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Many students are outraged, and frankly a tad bewildered, after hearing that the Dunedin police force are planning to clamp down on Mexican waves at rugby games in the new Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The configuration of the new stadium means that in certain places the crowd will be less than six metres from the playing field. As a result, police will be strictly enforcing good behaviour at the two build-up games in August, in preparation for strictly enforcing good behaviour at the World Cup games later in the year.
 
Police area tactical response manager for Dunedin, Inspector Alastair Dickie, made it quite clear that the Mexican wave was not being banned, as has previously occurred in Australia. However Dickie said, "We have to minimise and discourage [fans] from doing [Mexican waves] because it could lead to problems of objects being thrown on the field.”
 
Dickie’ s main concerns were preventing players and fans getting injured by flying SoGo cans during the wave, as well as avoiding embarrassing moments in front of international media. “We don’t want to spoil everyone’s fun but it is important that we maintain the city’s credentials”. Critic questions what credentials there are left to maintain after we threw poos at each other, but maybe we’re just being negative.
 
Dickie admitted that police cannot arrest 30,000 people participating in a Mexican wave. However, they can target those instigating trouble and under the Major Events Management Act 2007, jumping up and down and throwing your goon at a hairy Italian player could land you with a $5000 fine or up to three months behind bars in the Milton Hilton. Either that or you could be charged with disorderly behaviour.
 
In an online poll conducted by the venerable Otago Daily Times, 77% of people were opposed to the Mexican Wave crackdown. One well-informed ODT reader suggested a better statement for the Dunedin police might have been: "As much as we understand people may want to do the Mexican wave, we will be taking a firm line on anyone caught throwing objects onto the pitch during these types of celebrations".
 
Critic spoke to a group of rugby-types who all agreed; “That’s the fucking dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”. One commented that banning the wave would only encourage more people to do it. Another questioned whether this was an example of inherent police racism towards Hispanics.