The little college town is not actually a town per say, it is one square mile of apartment buildings with at least 98% of the residents being students. Needless to say it is dirty, loud and the perfect place to hold drunken Halloween parties. Every year the city tries to crack down on Halloween night in order to prevent students from alcohol poisoning and falling off the seaside cliffs that line the main party street, which nonetheless happens anyway. In a further attempt to convey to students that Halloween antics will not be tolerated, the university sent out an email entitle �The Party is Over�, below is an excerpt, which I found particularity funny:

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Again this year, local low enforcement agencies will engage in the aggressive arrest and prosecution of those celebrants violating state and local laws and ordinances. We have designed this flyer to inform you about possible fines, penalties and county ordinances and laws that you may very well face if you are in Isla Vista for Halloween this year. Please read the following flyer and understand when we tell you, "There is NO party!"

On Halloween the ghosts and goblins will be out, and so will the Police! The No Tolerance Policy put in place in 1993 will again be in effect this year. No tolerance means that instead of citations, arrests will be made as long as the requirements of the law are met. Additionally, 100 deputies will be deployed, including deputies on horseback. The California Highway Patrol will establish sobriety checkpoints and tow companies will be towing illegally parked cars. Law enforcement will not issue warnings for violations observed. Arrests and booking take between 10 - 12 hours and sometimes longer. A medical screening will be conducted before booking, but people will still be jailed and will not be released to friends. Holding may occur in an outside facility; blankets will not be made available. Remember that even after you have endured the initial expense, time and embarrassment of being cuffed and booked, you will still have an arrest record that will follow you around for A LONG TIME! You will have to explain it to future employers or at any job where a security clearance is required.

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What is the surest way to make sure college age kids will party, tell them that there is no party; didn�t these people go to college themselves? I love the line about the blankets�it may seem odd but I can just see some California mother suing the police because her son was forced to lie on the concrete floor of a cell all night with out a blanket (never mind that he was so drunk that he peed on the leg of one of the police horses). Ah well, it might be fun to go down and check it out.