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Police, EMS call fake homecoming a 'danger to public safety'

London's law enforcement and emergency medical officials are calling Western University's fake homecoming celebrations a 'danger to public safety' after they revealed fresh data Tuesday showing dozens of people were taken to hospital and dozens of charges were laid at the unsanctioned university street party.

'My ultimate fear is that someone is going to die at one of these events,' says deputy police chief

CBC News ·
London-Middlesex EMS operations superintendent Adam Bennett, left, and London Police deputy chief Darryl Longworth speak to reporters Tuesday about the fallout from 'fake homecoming,' a drunken street party that drew an estimated 11,000 people onto one north London street on Saturday. (Colin Butler/CBC News)

London's law enforcement and emergency medical officials are calling fake homecoming celebrations a "danger to public safety" after they revealed fresh data Tuesday showing dozens of people were taken to hospital and dozens of charges were laid at the unsanctioned university street party. 

Fake homcoming by the numbers:

  • Number of public nuisance charges laid: 8
  • Number of liquor and tresspassing warnings issued: 964
  • Number of tickets issued under the Liquor Act: 50
  • Number of people arrested for liquor and tresspassing: 8
  • Number of drug warnings: 5
  • Number of drug charges: 1
  • Other criminal charges laid: 2

Police issued a number of warnings to students in the days leading up to the event on social media, warning students that they were ready for the massive street party. 

Despite those warnings, police estimate up to 11,000 purple-clad revellers poured onto Broughdale Avenue Saturday, an enclave of student rental homes just south of the Western University campus. 

"Despite our best efforts, despite our communications," London Police deputy chief Darryl Longworth said Tuesday. "The students went ahead."

"They chose to shut down a street, chose to engage in illegal activity," he said. "This is an event that could potentially put people's lives in danger and jeopardize the safety of the people in the community."

When pressed for details for how police and paramedics intend to deal with future iterations of the massive street party, Longworth refused to go into detail. 

"I don't want to get into details or specifics," he said. 

No one died, but in a 20-hour period from Saturday, at 10 a.m. to Sunday at 4 a.m., Middlesex-London EMS received dozens of emergency calls to the area and took 37 people to hospital, including one person who suffered serious head and spinal injuries after falling off a roof.

In the evening, officials say the spillover from the massive street party continued to cause mayhem.
Thousands of students swell into the street like a purple-clad sea of humanity for Saturday's 'fake homecoming,' or FOCO, an unsanctioned booze-fuelled event that began as an act of protest against the university's administration. (The Social Lab/Facebook)

Paramedics treated 35 people for alcohol-related problems, seven drug overdoses, seven traumatic injuries, two assaults and three people who were hit by cars.

Longworth said police felt they were in control of the massive street party at all times, but the situation could have taken a turn for the worse

"It wouldn't take much. The wrong bottle to be thrown, the wrong punch to be levelled where a mass exodus where people are stampeding and trampling each other, it can happen so quickly it's hard to gauge, but I think the element of losing control is always present," he said. 

"My ultimate fear is that someone is going to die at one of these events," he said. 

Police said dozens of extra officers needed to be called in order to handle the massive crowd that gathered on Broughdale Saturday, putting a strain on overtime budgets. 

Longworth said the event was a "significant drain" on resources, with overtime costs for crowd control estimated at $36,000. 

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