Thursday night at is a popular night for students of , but this past Thursday was different: It was the last Thursday of the spring semester, the bar was packed and things turned violent before the night was over.
Of the after fights at the pub, two, Diandre C. Brown, 22, of Sicklerville, and Ibn Moye, 22, of Beachwood, were members of Stockton's basketball team. Three police officers and one female bystander were , which led to an early closing of the pub.
Mark Simco, who was not at JD's on Thursday, is a senior from South Amboy who plays on the Stockton basketball team. He said that he did not know any details about what happened at the pub, but that he could not see his teammates fighting if they were not provoked.
"They're all good guys," he said.
According to JD's owner Brian Storr, Brown was turned away by the doormen when he showed up because he didn't have his identification.
"No one gets in if they're under 21," Storr said. "He didn't have his ID, and he was turned away at the door. Half hour later, he came back and pushed his way through."
The doorman who originally turned him away recognized him and escorted him out of the bar. The pub has had college night on Thursdays for five or six years, Storr said, and they always have three Galloway Police officers on hand. On this occasion, Storr got into a fight with one of them, and he ended up under arrest, as did two more students.
Bail for Brown at $25,000 and he is being charged with aggravated assault on police, failure to disperse, obstruction of justice and resisting arrest. Moye's bail was set at $10,000 and with obstruction of justice, resisting arrest and failure to disperse.
Another Stockton student, Breanne Bryson, a senior from Tabernacle, was knocked out of her chair after the fights broke out.
"One pushed one into the other one, and they knocked me out of my seat," she said.
She and her friends were unperturbed, she said, and they stayed until everyone was finally asked to leave the bar when the situation outside the bar escalated. Bryson said that she had never seen such a rowdy crowd at JD's, but that Thursday night's fights would not stop her from returning to the popular Stockton watering hole in the future.
Her classmate, Tom Rosati, a senior from Cinnaminson, said that Thursday night's situation was uncommon.
"I've seen a lot of fights there, but nothing on that level," he said.
Josh Girtain, a senior from Pennsville who was outside of JD's on Thursday night and saw the bystander who was pushed and injured in the fall, said that Stockton students have a reputation for drinking.
"There have been a couple nights where cops have had to break things up, but I've never heard of anything this crazy at Stockton," he said.
The incident was unusual for JD's, as well, and Storr believes some of the media coverage made it sound worse than it was.
"We still had a full bar inside, and they had no idea what was happening outside," Storr said. "People out there were waiting for the bus, and some were smoking. There were people out there who had nothing to do with what was going on."
Christie Perrone, a junior from Haddon Township said that she thinks the arrests give the college a bad name.
"It makes our whole school look bad...something like that could have easily been solved by walking away," she said.
Rodolfo Santos, a freshman from Jersey City, took a different perspective, saying that the fight has nothing to do with the school's image.
"Fights happen everywhere, right?" he said.
"We have officers here every week, and we've worked with the sergeants," Storr said. "It's always well thought-out. Things just happen."
Storr said they sit down with representatives from the township and college police departments and the dean of students before the school year starts, and they've never had a problem. The pub even offers a free shuttle back and forth between the school and the pub to avoid drunk driving incidents.
"(The police) were more than doing the right thing," Storr said of Thursday night's incident. "We don't normally have these problems and they did a good job."
He thought he was above the requirement of showing his ID. Typical street thug mentality. It won't change now or anytime soon with jocks.