I can honestly say that I never thought being maced by riot police would be such an eye-opening experience.

By the time my friends and I arrived at the disturbance on Friday night, the riot police had calmed the situation for the most part. We saw a few people get maced, but I assumed that they must've done something wrong.

After all, the police have better judgment than to victimize harmless students, right? All of a sudden, the riot police came down the road and started yelling at us to get back.

As I was walking backwards with my hands in the air, posing no threat to the officer, he sprayed me with mace directly in the eyes.

For those of you who have never been sprayed with the combination of tear gas and nerve gas, it hurts!

And not only does it hurt, it leaves you disoriented, blind, and short of breath. What exactly had I done to deserve that? My friends took me down into the Wesley Youth Center, where I heard more stories of innocent students maced for no reason.

Although I believe that the riot police were scared and most likely in danger at some points of the night, I do not believe that they should've gone around spraying students with chemicals.

I support the right of those in authoritative positions to use force when necessary, but I think we should reconsider just how necessary spraying harmless students was.