Civil unrest. The very phrase evokes images of police in riot gear and crowds of people damaging property. So when you give the mayors of Champaign and Urbana the power to restrict alcohol sales in anticipation of civil unrest, it leads you to think that perhaps our University students will be very violent in the near future.

The Champaign City Council passed a resolution Tuesday to prepare an amendment that authorizes Mayor Gerald Schweighart to restrict alcohol sales in anticipation of civil unrest – most likely before or after an Illini basketball game. Urbana Mayor Tod Satterthwaite said Urbana would take a similar action.

The stated goals of the new amendment are to reduce the risk of projectiles, minimize binge drinking and limit large parties with kegs. Any restrictions imposed may not last for more than 48 hours at a time.

We feel that limiting the amount of alcohol students can purchase is a bad idea. Not only is it bad for business, but it also encourages students to purchase stockpiles of alcohol because all establishments that sell or serve alcohol must be notified of any restrictions 24 hours in advance. It also encourages students to go to other nearby towns such as Mahomet or Savoy, where there are no such bans in place, and clean out the alcohol there. After all, if students want to drink alcohol, they will.

Instead of limiting alcohol sales, we feel the University, Champaign and Urbana police departments should deal with any celebratory outbursts, if even that, by acting the same way they deal with Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day. The police should be visible, but restrained. By imposing town-wide policies on alcohol, people that have no interest in University sports are punished unnecessarily.

The most extreme policy that should be in place, if needed, should be a policy of containment. Either people should only be allowed to buy alcohol from stores or only be served alcohol at the bars. We suggest that the liquor stores are forbidden from selling alcohol to people during the 48-hour window, and any establishment that has a license to serve alcohol can only serve it in plastic cups to minimize any property damage or human injury.

There should be some discretion left to the mayors as to what exactly is needed by the area, but we feel that there should be plenty of notice to all servers and vendors of alcohol. There should, in any and all cases, only be two days of restrictions to minimize the economic damage of such a policy. Overall, we ask that the mayors be reasonable in their alcohol restrictions.

The police and the government of Urbana and Champaign should take preventive measures because they have a commitment to keep us safe. However, students have not shown major signs of volatility in the last 15 years. Do we really deserve extreme preventive measures? We trust ourselves not to burn trashcans and throw debris. We’re better than that.