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Police: Man faces lifelong brain problems after attack in South Boston bar
By adamg on Tue, 01/31/2017 - 2:12pm
A man punched in the head by a guy holding a salt shaker at the Boston Beer Garden in December remains in the hospital with head trauma - and finding his attacker is now District C-6 detectives' top priority, a C-6 detective said today.
Sgt. Det. Kenneth O'Brien told the Boston Licensing Board this morning that the man crumpled to the floor, unconscious, after the shaker-enhanced punch around 7:25 p.m. on Dec. 18 at the East Broadway bar.
Witnesses spotted his attacker, a white man wearing a red T-shirt, jump into a car, but have yet to identify him. O'Brien, however, said a bar manager may have given him a vital new clue today - the car may have had Connecticut plates, rather than than the Massachusetts ones detectives had initially searched for.
O'Brien said the victim was part of a large party of people who had gotten into a dispute with their waitress over the tab. The victim, who'd been given the bill in a black bill holder, angrily flung the holder into the air - hitting a guy in another party, who decided the proper reaction was to grab a salt shaker, make a fist and punch the man in the head.
A bar manager testified that she immediately called 911 and that she and other bar workers wound up tussling with the victim's friends: He briefly seemed to come to and they tried to pick him up and walk him out of the bar and she had to yell "Stop touching him!" because she realized he might have serious injuries.
The licensing board decides Thursday whether any punishment is warranted for the incident, although board Chairwoman Christine Pulgini told the manager and bar attorney Robert Allen that the bar seemed to do everything right - from calling 911 immediately and keeping the man on the ground until EMTs could arrive.
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Comments
Alcohol fueled violence takes
Alcohol fueled violence takes a tragic human toll in Boston and around the world. I suspect that if the drug of choice was marijuana it wouldn't have been as violent.
there is a ton of violence surrounding marijuana
its just that most of it has to do with the cultivation, importation, and distribution of it.
lets not be myopic here.
If only there were a way to eliminate those issues....
Maybe we should vote on it or something.
sure
We did, which is why it's weird that people need to bring it up still whenever drunken violence is the topic. The good guys won. You don't need to keep selling the idea to the hoi polloi.
Perhaps this violent buffoon would be a lovable lug if he was smoking weed at the bar instead of drinking beers, but we'll never know.
we voted on it yes
and it won. and that changes exactly zero about the remark you responded to because it is still a controlled substance at the federal level and still impossible to purchase legally in massachusetts.
Just another Sunday Funday in Southie
The Sunday afternoon binge drinking on broadway in Southie is getting absolutely ridiculous. Every week it's lines everywhere, puke on the sidewalk, people screaming at each other on the street. I feel awful for the victim, but this type of thing will keep happening unless BPD cracks down.
yeah
treating the substance abuse as a criminal problem. that has worked really well historically.
this is not substance abuse
this is a bunch of 20-something suburbanites and allston, dorchester bros coming to South Boston to party so they can tell all their buddies at work on Monday they were partying in South Boston.
time for BPD to get a handle on this...
- A South Boston Community Member
Sunday Funday
Are you sure that binge drinking, lines, puke and fighting on a Sunday is something new in South Boston?
Odd comments by Sgt. Obrien
1.) Finding the attacker is now C-6's top priority. ( What changed to make it top priority? The victim has been in the hospital for a month. Was the recently resolved case of the mating raccoons higher on the list?)
2.) The bar manager might have given a vital clue TODAY...saying the get away car had CT plates, rather than the MA ones they were looking for (Vital clue? This isn't microscopic fibers we are talking about. How the hell does it take one month to learn from a key eyewitness that the car was from CT?)
SMH
He didn't state a time when it became a priority
It could be a top priority because some guy's still lying in a hospital bed with brain trauma. Maybe it's been a priority for awhile now, but they just didn't announce it to the papers (the only reason we know about the attack at all is because I happened to be at the hearing).
I don't know why the manager didn't tell police until this morning the car was from CT. Again, maybe the police didn't ask her and it's not like she's Castle and gets to sit in on all the police investigations or something.
Sounds like you might be trying a bit too hard to come to a conclusion of police negligence where none may exist.
Merely pointing out the implications of what I read
You wrote it, right? Did he say "It is a top priority." or did he say "It is now a top priority". It is obvious that the second way of saying it, implies that before it wasn't and now it is. If, as you hypothesize, the police didn't ask if it was a Mass Plate, that probably was incompetence, lots of cars from other New England states around here.
What he said
After describing the victim's injuries, he said, referring to the case, "It's the highest priority out of my office." He didn't add anything like "as of this moment," or whatever and the impression I got is it's such a high priority because of the extent of the victim's injuries.
As for the state of the car, I just don't know. He didn't get into detail on that and I didn't ask him (being too busy just sitting there like a slug listening to this case and then the ones that followed (including the one about light-up champagne bottles at Bijou, I admit).
It has been a C6 priority
I live in South Boston and attended our Neighborhood Association meeting the first week in January. The Meeting always starts off with the officers and Captain Boyle of C6 giving an update on crime in the community. This incident was addressed that evening. This has been a priority of C6 detectives since the incident occurred. Just because it was not a news media story does not mean that the community was kept in the dark.
Liquor licenses
What we need is 151 more licenses in the City. Can we get the mayor on this right away? Is he still at Logan?
Ah yes
Because if there were fewer liquor licenses, I'm sure neither the victim or the assailant would have been out drinking. They would have been sitting at home saying the rosary and preparing for work the next day.
It's seems like victim had a
It's seems like victim had a bit of an anger/violence issue too. Throwing stuff around. This is what happens when people are served ridiculous amounts of alcohol.
So?
Does that justify what happened to him?
And you know they were served ridiculous amounts of alcohol how?
Exactly
Alternative theories. Victim had 1 beer with dinner and jokingly threw his "tab holder" at a friend, missed, and hit the suspect. The suspect, who had 1 beer with dinner, got angry, and hit the victim. Maybe one of them had more than 1 beer, maybe both did. Maybe they were both doing cocaine in the bathroom. Maybe one was a recovering alcoholic, but didn't have cable and liked watching football.
Drinking from morning till
Drinking from morning till night is never civilized. I hope he recovers.. The long lines sometimes outside the Broadway bars would best be served by police details. I do not understand why that is not required..