Infinitive Splitter

Among the enduring traditions af American travel is the breakfast-time persual of USA Today in hotel foyers.

Yesterday’s paper included a story on the Halloween-weekend festivities in Madison, Wis., and the (purportedly) successful management thereof. It contains the following:

In Madison, an annual street party drew 35,000 costumed revelers Saturday night, less than half the 80,000 that showed up last year.

Arrests were down over the Friday-to-Sunday period: about 250 were arrested, compared with 566 last year, police Sgt. Richard Scanlon said. Most of the arrests were for alcohol-related offenses, he said.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz called Saturday a success. “We met all …my goals,” he said. “We did not have to use pepper spray or have our police in riot gear. We reduced the amount of over-consumption of alcohol.”

Did they?

In 2005, if 80,000 revelers showed up and 566 were arrested, that means 70.8 people were arrested for every 10,000. In 2006, 250 arrested out of 35,000 works out to 71.4 per 10,000.

Granted, the lack of pepper spray or riot gear eliminates some of the more shocking photography, but it looks like the proportion of bad apples actually rose.

Happy Halloween!