Police defend use of pepper spray and tear gas at Ohio State football celebration

© John Kuntz / Northeast Ohio Media Group

Ohio State Buckeye fans cheer as the clock expires and OSU wins the NCAA's College Football Playoff National Championship game in Dallas January 12, 2015. The party at Eddie George's Grill 27 in Columbus soon hits the streets as fans took over High Street and the police used tear gas and pepper spray to break up the crowd.

A Columbus police spokeswoman defended officers' use of pepper spray and tear gas against Ohio State fans celebrating Monday's football championship win, saying the least amount of force possible was used against the crowds.

Police and SWAT team members used the substances to disperse thousands of boisterous revelers who, following the Buckeyes' 42-20 win over Oregon, gathered along North High Street, Ohio Stadium, and around Mirror Lake, a campus pond.

A number of fans -- as well as a Northeast Ohio Media Group photographer -- said the crowd-control agents caused them to vomit or suffer from burning eyes and skin.

Columbus Police Department spokeswoman Denise Alex-Bouzounis said in an interview Tuesday that the use of pepper spray and tear gas was necessary to keep people safe and clear streets so fire trucks could be deployed to dozens of small fires being set around the campus area.

Alex-Bouzounis said canisters of tear gas were the least forceful option to be used in crowd control, and the department hasn't heard of any officer resorting to more severe measures. She also noted that officers repeatedly gave verbal warnings to revelers that gas would be used if they didn't clear the area.

"When there's thousands of people, [the officers] scream, they say 'move,' and then they have to go to the next thing," the spokeswoman said.

Police Chief Kim Jacobs was "completely pleased" with all of the officers' professionalism, Alex-Bouzounis said.

"Overall, she was pleased with how everything was handled," the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said the department has received a couple of complaints about the use of tear gas and pepper spray; those complaints have been referred to the department's internal affairs bureau for investigation, she said.

A spokesman for Ohio State's administration and planning department also spoke in support of the use of pepper spray at Mirror Lake and at Ohio Stadium. At the latter location, 5,000-8,000 people - according to Columbus police estimates -- broke in and tore down a temporary goalpost.

A number of Ohio State students affected by the tear gas and pepper spray questioned the need for it, saying the vast majority of people were only cheering and doing nothing wrong.

"I understand why they would do that to a couple people, but I don't think they need to do that to everybody that's out there," said Aditya More, a freshman at Ohio State who encountered the tear gas on High Street. "Everyone that was out there watching - that's, like, taking videos - everybody was hit with the tear gas they got out there."

But Kevin Gould, a Chicago native who's a freshman at the College of Wooster, said he didn't blame the police at all for doing what was required to break up the crowd.

"It worked -- honestly, great ploy by them," he said.

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