City riots for Phillies, but students keep it clean

In the wake of the Phillies’ World Series win Wednesday night, chaos erupted around Philadelphia.

But of the 76 people arrested in the mayhem of looting stores, lighting fires and flipping cars, Campus Safety Services Executive Director Carl Bittenbender said he was proud to report none were Temple students.

“It was good for the city that the Phillies won,” said Bittenbender, a former Philadelphia Police officer. “But we were looking for the students to celebrate responsibly and not act foolish, so the students did that here. They went, for the most part, to Center City. I have no reports of any of them being arrested [there].”

Bittenbender said Campus Safety Services held numerous meetings to prepare for the deciding game of the World Series, which was suspended due to rain during the sixth inning last Monday night.

“We basically had as many people working as we could,” he said. “We canceled days off and extended both shifts that were working.”

On campus, police blocked off numerous streets where they anticipated students might congregate, including 13th Street near the Student Center and Cecil B. Moore Avenue at Broad Street.

“We planned to block the streets off because I knew the students would be out there, and it was a safety issue,” Bittenbender said. “[We] didn’t want students surrounding vehicles because of the amount of students presumed to pour into streets.”

He said he did not expect to have problems on campus in the aftermath of the Series. Bittenbender added he was proud of Temple students for not causing trouble in other areas of the city.

“It’s sad that [crime] occurs when it does [after the game because] you want the city to be in a good light and unfortunately, there were a few incidents that detracted from that,” Bittenbender said.

“But in terms of Temple, my hat’s off to you students for showing Temple in a good light.”

Morgan Zalot can be reached at morgan.zalot@temple.edu.