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Horsies

In Kenmore Square last night, of course:

Dave Alpert lives in the Fenway: He reports on trying to get home from Cambridge last night:

... Once I crossed the Mass Ave Bridge, I immediately felt I had enterered a war zone. Police were barring entry to Beacon Street on both sides, and Mass Ave was full of debri and broken glass. There were blue lights and cops in full riot gear on almost every corner until Boylston Street where they'd closed off Mass Ave in front of the Berklee Performance Center. I had to take a left onto Boylston and round the block. I came out on the other side of the BPC and made a left onto Mass. Despite the strong police presence, crazed partiers staggered all down the the middle of the street and popped out from between cars to "high five" my sideview mirror. One kid gently jumped partially across the hood of my car… while it was moving… on Mass Ave… with police everywhere. So, why exactly were the police there? ...

But it got even worse when he approached his street.

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Comments

The horsies weren't the bad ones.

The excited K9's dangerously close to the exiting crowd by landmark center; barking, snarling, and looking close to tearing away from their handlers, were the scary ones.

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That the police would react, not over-react. I think they did the later. You think it's fine to completely lock down a neighborhood for 4 hours, making it feel like it's the green zone in Bagdad?

And still some massholes were still able to flip a truck and set fires all over the place?

Smar(h)ts would have been better then brute force. And I do think it would have been appropriate to at least tell officers the exit points and where to direct bar patrons and traffic who want to go home. Locking citizens into an small area, threatening them with force, and not telling them how they can get to points they need to isn't good planning on their part. I'm surprised things didn't go bad last night.

Killing the patient to cure a ruptured spleen isn't the best fix to a situation, no?

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So it's the police that are the problem, not the drunken morons who are just out to f*ck with people. Please dont tell me they were Red Sox fans - most of them probably were from Long Island. Next time you're being mugged, call a college kid.

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It was no different with the cops not communicating ways in/out. At least this time they had to say when and where they were going to act, although they again did a lousy job of directing people out of the area.

In 1986, I lived in MIT housing on the Boston side of the river, and several of my housemates were told to "go away and take a valium, bitch" because one of them was exhausted from an evening mid-term exam and very upset that she wasn't allowed to get home.

Not hardly a way to keep the peace, is it? If the objective is to PREVENT trouble, a little professional conduct, knowledge of best practices, and PLANNING for properly routing people away from the area in multiple directions can go a long way toward getting people out of the area. Forcing crowds to remain and pack into small areas is what causes big problems like the death of Ms. Snelgrove, who was waiting to get out of the park with friends when the police blocking the exit of fans from the area killed her.

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Please don't put words in my mouth.

I said that the police made it a dangerous situation because of lack of information and planning. I'm sure many of them were not happy to be there either. My opinion is they could handle situation like these by arresting the trouble makers that tend to get off scot free and do it again, and again, and again. that would take a little more precision of the behalf of the police. the problem is the 1-2% of trouble makers using the crowd to their advantage. the solution isn't to declare a informal marshal law in Fenway.

A good 90% of the people there filtered out of the bar, hugged and slapped each other 5, and tried to leave. the police didn't insure that it was easy to get out of the area if you didn't want to be there after the game.

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"So it's the police that are the problem, not the drunken morons who are just out to f*ck with people."

No, the problem is a combo of both...the drunken morons and the police, imho.

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Honestly, what did this guy think was going to happen? C'mon now.

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After all, they need all those late night hours to ... well ... plan the track work they will be doing during regular hours shut downs.

In other words, how else was he supposed to get home, provided he needed to be away?

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To be fair, could have grabbed the Green line's last call, as the game was over around 12:10am.

I should say should have been able.

there was no way to get to Kenmore SQ that didn't invlove a mile walk in a circle. My guess is they completely shut down the station, but can anyone confirm? I pretty sure they didn't post anything about it online.

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Kenmore station was closed last night. Heard it on the radio from the T I was on leaving Babcock St to head home.

They were turning busses (#57, etc) around at the Blandford St turnaround on Comm Ave and sending them back west from there.

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Does anyone know which students / what area the destruction happened in?

I didn't see much in Fen/Kenmore on my way home, as I was trying to get away from the dogs and horses as fast as possible. To tell you the truth, not many people were around Fenway. It looked like many of the bars only let in 1/2 to 4/3 capacity, on my way in about an hour before the game. Coppersfield was a great time, and very under control.

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Pahcah02 made plans to stay with a friend who lives on Comm. Ave.:

There are a lot of things that the Boston Police could've done last night to prevent law-abiding citizens from getting completely frustrated. They could've posted which streets were going to be blocked off on their website or kept the T open later so people could take the T directly from Fenway to Kenmore without passing through Commonwealth Ave on foot. They could've had uniformed officers directing pedestrians through side streets or simply shut down bars in Kenmore Square for the game (like they do in Andrew Square for St. Patrick's Day)

Of course none of that actually happened. ...

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minus their blog, the BPD has a pathetic website. Each station having their own separate website (separate from the sad main site) does not help matters either.

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I get the same stuff from the cops all summer long in the North End due to the festivals and parades. When you're just trying to get home, and you get treated like you're trying to kill someone, it's ridiculous. I know that the cops are trying to do thier job, and I know that they have one of the toughest jobs in the world, but they are creating a "boy who cried wolf" situation when they act like the sky is always falling. Some day, a cop is going to be warning that the wolf is coming, and no one will listen.

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Maybe this is the reason us Bostonians are thought of as jackasses? Most of the people I've met have been truly nice, but maybe it's tourist asking police officers questions and getting the cold shoulder?

I also heard the Local Fire station in the north end was making the rounds at 1am along handover street, on the loud speaker to a engine, informing the residents that the Soxs were Victorious. Now that's what I call Public Service!

: )

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so glad I didn't venture out to meet friends in Somerville last night. I would've had to drive through all that craziness to get home.

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