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


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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 is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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