Damp Atlanta Revelry Dies Out

After a second night of looting and traffic jams, the huge “Freaknik” street party slowly dispersed Sunday as revelers made one last cruise around the rainy city before heading home.

Freaknik was expected to draw more than 200,000 African American college students and other youths to downtown Atlanta, but students who attended said about half that number came this year. City officials refused to estimate the crowd size.

Corey Griffin, 25, of Dalton said Freaknik ’95 didn’t measure up to last year’s festivities.

“They tried to stop it before it got started,” he said. “I think it’s nice to come down here and spend some money, but I felt I was unwanted.”

The large crowds, traffic jams and unruly behavior in past years led officials to close off 200 blocks and crack down on lawbreakers. But police efforts didn’t prevent trouble over the weekend.

Revelers Friday night ransacked 11 stores near Underground Atlanta, a downtown shopping and entertainment complex.

Rain chased the street party indoors Saturday, and Underground and two north Atlanta shopping malls closed early to head off problems.

After the party shifted to southwest Atlanta, about 100 looters smashed their way into a mall department store as hundreds of onlookers cheered.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell visited the mall Sunday to assess damage, condemning it as “shameful, lawless behavior that cannot be condoned under any circumstances.” He blamed a mix of locals and party-goers.

Police Chief Beverly Harvard, who earlier said she saw little violence or lewdness in the Freaknik crowds, said the revelers’ ribald behavior Saturday night changed her opinion.

“I am very, very much disappointed in what we have seen this weekend--the kinds of acts I myself have seen walking through the crowds,” she said.

By early Sunday, Harvard said police had made 324 arrests on 1,376 charges that also included traffic violations, disorderly conduct, theft, possession of drugs and concealing weapons.