Members of the ISU community met Wednesday to discuss stories of police attacks against bystanders during Sunday’s riot and how the attacks could be prevented in the future.

Fifty students and several members of the local media met at the Boheme, 2900 West St. Law enforcement representatives were invited but didn’t come. The forum was organized and moderated by Boheme employees.

Several students stood up and gave testimonies of their run-ins with the police. Scott Van Gilder, sophomore in engineering, said he was “sprayed with pepper spray for no reason.”

“I have asthma, so when they sprayed me, I fell to my knees and had a severe asthma attack,” he said. “Afterwards, I staggered to the Kum & Go parking lot, puked my guts out and attempted to walk back to my house half-blinded.”

Other stories followed. David Parr, junior in construction engineering, said he was confronted by two police officers while he was sitting in the backyard of his house on Welch Avenue.

“When the two officers came up to me, the first one clubbed me in the stomach, and the second one sprayed me in the face with Mace,” he said. “I also had an asthma attack and couldn’t breathe — I thought I was going to die. It was the worse thing that’s ever happened to me.”

After students gave their testimonials, the moderators suggested how the current animosity between students and the community could be healed. Dan Sherman, a Boheme employee, said the first step is for the police to admit their mistakes.

“They should step forward and admit responsibility because [the police] were wrong,” he said. “So far, 100 percent of the blame has been placed on the students.”

Eric Selander, junior in construction engineering, said once the police admit their mistakes, the next step is for ISU students to repay damaged Campustown businesses.

Selander said this could be accomplished by forming a committee that would organize fund-raisers to pay the damaged businesses. He said it was a necessary step because the Ames community stereotypes all students as rioters.

“Therefore, all ISU students need to work to rebuild ties with the community,” he said.

The suggestion wasn’t well-received by many attendees. They said ISU students shouldn’t have to compensate the businesses since the police caused the violence to escalate.

Nicholas Ludwig, junior in pre-business, suggested businesses should be compensated by the Ames Police Department.

“What needs to happen is a class-action lawsuit should be filed against the Ames Police Department. That would pay for the damages,” he said.

Other students suggested more radical measures. Scott Schaefer, graduate student in civil, construction and environmental engineering, was arrested Saturday night and said Veishea should repeal its alcohol-free policy.

“Right now, I see two things that could happen to Veishea — it’ll become wet or it won’t happen again. If it’s dry next year, there will be more rioting,” he said.

Peter Sherman, associate professor of aerospace engineering and the owner of the Boheme, agreed. He said prohibiting alcohol indicated a lack of respect toward students by the Ames community.

“We should all propose this to Geoffroy — drop the dry Veishea and treat us like adults,” he said.

The meeting closed with Dan Sherman calling for additional meetings that would produce concrete solutions to the discussed problems.

“This definitely isn’t the last time we’ll be talking about this issue,” he said.

This correction was printed on April 26, 2004:

Due to a reporting error, the April 22 article “Rally attendees say police should take responsibility” incorrectly attributed several statements to Scott Schaefer, graduate student in civil, construction, and environmental engineering. Schaefer said he does not believe Veishea’s alcohol policies contributed to the April 18 riot in Campustown. The quotes should have been attributed to another person. The Daily regrets the error.