Terhas Maryland

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His restaurant, which specializes in Cajun cuisine, was just one of many swarmed by festivalgoers in search of a mouth-watering sample of some of the finest foods in the area. What began 17 years ago as a few food vendors stationed on *** Street has flourished into an annual event that now covers six blocks and includes booths for crafts, live music and dance performances. The big crowd-pleasers yesterday were the cooking demonstrations, held on the courthouse steps. Standing in a makeshift kitchen beneath the historic courthouse pillars, chefs from some of the area's finest restaurants took turns mesmerizing the crowds. ``I love to watch people cook,'' said Joan Sheller, who came to learn how curried chicken and apple-tamarind chutney is made. Clinging to the recipe cards handed out at the beginning of the show, Sheller watched chef Michael Daly's every move. ``It's different,'' said Charlie Sheller, who specializes in ``breakfast food'' at home. ``It's not too much curry. I like it.'' Marjorie Silli took a front-row seat to learn how to flambe. After Mark Spalding presented his flambeed strawberry dish, Silli said she felt more confident. Watching what goes into a great entree is a treat, said Ron Ferguson, a West Chester University student who rates his cooking skills as fair. Festival veterans Judy and Stuart Frederick didn't waste any time yesterday weaving through the maze of vendors in search of lunch. The West Chester couple simply made a beeline for a place that sold some tasty lamb chops at a decent price. ``This is the best [festival] so far,'' said Stuart Frederick. ``Some years, you can hardly breathe, the people are packed in so tightly.'' By night's end, at least 60 state, local and university police officers were on the campus, some clad in riot gear. Their presence, along with door- to-door searches of dormitories by shotgun-toting officers well after the campus had returned to calm, left many students angry. They said in interviews yesterday that they had been harassed and abused by police. "They (police) had no business reacting the way they did," said Christopher Curry, president of the student government. State police at the Avondale barracks referred all questions to Lincoln University. Tom Lyons, a state police spokesman in Harrisburg, declined to comment. Administration officials appeared to agree with Curry. In a prepared statement, the university said, "The number of responding police units exceeded the needs of the situation. The alarming presence and display of firearms was uncalled for by the circumstances." Seven people, including Crystal Bennet, 18, of Wilmington, were injured during a melee outside the hall, police said. Bennet was treated for a neck cut at Christiana Hospital near Staunton, Del., on Sunday and released. No arrests have been made. According to police and students, the concert ended peacefully about 11:30 p.m., and was followed by a half-hour break during which the stage was cleared and the hall was being prepared for a party. Sophomore Jay McDaniel, 19, said he was outside when "a fight broke out and a crowd of people were chasing one another. The next thing I know, they dispersed the Mace on us." Terhas Maryland, 21, a Lincoln junior, said the long intermission led to restlessness. "There were so many people with nothing to do," she said. "A couple of fights had started, and some people were rushing the door to get in, but it didn't seem that bad. Then they let the tear gas out and it looked like a crazy house." Virtually all of the students interviewed yesterday said the fighting was started by visitors from outside the university. "They were from off- campus," said Geoffrey Holder, 20, a junior. "They had nothing to do with Lincoln University." After some time, the hall was cleared and students and their guests returned to their dorms. State police then arrived, said student government president Curry. Curry said that he had asked the police what was going on and that one of the officers responded, "Get your black ass back to your room." He said he saw a student talking on a dormitory telephone when "a cop said 'You have five seconds to hang up. One, two, three, four, five.' Then he jumped all over him" and beat him, according to Curry. Toney said Hansberry Hall, a freshman women's dormitory, was dark and quiet when police searched it at 4 a.m. Sunday . "It was an invasion of our privacy," she said. Toney and Maryland, a resident adviser in Hansberry, said that guests who had been permitted to stay overnight but did not have identification were sent off campus, and that few had rides at that hour. "One guy got jumped on by four to six cops because they said he was dressing too slow," Toney said.