Orange Crush a spring break party, not a sign of the apocalypse

Law enforcement struck the right balance with its promised "heavily proactive" approach.The Tybee police department and the island's ocean rescue crew worked the beach with their all-terrain vehicles. Maha building toll 56 dead.Officers waded into the crowds and politely but firmly reminded the crush crowd of the beach rules regarding glass, litter and staying off the dunes.Only the overtly disrespectful partiers left the sand in handcuffs. The police weren't out to crush the crush but simply to contain it. Keep the atmosphere festive, not hostile.The big brother treatment seemed effective, too. The police cordoned off a section of the beach parking lot between 15th Street and the marine science center for a command post. The set-up included a video surveillance tower while a helicopter overhead provided another feed.The off-island law enforcement personnel handled traffic. They closed most of the roads between Butler Avenue and the beach in the business district. That curbed the cruising and spread the pedestrians out, as many took advantage of the open streets and left the sidewalks.
The crowd control efforts also included strategic facility closures. Officials sealed the stairwell between the pier and the beach at the height of the festivities. They closed the pier and pavilion completely at dusk to discourage the partiers from hanging at the beach after dark.The beach and parking lots cleared quickly as a result. By midnight, Tybee was once again a quiet little beach town.For too many Tybeenians, their brief brush with college spring break wasn't brief enough.One south end resident started a Facebook petition calling for Orange Crush to get the Tiananmen Square treatment next year. Others shook their heads and clucked throughout Saturday and into Sunday, with more than one saying, "we gotta do something to stop this."What they forget, or refuse to acknowledge, is Tybee is a public beach. Tybeenians own the seashore, but so does every crusher, at least those who pay taxes in the county. So all must share it.That Tybee residents respect their environment more than the offislanders do is, for better or worse, irrelevant.