A massive Santa Barbara party turned into a nightmare, ending with 100 revelers arrested


A college party in Santa Barbara, Calif., turned into a riot Saturday night, resulting in the arrest of at least 100 people and the hospitalization of a sheriff's deputy who was hit in the face with a brick.
The party, dubbed Deltopia, drew about 15,000 people to the Isla Vista community near the University of California, Santa Barbara. According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, at about 9:30 p.m. a disturbance broke out, and a UCSB police officer who came to the scene was hit in the head with a backpack filled with bottles of alcohol. An arrest was made, and the crowd became wild — revelers ripped down stop signs, set fires, damaged vehicles, and hurled rocks and bottles at authorities.
Despite using tear gas, pepper spray, and flash-bang grenades, law enforcement officers were unable to restore order for several hours, and at least five deputies were injured, including the officer who was hit in the face with a brick, the Los Angeles Times reports. Dozens of partygoers were also treated at area hospitals. Of course, the night was chronicled on social media; see the tweets below to get a sense of the chaos. --Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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