Boston's undiscovered tourist retreat: Grove Hall
By adamg - Fri, 07/04/2008 - 4:58pm.
74 Georgia St. is your vacation home away from home, mere minutes from downtown Boston and bustling Seaver Street and Blue Hill Avenue. $300 a night; on-site parking available for an extra $20 a night.
Unfortunately, Boston Police consider it an illegal tourist destination. They report they placed Aihua Harris, who owns two of the three units there, under arrest for disturbing the peace yesterday. Police say that, in response to inquiries from officers about whether she has the proper permits from the city, she not only ordered them off her property but began yelling loudly enough to attract the attention of neighbors, and if there's one thing Boston Police can't stand, it's attracting the attention of neighbors.
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unecessary and this shit is getting out of hand
Just so you notice, the ALLEGEDLY illegal act is running a bed & breakfast without a license so we're not taking about an emergency and yesterday was not a holiday so inspectional services was open for business.
I wondered why the police took the call instead of referring it to inspectional services, which I assume is responsible for issuing permits and code enforcement.
That issue aside, the women answered their question about whether she had a permit saying "yes" she did. When they asked to see it, she asked them to leave. When they would not leave, she demanded they leave. They charged her with a crime, Disorderly Conduct.
It is often the case that once police have gained access to your property, they can stay until they are satisfied. If you do not let them in, they must obtain a warrant to gain access except with some narrowly defined exceptions relating to the commission of a crime and danger.
I don't know how reasonable or unreasonable this woman was being but it is her property and they were in it.
There was no mention in their that she posed a threat to them.
It seems to me that proper procedure would be to refer the question to inspectional services and let them research and serve her with appropriate papers for violating the law.
The arrest it seems is another unnecessary use of force and another unnecessary subversion of a the rights of a citizen by our men in blue.
so much for the Dot as the
so much for the Dot as the "staycation" destination for this summer :(
This person may have the money to fight back
A little Googling shows that she also owns or manages several properties on Martha's Vineyard.
I agree with anonymous
I agree with anonymous above. There is no reason for an arrest in a case like this. It is an inspectional services matter and they can file a complaint in the housing court for code violations.
I'm an old white Irish guy, but I will speculate that this kind of thing would not happen to a white lady in West Roxbury or Back Bay, even if she told the cops to get the hell off of her property.
Well, ya, it does seem
Well, ya, it does seem overblown. If someone called with a housing complaint, then housing (ISD) answers. She needs to work on her people skills. If she said, "Ask ISD for the permits" maybe they would have. I dunno. I guess it was a slow crime day...