(CNN) -- As beer bottles flew and bonfires burned at the annual Pumpkin Fest in Keene, New Hampshire, over the weekend, those following the events online compared the "riotous behavior" near Keene State College to protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Their common refrain: a racist double standard in law enforcement response and media coverage that they attempted to mock using hashtags #PumpkinSpiceRiots and #Pumpkinfest, among others. 'Apples to oranges' Such comparisons are complicated, experts say, because Keene and Ferguson arose from different circumstances. Yes, law enforcement deployed tear gas and rubber bullets at both scenes, but otherwise, the two events are an "apples to oranges comparison," said Donna Murch, associate professor of history at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
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Experts say what happened in Keene was a riot; Ferguson is a political movement
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And yet Pumpkin Fest violence prompted important debate about racial perceptions
"If there is justification for being upset about the coverage, it's the fact that the @placeholder situation was treated so much like the New Hampshire, not that they were treated differently.