DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – A sold-out hip hop concert and Cinco de Mayo festivities coincided this weekend at the University of New Hampshire to break arrest records in Durham.
Town, state and university police and state liquor enforcement officers tallied 144 arrests between Thursday and Sunday.
Police make 20 to 25 arrests on an average weekend during the academic year, said Durham Deputy Police Chief Rene Kelley. “We haven’t seen these types of arrest numbers for a couple of years,” said Kelley. “We had additional staff on duty but we were still taxed.”
The majority of arrests -118 – happened on Saturday, the night of a sold-out Whittemore Center concert featuring rapper Ludacris, who headlined UNH’s “Spring Climax” event on the last weekend before finals. Kelley said most people arrested were not students.
The number broke the town’s record for the most arrests in a single day. Authorities say 89 people were arrested in 2003 after riots broke out when UNH lost a national hockey championship game.
Unlike that night, when 2,500 flooded downtown Durham and threw bottles, rocks and beer cans, ignited fireworks and shot paintball guns at police, authorities and students said arrests on Saturday were not out of the ordinary.
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