Lime inc. has withdrawn its surviving scooters from Lubbock (but they’ll be back).

City unveils plans to prevent post-championship game riot activities

Plans have been put in place by city officials and businesses to prevent any post-NCAA championship game celebrations from getting out of hand.

The catalyst for these preparations was a Saturday night riot that included a couch burning, a bonfire made of electric scooters and people flipping over a car. All this activity came after the Texas Tech men’s basketball team won it’s Final Four game against Michigan State, which advanced the team into the NCAA Finals.

Tech is now set to play Virginia at 8:20 p.m. in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the NCAA Finals, which is the cause for the increased security.

In anticipation of any sort of raucous behavior, the electric scooter rental company, Lime, has released a statement and said its entire fleet has been removed from Lubbock. The scooters will be back on the street early Tuesday morning.

“While we too are excited and proud of Texas Tech’s victory and tournament run, we also share the city of Lubbock’s concerns for public safety,” a Lime spokesperson told KCBD. “In anticipation of tonight’s big game, we have pulled our fleet from the streets before it commences, and will re-deploy scooters after activities subside early Tuesday morning.”

Elsewhere, Lubbock police and fire marshals will be rounding up any car-flippers and scooter-torchers they can find.
Warning from Lubbock police chief, charges of riot and arson can be filed

As for Saturday, Stevens said police did not immediately arrest people because that can be dangerous and make a crowd become hostile. Instead, the police will rely on images, videos and other evidence to file charges after-the-fact.

“We’re not going to tolerate that kind of criminal behavior,” Stevens said.

You know, it takes a special kind of stupid to commit arson and vandalism right in front of hundreds of cell-phone cameras.