The State College Borough Council and police and the state of Pennsylvania are fully responsible for creating a riot friendly atmosphere in State College. An ineffective and unreasonable state law that prohibits sales of alcohol after 2 a.m. forces all the clubs and the bars to close early.

There are no cafes, restaurants (except for the Diner), coffee places, or movie theaters in the downtown area that stay open late. If at least 10 percent of PSU students are like me (night people), then we have 4,000 people with no where to go in State College. Add to this provocative behavior of some police officers, and we will continue having riots. What I saw on TV was very disturbing: police using spray without any reason, police telling people to disperse, and storm troopers (police in riot gear) pushing masses of people off the street. What happened to the First Amendment that guarantees the freedom of assembly? If city council really wants to prevent future riots, they should encourage as many businesses as possible to stay open after midnight, and it should petition the state to abandon unreasonable alcohol laws.

We, as a society, tried so many times to solve problems by restricting, prohibiting or ignoring them and were never able to succeed. Maybe it is time to learn from history and try new methods of solving problems.