Enforcing "New" Iowa Hawkeyes Tailgating Rules or Something Else

Months before the Iowa Hawkeye Football season was set to begin, there was discussions about tailgating. Those discussions lead to the "Think Before Your Drink" campaign.

On September 4, 2010 the Iowa Hawkeye Football team kicked off their season. Unfortunately for some, they kicked off after the police officers were busy having drinks dumped, citations wrote and a few people escorted away.

My personal observation was, within a ten minute period outside of Kinnick stadium, approximately an hour before the football game. I watched officers walk over to a couple girls. One officer smelled the drink in a girls hand. The officer made the girl dump the drink. These girls were standing on the curb, not doing anything but talking to one another. After that, the same officers talked to a few more people and began writing citations. While I was standing there, I did not see anyone acting out of line, yet I saw citations being wrote.

If the University Of Iowa was truly going after open containers and so called "knuckleheads", then how do they justify officers walking up and smelling a drink? And how do they justify simply stopping people who were doing nothing wrong and writing citations?

In any literature from the University Of Iowa, nothing was said about no drinking at all. More focus was on open containers and so called "knuckleheads". There's a saying "when you go looking for trouble, sooner or later, you'll find it." The police excessively cracking down on the so called "new" tailgating policies, might find that people will stay home to enjoy games, in effect hurting the University Of Iowa's revenue or fan base in years to come.

Most will agree that the so called "knuckleheads" needed to be dealt with. Most of us don't like dealing with those so completely out of line they are disruptive. However, when police stop whom ever they feel like and write citations, that is a bit excessive. When a drink at a football game becomes a crime, that's truly a sad day.

In my time attending the Iowa Hawkeye Football game, I saw one person who was to drunk to stand. Oddly enough, she was able to pass security and the ticket booth and enter the stadium. Maybe the police should be looking for the true trouble makers and people in need of help, rather then the fan tailgating or attending the game, in a decent and respectable manner.

This is not a news article. It's my personal observation and opinion.