Police welcome students back to Allston
Aw, the kids are so cute in September. Boston Police report that when officers showed up at a rousing good time at 17 Highgate St. around 11 p.m. on Sunday, somebody inside began shooshing everybody else, opened the door, saw uniforms and quickly closed the door:
... Officers entered the apartment and asked to speak to the tenants of record all the while making observation that there were about twenty people inside the apartment drinking, most of whom did not appear to be of the legal drinking age limit. Officers inquired of the attendees if any of them were 21 years of age, and all admitted that they were not. ...
The three people on the lease, ages 19, 19 and 20, were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace, being minors in possession of alcohol and furnishing alcohol to minors. Police also took the names of the other kids present for distribution to their colleges.
Innocent, etc.
Comments
What, you never did what
What, you never did what those kids were doing? I did and never had the cops involved. So now a big heap of nothing is going to turn into lots of trouble for some kids who were having a few beers at 11 PM the night before Labor Day. This is satisfying for what reason? And yes, I do think the kids are perfectly cute.
Whit
Yes, I partook
But I lived in dorms on a campus that was, for the most part, well away from any houses.
There is also something to
There is also something to be said about it being the first weekend with all the students back. The police are out in heavier numbers, attempting to set examples. If this had taken place in a couple of weeks, the police probably would have reported the tenants to BU and made everyone leave.
Um, their neighbors?
Satisfying for those living nearby, apparently. If they'd just been "having a few beers" and talking amongst themselves, I dare say their neighbors (likely tolerant types themselves, given the location in Allston Student Hell) wouldn't have reported them. A lesson learned -- maybe.
Fenwayguy, I moved to
Fenwayguy,
I moved to Somerville around Tuffs circa 2005 and had a amusing experience with one of these "neighbors". He apparently decided that Somerville wasn't a city, and that he should be able to sleep in his back sunroom, windows open, all summer long to enjoy the nice weather, and expected a complete lack of city noise at night.
One night we were enjoying our backyard hot tub, sober, and talking at reasonable levels around 11pm; and he comes out and states that he's going to stand there with his flashlight until we go inside because he and his wife can't sleep. My response, "Have fun buddy".
Normally I would have been more respectful, but we had problems with him before, and police calls where the police were even baffled as to why they were called. He was very proactive when we first moved into the neighborhood, but I mistook that as genuine friendliness; when it was really my way or the highway. He was sizing us up.
Another funny note, a cop lived across the street, and we have ZERO problems with him, or his wife.
Guess my point of the story is, there's some pricks out there that believe the neighborhood is theirs, and are looking to ruin anyone's fun.
My suggesting for new students is know your rights.
BPD plays hard ball with college students
The announcement from BPDNews.com has an interesting title:
"Underage Drinkers Learn a Hard Lesson: Jail"
The three who were arrested were booked, printed, and jailed until the were bailed out. They are students at the BU drama school. At least one of them is a first year student.
The report says the officers were responding to numerous complaints about noise but there is some evidence the police were in the neighborhood examining graffiti as opposed to responding to "numerous" calls about noise 11:00PM Sunday night, Labor Day weekend. Whether this part of the report is testilying or not may not be determined unless the defense attorney requests the tapes.
The way the police gained entry to the apartment may be a problem for law and order. They were not granted permission to enter. They knocked and the people inside did not answer. They waited in the hallway and the heard people in the apartment say, keep it quiet. After a while, someone left through the front door. He tried to close the door behind him. The police forced the door open and entered without permission.
The policemen entered on a noise complaint. Saw alcohol, charged the three tenants, all under 21, with disturbing peace, possessing alcohol and procuring alcohol for minors, charged no one else and did not seize any evidence.
The party was for students of BU drama school thrown by other students of BU drama school. At least one of the tenants doesn't even drink. He just wanted to have drinks for guests who do.
A quick google shows that Boston finest are making a concerted effort to crack down of underage drinking at college student parties in off-campus housing and local bars ... but are they doing so while respecting the 4th amendment and equal protect rights of these people? None of the other underage drinkers were charged. No evidence was seized. No permission to enter was given.
Sounds like this is getting
Sounds like this is getting thrown out. A waste of taxpayers money, and a waste of everyone's time.
Absent the landlord, what right to the police have to push past a tenant into an apartment?
Absent some immediate concern for safety or danger, what right do they have to enter a persons home?
Under what system of US law could they charge a person with evidence seen after violating these basic rights?
It'll all get thrown out with a good lawyer.
Sorry BPD, but this shit is illegal. Just because they're students and young doesn't mean they don't have rights.
And you know all of this, because...
I mean, if you're just going to take the words of 3 people who just got busted for breaking the law at face value, we need to know. You can't just speak from a position of authority without at least mentioning how you have intimate details of the arrests.
Readers can decide. What I
Readers can decide.
What I know, I know from the police report, from speaking with one of the accused, from helping him find a lawyer, and from google which shows that BPD is engaged in a deliberate effort to make examples of students, using particularly harsh methods, early in the school year to keep a wraps on underage drinking by college students, even in their own apartments.
www.COLOR OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition!
From my personal experience,
From my personal experience, BPD believes they do not need permission to enter homes. Just this weekend, I was standing in the parking lot that is on my apartments property (it's more of a side yard that cars park in) with a beer in my hand talking to two friends. We had no one over, there was no noise, but three officers rolled down the street and ended up coming up to us (sixty feet from the street) talking about how we were drinking in public. When I asked if my yard was public I was told "Just don't get caught in the net".
My friend was telling me a story yesterday about a time when he was having friends over, was talking to someone looking over his shoulder while walking out the front door and ended up bumping into a waiting BPD officer. They tackled him to the ground, cuffed him and charged him with assaulting a police officer and then charged into his home.
Cops routinely enter parties and charge kids knowing (i'd hope) full well that their charges will not stand in court. They just want to scare kids from having parties.
"Just don't get caught in the net"
That's an interesting phrase. I wonder if Davis, Menino or Conley would answer questions about an initiative by BPD.
Cops routinely enter parties and charge kids knowing (i'd hope) full well that their charges will not stand in court. They just want to scare kids from having parties.
I wonder if this is official policy or just BPD deciding that no one's fourth amendment rights are more important than keeping a wrap on noisy college under-age parties.
www.COLOR OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition!
So....
...the word of the accused. Gotcha. I mean, anything to try and shrug out of a stupid crime that was only targeted because they were being too loud and pissing off someone who called the cops.
I mean, come on. If you're 20 and you want to drink and you want all your under-21 friends to drink, then don't draw attention to yourself doing it. There's an inherent risk associated with breaking the law (i.e. getting caught). They brought this on themselves.
Instead of saying "the police entered without permission", you should say "one of the accused claims...". The first is a statement of fact when in reality all you have is hearsay from a guilty party (did they have booze? were the people drinking it under 21?).
the skeptical and overbearing Kaz
I identified my sources. Identify yours. I suspect it is one source. Are you ready to stand by it without question? Do you?
I am telling you what I believe to be the case based on the sources I have. You are free to accept it or reject it but I could without you telling me how I should make the argument: "You should say..." Do I tell you how to wipe Uranus?
www.COLOR OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition!
Blah blah blah
It's pointless to talk to you when you take up one of these "anti-cop" causes.
is blah blah blah
your best argument? You should say "Yes I believe the BPDnews.com record of the event is the god's honest truth and I can dismiss out of hand any controverting opinion, even an eyewitness who admittedly has a vested interest but then so do the cops who wrote the report. That's what you should say. /s
www.COLOR OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition!
Making Examples
I dunno, if they were out to make examples, wouldn't they haul everyione in, including all the underage drinkers? Judging from the link, it looks like the cops took the "ringleaders" and sent the others on their way. Doesn't seem too harsh and does seem to make sense if you ask me (biased in favor of college-aged drinkers).
update
The arraignment did not proceed today at 8:30AM as scheduled. The three students secured legal representation last night so its not a delay resulting from a continuance for lack of legal counsel. No announcement from the DA as to why.
www.COLOR OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition!
Overarching Issue
Hide and go drink is a relatively recent problem. Not that it didn't occur before drinking ages rose ... but the college presidents asking for reform are pretty good at documenting the rise of binge drinking and house parties ever since.
Somehow, Montreal manages to be a college town without so many of these issues. That's because the kids are all out at nightclubs, rather than disturbing their neighbors.
Legal adults are going to use alcohol, just like they are going to have sex. The question is how to best get them to protect themselves in either case. Somehow, driving these behaviors underground in some fit of puritanical mythology seems to be creating more problems than it solves.
If only they would hide!
*Then* we could wring our hands over what to do with Johnny Sportshero and his binge drinking death.
Instead it's party, party, party...damn the consequences to those around us. I mean it takes a pretty big set of balls to go surreptitiously buy alcohol under 21 and then broadcast out the windows for all to hear that you're partying hard and you couldn't care who knows about it or might be disturbed by it.
Then, in this case, their only defense is "we didn't let the cops in" (but then acknowledge that the guy who opened the door left it open long enough for the cops to enter?). In fact if they HAD talked to the cops at the door instead of ignoring them, then maybe they could have just broken it up and turned down the music and it all would have gone away. Who knows, they chose to hard line the cops and they got what they earned by their own behaviors. The cops only need probable cause to enter. If they looked inside while the door was open and saw an underage person drinking, they can come in. Once these guys took the hard line stand not to acknowledge the police outside their door, they shouldn't have opened the drawbridge (especially while continuing to break the law...).
Stupid is as stupid does. But, hey, they don't have to convince me. They have to convince the judge.
Cops don't always wait at
Cops don't always wait at your door, and turning down you music and telling everyone to shut the hell up so you can talk to them isn't a bad idea.
Montreal also realizes it's
Montreal also realizes it's a city, and not a suburb; and deals with the noise and lively atmosphere that entails.
The same people who call in noise complaints on these kids are the same people that cried they can't sleep with their downtown windows open at night because of south street diner. They do it because they're pricks and think the world revolves around them, including the life in a city.
The report really makes it sound like the party was not a rowdy one. They saw kids encroaching on their turf and made a stink.