The Milwaukee Police Department caught 105 underage Marquette students at a local nightclub in a raid Thursday night.
The raid on Victor’s, a bar located roughly a mile from campus, occurred at 11:19 p.m. and ended with all but two students cooperating with the officers. One of the students attempted to run through the officers but was stopped and had her information taken. The other student attempted to get through with false identification and was uncooperative with officers when they did not let him. The police also took his information.
MPD called in Marquette’s Department of Public Safety to assist in obtaining information from the students.
“When they ask for our assistance, we will provide it to them,” DPS Captain Russell Shaw said. “There have been some raids, but this is by far the largest involving Marquette students.”
Most of the students were asked to turn over their false forms of identification and provide their Marquette identification numbers. Shaw said it would be up to MPD as to whether the 105 students would be sent citations.
Shaw said some businesses drive buses to Marquette in order to bring students to their establishments and that both DPS and MPD are aware of the practice.
According to DPS’s 2012 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, students caught with a false form of identification can face up to a $500 fine, required participation in a supervised work program or the suspension of their driver’s license. Shaw said students should be cognizant of the repercussions linked to having a fake ID.
“Bottom line is that it is illegal,” Shaw said. “MPD is cracking down on this, and there are many reasons they are doing it. If you have a fake ID, you are probably going to get caught.”
An anonymous freshman in the College of Communication said underage drinking is not something to worry about in comparison to the level of crime already present in Marquette’s neighborhood.
“I do not really understand why this is a priority,” she said. “For example, we got a notification the next night saying there were shots fired right by campus. Clearly there are more important things than college kids drinking.”
Another anonymous freshman in the College of Communication said underage drinking is going to happen no matter the location and that she thought buying alcohol is not the reason students go to bars.
“Underage college kids are going to drink,” she said. “It really does not matter where. If it is not at a bar, it is going to be somewhere else on campus. This is not going to single-handedly stop underage drinking.”