten bad yet in Lexington, they will, believe me. I don't think it's possible to overreact to this situation. It could get very serious if people don't pay attention to the potential for it to escalate as time goes on. I think part of the solution might be for athletes and other prominent people in Lexington to tell the crowd to start collectively booing people who get that rowdy, assuming there are crowds in the streets who are witnessing such behavior.
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AbeMartin
The best person fer a job is never a candidate
09:50 AM on 04/04/2012
You think Lexington was bad, just wait until thousands of drunken Teapublican delegates descend on Tampa at the end of August.  Freed from the oversight of spouses, church and colleagues, they will be staggering down the streets from the total nudity bars, to the massage parlors in Tampa and St. Pete and goodness knows how many debauched hotel suite parties, sponsored by the oil companies, gun and arms manufacturers, and assorted billionaires.
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othel
I believe I don't believe
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02:26 PM on 04/03/2012
beer
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AbeMartin
The best person fer a job is never a candidate
09:51 AM on 04/04/2012
Yeah.  It's time for breakfast.  I'll have three.
02:24 PM on 04/03/2012
Haha, I wish I had been there. Only in America.
01:00 PM on 04/03/2012
All the reporting on this makes the celebration in Lexington sound like an absolute nightmare. As a Lexington resident and a UK alum I can tell you nothing is further from the truth. Downtown and the UK Campus were great places to be after both games. The stupid, dangerous behavior was concentrated in the State Street/Elizabeth Street area - about 2 square blocks of squalid student flophouses owned by absentee landlords. It is where all the kids who came to college just to drink and party live, and is generally considered the armpit of the entire city.
07:23 PM on 04/03/2012
Not that you're an elitest or anything.....
08:27 AM on 04/04/2012
You seem to be among the few wgo actually believe that.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
enlightened45
12:32 PM on 04/04/2012
His/her comment is true, and you seem to be obsesses with posting nothing but baseless snark.
10:30 AM on 04/03/2012
It's obvious "Chris Greenburg" was not there. It most certainly was not a 'riot'. Out of thousands and thousands of peaceful fans, there will always be a few idiots. It is unavoidable. Just walking down the street, I must have gotten 2000 high-fives from other Wildcat fans. Even saw brotherly love at the corner of Limestone and Virginia where the shooting happened (which most certainly was not a center of activity). I guess "Fans Celebrate" wouldn't have been as good of a headline for HuffPost, so they had to vilify someone and make it a negative story. Way to go.
10:13 AM on 04/03/2012
Why on earth do victors feel the need to burn things and cause violence? Crazy.
12:48 AM on 04/04/2012
Replace "victors" with "fans of victors" and you have an even better head scratcher.