5-Officer Wedges

Needed To Diffuse

Problems In Crowds

City Couldn’t Handle Trouble

At OH-Fest, Chief, Mayor Find

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal

ONEONTA – If one person gets hurt in the OH-Fest crowd, it takes five people, including law enforcement and EMTs, to reach them, according to City Police Chief Doug Brenner.

“We form a wedge to move through the crowd,” he said. “But if there’s 10 people fighting, we’re quickly overwhelmed.”

Such concerns were among the reasons Mayor Gary Herzig revoked SUNY Oneonta’s permit to hold this year’s OH-Fest concert by Rapper Sean Kingston.  Know Violence Here, a student group, had spoke of protesting after learning he had been accused of a gang rape in 2010.