Show C f UTAH I 4 10 Hy Uy Jock Jones Chief The riots of the late GOS GO'S taxed the capabilities and ingenuity of police departments to the limit Looting rioting sniper attacks arson and hysterical anarchistic anarchistic anar anar- lawlessness ran rampant The police were able to cope with the actual street violence fairly well The one thing that is necessary to ferment a mob into rebellious violence is rumor Vicious provocative rumor This the poli police e couldn't cope with they were helpless to stop it Indeed if it were not for the rumors and militant agitators who initiated them the riots would not have started in the first place But how do you deal with rumors once they're started Once that seed is planted it takes very little to sprout and become an insidious bramble that engulfs everything in its it's path Its It's growth snowballs Everyone adds his own embellishments embellishments embellishments em em- to it according to his imagination It takes lakes very little time for the original message to become so blown out of proportion and warped that the author wouldn't recognize it These rumors were necessary to and prolong the riots and the agitators knew it And its it's almost impossible to stop rumors once they're started and the agitators kne knew this Last week we had an incident at the junior high school which thanks to the local rumor mill became entirely blown out of proportion Two girls became involved in inan inan inan an altercation at the junior high school Friends of both girls managed to get them in a car carand carand carand and drove them into the country where the girls were to continue their fight Once there the fight lasted about 15 seconds One girl was knocked to the ground then the spectators became a little worried for fear of injury and they all hurried back to the school Nothing else happened Our officers have interviewed everyone involved at al least twice and have been unable to substantiate the rumors that one girl was beaten by a gang Any stories to the contrary are nothing more than rumors Yet I have received no end of phone calls complaints and questions about the gang warfare between the high school and the junior high school There was no gang warfare There was no beating of an innocent girl by a lawless gang There was no kidnapping The behavior of the two girls in solving their differences by fighting is certainly not to be condoned and the behavior of their friends who took them to the country to finish their fight likewise should not be con con- dolled That type of behavior is despicable At the same time the behavior of the responsible adults who started the rumors of gang warfare and female gang beatings is certainly not to tobe tobe tobe be condoned either I can think of no faster way to initiate gang warfare in Vernal than to keep circulating these types of vicious rumors |