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Police: Pack shoplifts from store, then attacks woman trying to leave parking lot
By adamg on Mon, 09/22/2014 - 3:02pm
Boston Police report a large group of kids on bikes and scooters helped themselves to soda from the gas station at 870 Massachusetts Ave. yesterday evening and then went after a woman whom they were preventing from driving out of the parking lot.
According to police, the incident involved 10 to 20 Hispanic males, from pre-teens to 20-year-olds, around 6:15 p.m.
As they were milling about outside the station, they swarmed a woman who was attempting to drive out of the parking lot, police say. When she beeped her horn at them, they began to yell at her and began punching and kicking her car. Some managed to reach into the car and assaulted her, police say.
EMTs treated the woman for a cut on her ear; police observed damage to her car's front grill, front bumper and rear passenger-side door.
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Comments
You must mean...
...the gas station at 870 Mass Ave not 670, right?
Right
Thanks, typo fixed.
This makes me so angry! Pre
This makes me so angry! Pre-teens? What is wrong with these children and where are their parents? I don't have children but I do volunteer with Big Sisters; my Little lives in a housing project in Cambridge. I was just playing kickball with my Little and a bunch of neighborhood kids in the complex yesterday. They are all around this age and I seriously can't even imagine a single one of them participating in this kind of thing. On top of that their parents, even the most deadbeat among them (and trust me, some are not exactly saints) would KILL any kid who so much as spoke disrespectfully to an adult. Pre-teen mob violence on scooters? I really hope that some of these kids are caught and get more than a slap on the wrist.
That area is becoming the new combat zone
I walk through there from work to the train on occasion.....it's mostly homeless and addicts from the methodone clinic near albany street. Not a nice place to walk and the city could do a lot to make it safer! Not surprising that a gang of teens is assaulting people there :(
Combat Zone?
I know what you mean, but the Combat Zone's claim to fame wasn't particularly "homeless and addicts from the methodone clinic". Now if you had said the place was overrun with strippers and hookers, that's a different story.
And frequented by soldiers
And frequented by soldiers and sailors returning from war for a little RnR, hence the name.
They don't have parents other
They don't have parents other than in the biological sense and that is the root of the problem.
Partial reporting?
Why mention the race of the attackers and not the victim? I am more than curious to see if there was, perhaps, a possible racial element to this incident.
No, you just want to get all outraged, but whatever
BPD actually tends to be fairly decent on hate-crime reporting. Now, granted, I did not ask for the race or ethnicity of the victim (by the way: "Hispanic" is not a race), but had any racial epithets been hurled or had any of the attackers indicated they were going after the woman because of her race, it would have been in the report and the spokesman would have mentioned it. He didn't.
Are you more than curious in
Are you more than curious in knowing the race of the victims whenever the perps are white?
No
When the perp is white and the victim is black, it is a national news story, regardless of motive.
Sobbing!
when are white people going to be given a fair chance in this country! All the reverse racism is too much and we need to stand up for white people. LMFAO!
Facts
I pointed out a simple fact. You reply with mockery. That means you lost the argument or you simply missed the point.
Critical Mass youth division?
Another civil disobedience protest?
Learn your History, Dude
Attacking people and stealing things isn't civil disobedience.
Refusing to move because a cop yells at you is Civil Disobedience.
You are probably too young to have studied this in history, though. I suggest starting with Thoreau and working your way through the Civil Rights era.
It's sarcasm,
the national pass-time of New England
You obviously are not familiar...
... with markk**** who can and will turn anything into an anti-bike jab (or diatribe).
Guilty
As a Mark myself, I trusted the name too easily it appears.
Hey Markky
Couldn't get you to reply on the other thread you were rambling on, so maybe I'll get your attention here.
http://project.wnyc.org/traffic-deaths/
I feel like your avoiding this because you don't have a snarky comment to come back with. Or perhaps you're just so blinded by your ideology that you didn't see the post? I dunno but you've yet to address the 86 pedestrians, 13 cyclists and 8 children there were killed by cars in NYC this year, whilst demonizing cyclists to no end.
Edit: He replied with his baseless "most pedestrians killed by cars are drunk/drugged" excuse. Bravo Markky, bravo.
You're avoiding*
Snark granted
Analysis of Bike Accdents on Comm Ave
An analysis of more local bike accidents, along Comm Ave, from Bostoninno
Looks like a great study
When to use your horn
I am not in any way blaming the perfectly innocent victim, but there is a time to use commonsense and lay off the horn. When you are surrounded by a pack of kids up to no good, that is a good time to just wait until it's safe to drive off.
Horn?
She should have used the gas peddle, she was surrounded by a angry mob of punks. I would've ran the little shit bags over.
Wut?!
You would have run over 12 year old kids?!
Jesus - thank goodness it was her and not you in that lot.
Self Preservation
it's a human beings prime directive, aside from procreation. You are surrounded by an angry mob out to hurt you, than yes, run them the fuck over. They asked for it. If you have a self defense weapon like a firearm, than absolutely use it in self-defense. I understand self-preservation, and self-defense, sounds strange, even scary to some people
And then you would have
either gone to jail or been sued into the 17th century by the "loving parents" of said "little shits," who of course were all promising athletes/musicians/scientists or what have you before they were run over.
i was actually there at the
i was actually there at the mcdonalds drive through. i saw a car full of junkies(prob dope sick thats why they were in such a rush)beeping at the group of kids. All i saw was an argument until she ran one of the kids over along with a couple bikes, and thats when i saw the attack start. So much for innocent victim. This article has it backwards, and i saw it with my own eyes.
Please explain
the 'youth' swarming the store, and ripping them off. Cops say they boosted shit from the store, as a group. Nice kids?
There's something wrong with your account.
Anyone who tried to assault
Anyone who tried to assault me in my own car would get two choices - get out of the way, or wind up underneath the car. Anything this driver could've done to defend herself - including using a weapon - would be justifiable self-defense. Would be hard to find a jury that'd convict someone for running over an attacker.
While killing with a car seems to be protected in MA
You must not be terribly familiar with the strange notions of self-defense that exist in MA law.
Besides, you are in a metal shell with safety glass and crash protection and, with doors locked, not exactly immediately vulnerable. I'd just pull out my cel phone and video the activities and the assailants for my insurance agent's and the police's benefit, and wait it out. Maybe pop it in neutral and not set the brake so it would roll in disconcerting ways.
Aside from the silliness of your post's title....
why would you assume that the person you are replying to does not know about self-defense laws in this state?
I believe, in this situation (and I am sure you will correct me if I am incorrect), the person (albeit in her car) was being allegedly attacked and might of feared for her safety. She made her attention known, to the group, that she wanted to leave (by beeping her car's horn). She tried to leave a volatile situation. She was then allegedly assaulted by one or more members of the group against her person (cutting her ear - or did not you miss reading that part?). If she had a gun or another weapon in her car, and used the same against her attacker, I would say she would of been protected under the state's self defense law.
Aside from all that, yes, you are protected in your car. But projectiles can and do come through windshields. If you are being swarmed by a group of people that wish to do you harm, by all means stay and video your attackers. Good luck with that.
I didn't assume anything
I can absolutely tell from what they said that they aren't aware of the laws governing self defense. There is no way that running someone down who was banging on your car would count as "equal force".
That doesn't mean that I agree with the law, just that the laws do not say what they or you think that they do.
Search back through the long and sorry history of the Commonwealth jailing women who kill their abusers while being attacked if you want to see what "tests" are applied to self-defense cases.
Also, if you want to be practical and realistic, if she did run down a couple of them, she would most certainly be dragged from the car and beaten to death. Her chances of driving over people in a crowd and actually speeding away safely and quickly are pretty much television fantasy land.
So, this leads us where?
Just passive aggressively film them with a phone (assuming you have one with you, or the battery is about to die, etc.)? Just keep on punching 911 into said phone and hope for the best? But God forbid, don't do anything to protect yourself from assault that might hurt the people trying to hurt you?
And yes car lurching forward would scatter them, and the worse you could expect would be one or more of them shattering windows or pulling out a gun and firing. And let's not forget an angry mob forming because you ran into the 'poor, innocent children'.
I didn't say "don't protect yourself"
I pointed out that 1) your car affords a certain degree of protection already, 2) running over people with your car is probably a bad idea as the laws of the Commonwealth would not count it as "equal force" AND 3) if you ran over people, an enraged mob might just feel justified in dragging you out and killing you.
Doctor
THEY were hassling the woman (and others?) in the car, not the other way. The 'youth' have no business pulling the shit they were pulling (via police report), and NO ONE would have moral, legal right to swarm the car if the occupant(s) chose to book it on out of there. The 'youth' deliberately blocked the car, they knew what potential consequences were. They already had committed illegal, criminal acts, and were in the process of committing more.
hot bed
I lived in the SoEnd and often patronized that McDonald's that is in the same parking lot as that gas station. That whole area is a big teen hangout. The McDonald's parking on warm summer weekends is over run with teenagers. Lots of loud music, bouncy cars, and annoying teenagers.
No real surprise though.. that area just keeps getting rougher and rougher.
I did financial work for the
I did financial work for the FD HQ on Southhampton there and it really is a mess of an area between that hangout spot and the methadone clinic right there, there are a lot of characters.
A bunch of f***ing hoodlums.
A bunch of f***ing hoodlums. Makes me mad as a 21 year old Dominican born and raised in Boston how these punks can't show a simple display of respect. I tell people who are oblivious and new here this: learn some form of self-defense or legally wield any measure of self defense because the punk kids out here got no regard for people whatsoever;and it's only getting worse,folks.
I saw these kids yesterday as
I saw these kids yesterday as they were tooling through the Common and onto Boylston towards Copley Square, I think it was about an hour before the incident reported. They damn near ran me and everyone else waiting to cross at that intersection over (they did not have the right of way, which I'm sure surprises no one.) One of them purposely blocked a charter tour bus and was doing wheelies and whatnot in the middle of the road. They were coming through so fast I was convinced I was going to witness first hand what it looks like when a bicycle loses an argument with a car.
Actually
Loath though I am to admit that Markkkkkk has any point whatsoever, that part sounds EXACTLY like Critical Mass. Right up until the assaults, which I haven't ever actually seen CMers doing.
Honestly? CM must have
Honestly? CM must have changed a lot if that's really true.
Critical Mass Driving
Oh, sorry - I guess they call that "massholes at rush hour" around here.
Sorry, not a driver
But cars, after the first three or four, will eventually stop at a red light. Not so CM. I'm a full-time pedestrian/MBTA prisoner and generally pro-anything that's not a car, but when I can't cross the street for ten minutes because of their merry frolicks, I temporarily root for a sinkhole if not a careening garbage truck.
Come downtown at rush hour
Only because they have jammed the intersection.
Amen
Come to Huntington between Longwood and Northeastern at rush hour. The city would be awash in money for years if someone bothered to give out red-light tickets here.
There are a few stories of
There are a few stories of defensive firearm use that have played out like this in other areas in the U,S. Driver is approached by a threat, fears for their safety, draws their weapon, and the threat scatters. Too bad Boston doesn't believe in allowing responsible citizens to have the right to self-defense. Here's an example of a lone person against a mob having no equalizer, and luckily walking away with only minor injuries.
Not Thinking
Yeah it's a great idea to have more guns on the streets...
And it's not like said mob couldn't just steal that gun readily, as one is already outnumbered, thus putting such a victim at even more risk of harm.
And before you pull out that tired rejoinder about criminals having guns and ignoring gun control laws --- here's the obvious counter to such. If criminals have "illegal" guns where did they come from? Is it not probable that such a gun was once someone's "legal" gun? Whether the gun is acquired through theft or straw purchases or corrupt [legal] sellers it was once a legal gun. Only a small portion of illegal firearms are coming from outside the country with the majority originating from American gun shops.
So less legal guns = less future illegal guns = Less guns all around - which is a good thing.
Not thinking? Pot, meet kettle.
While the sarcasm in your post is appreciated, your "obvious counter" to the old "tired rejoinder" is a tenuous oversimplification of firearm presence in the U.S. Regardless of how you feel, the reality we live in is that millions of firearms are out there and an outright ban today or tomorrow would be meaningless. We are not a less populated island nation like Australia. Guns aren't going anywhere, so we might as well deal with them accordingly. And MA does very strictly...unless they're in the hands of somebody committing a criminal act instead someone who voluntarily submits their fingerprints and undergoes a thorough background check. For more on that, just stay tuned to this site. I got a $20 on someone being popped on a second and subsequent possession offense within the next week. Why are they out on the street to re-offend, but your average citizen without so much as a parking ticket can't get an unrestricted license just because they have a Boston zip code?
If your thought is that we should ban all legal guns because in the future they are illegal in the wrong hands, the list of things to ban should be longer.
It's very simple
We should not have any guns, legal or illegal. And considering the supply of the latter comes from the former, that just makes it even more important to abolish firearm ownership. But there is no good reason to have a legal gun even if they were not being turned into illegal ones.
You are right - you have
You are right - you have simplified a complexed, nuanced, national issue into the most basic model of cause and effect. Your opinion is indeed quite simple. The reality is not.
Bust them all tomorrow
These aren't exactly the actions of great thinkers. They will probably be hanging out in the exact same place tomorrow when you can round them all up together for theft and assault.
I feel like when a group of assholes gets together like this in order to zerg rush a store, they should all get prosecuted individually but for the total damages of the group. Once you've had to deal with the fact that one of your asshole buddies broke a window and another one punched a woman and so on, even though all you took was a candy bar or all you did was provide cover by numbers, these sorts of mobbing activities would slow to a crawl.
bike thieves
Travel in packs and my guess is they were stocking up on supplies before they loot and pillage bikes from the nearby mall or train stations.
wow, holy sh**!!!!
wow, holy sh**!!!!
Having worked in the area for the past 5 years up until recently, this really makes me feel glad I got out of there. I swear it's gotten way worse! An acquaintance of mine mentioned that she will not walk around the Mass Ave/ Albany Street area without her dog these days and I don't blame her. (She's a tough lady, too!).
Terrorists in training,
Terrorists in training, scaring good citizens away. These kids will end up being institutionalized their whole life. I don't see a solution since it's been going on and on and ...