some of you people just love bashing galveston, its residents and mardi gras in general, im not even going to comment on your opinions on nola residents, there wasnt anything that even approached a large scale use of force by the swat teams. They used the swat team in a wedge formation to clear the street for the parade and then the swat team was followed by horse mounted officers(waving at kids and throwing beads), motorcycle cops, state guard(waving and throwing beads), people on top of ambulances throwing beads, people on fire trucks throwing beads, cops in squad cars throwing beads, people in costumes throwing beads, local bands playing instruments... Its a freaking parade. the cops were just as much a part of the procession as the floats were and they only nabbed people when they got really drunk and stupid. i personally had a blast and didnt have any problems with law enforcement. Except for with andrew, he wouldnt let me sneak past his checkpoint and hit on the rich hot drunk women at the tremont.