Editor:

It’s been a few weeks since Harwood Halloween, but a lot of people still seem to be wondering exactly why it got shut down. I was too, so I decided to go down to the police station and find out. Despite what a lot of people have heard, the Claremont police only received one phone call complaining about Harwood Halloween. At 10:02pm, the Claremont police fielded a call from a Claremont resident complaining about the noise at Harwood Halloween. Officers were dispatched at 10:19, and arrived on the location at 10:23. At 10:54, they issued a warning to Dave Swenson, and then left the scene. At around 11:30, the police returned for reasons that are unclear (though I would encourage anyone to stop down at the police station and ask). The second and third complaints which the police received were from residents who had come to Harwood to complain in person. This means that there was only one call made to the Claremont police. If that one person had not called, the police might never have even shown up, and Harwood most likely would not have been shut down. All this commotion because of one obnoxious person.

I know who that person is.

How did I come across this heavily guarded bit of information? When I went down to the police station, I was surprised to learn that the police logbooks are open to the public. Anyone who wants can go to the police station (two blocks west of Indian Hill on Bonita) and look through them. The logs record calls made to the station, the responding officer’s name, and what action was taken. They also contain the name and address of the complaining party.

Actually seeing the name of the person who called in the complaint forced me to realize something. The vast majority of Claremont citizens do not have a personal vendetta against Pomona. Sure, there are a few whiners out there, but every crowd has a couple of whiners, and the town has to deal with them too. A while back, a Claremont resident called in a noise complaint on the League of Women Voters. (Imagine, women trying to vote!)

The point here isn’t to find out where this guy lives and leave a post-it note reading, "Leave Town" stuck to the severed head of his pet cat. The point is that he has already ruined an evening for thousands of people, let’s not let him and a few others whiners ruin the college’s relationship with the entire town. It’s just one whiny guy.

Sincerely,

Matt Bullock ‘01