Esplanade

The Daily Free Press reports BU campus police don't have tasers and that what some people thought was a taser was, in fact, a flashlight the cop was using to signal a fellow officer during an Esplanade snowball fight at the height of the storm. Police say the student was captured and released after throwing a snowball in the cop's face.

What do several hundred BU students do? Descend on Storrow Drive and the Esplanade. Police, of course, arrived not long after to break things up.

More video (snowball fight starts about 1:00).

Myron Freeman watched the fireworks in the rain last night.

More photos:

Photo of some real fireworks by Tmccool.

State officials started evacuating the Esplanade around 9:30 as a potentially violent thunderstorm headed toward the thousands of people crammed in there for the Pops concert and fireworks. Channel 5 reports many sang "God Bless America" as they filed into the Storrow Drive tunnel. Concertgoers on the Boston side were also given shelter in the Hynes Convention Center garage.

The storm, however, passed the Esplanade by and shortly after 10 p.m., state and Boston police began letting people back onto the Esplanade, after the National Weather Service declared the area safe again.

WBZ meteorologist Barry Burbank tweets authorities made the right call:

Bottom line is safety of every person. With the frequent vivid lightning nearby, officials called the evacuation then the storm died!

I can't wait to see what CBS has cooked up for the Boston fireworks this July Fourth. How are they going to top last year's augmented reality? Only thing is, they're just going to start in at 10 p.m., so this year people westa Worcester will be deprived of most of the Pops concert, although they will get Jennifer Hudson. Outrage?

Photographynatalia captured two Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence along the AIDS Walk yesterday.

More conventionally dressed walkers.

Copyright Photographynatalia. Posted in the Universal Hub pool.

The Daily Free Press has some additional details on the latest sexual attack on the Esplanade. The attacker, who is black and between 6' and 6'4" also has a mole on the right side of his face.

A college student was assaulted around 1 a.m. on Friday by the Silber Way footbridge, State Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office report.

Police described her attacker as a black man between 6' and 6'4". They said the student, 18, was able to break free and escape.

Authorities said immediate evidence does not suggest a link to prior, unsolved attacks on women walking along the Esplanade and in Moakley Park in South Boston late at night; the assailant in those cases was described as no taller than 5'10".

Last year, two women were attacked and thrown in the Charles; police did not tie those to the original attacks, either. Regardless of perpetrator, authorities urged caution in late-night trips along the Charles:

Karen Cord Taylor rolls up a newspaper and whacks Boston whiners with it for making a mess all over the proposed Ferris-Wheel-enhanced redo of the Esplanade:

You also might remember the initial proposal for burying the Central Artery. "It can't be done." "It's too expensive." "It's not needed.” Well, it was done. It was expensive. And our city was transformed from dreadful into something wondrous.

Boston Police report arresting two men from Chelsea and one from East Boston on charges they held a man up at knifepoint at Massachusetts Avenue and Marlborough Street shortly after midnight today.

A fourth suspect remains at large, police say.

According to police, the four approached the man, showed a knife, pulled his hood over his face and then pushed him to the ground. They removed his wallet and cellphone from his pockets, then ran through Charlesgate and down Bay State Road, police say. Officers scouring the area noticed three of the men running across the footbridge from Silber Way to the Esplanade:

The Monkees performing at the Hatch Shell in 2001 (more videos). RIP Davy Jones.

The Globe and the Herald report on a plan for the Esplandade that calls for better access across Storrow Drive, a cafe next to the Hatch Shell, doing more with the Charles River dam and the Muddy River and just generally sprucing up the existing facilities after decades of neglect. Another idea would be a 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel by the Museum of Science. Of course, this would take some money.

Eeka, who wants to be a tour guide when she grows up, is putting together a list of Boston's Giant Heads, from the Creepy Baby Heads outside the MFA to the Sphinxy Arthur Fiedler Head on the Esplanade.

State and Boston police are looking for a group of eight men on charges they surrounded a woman jogging on the Esplanade around 9:45 p.m., Saturday.

State Police report the woman, a 31-year-old Cambridge resident, was jogging near Community Boating when "several men, who had been among a group that was sitting in that area, came toward her and surrounded her." State Police say the woman was able to break past the man and ran toward the Museum of Science - where she found a state trooper working a detail. In a statement, they add:

Women who use the Esplanade for recreational activities are reminded to be aware of their surroundings, to walk or run with a companion if possible, to stay in well-lit areas, and to carry a charged cell phone at all times. Anyone who feels threatened or uncomfortable, or who sees anything that does not look right, should immediately call 911 on a cell phone to be connected to a State Police dispatcher.

State Police say they do not believe the incident is related to a series of unsolved sexual attacks on the Esplanade, which have all involved a single would-be rapist, not a group of robbers.

State Police are investigating an incident early this morning in which a woman was sexually assaulted and then thrown into the Charles River near Massachusetts Avenue, State Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office report.

Authorities say they do not yet know if the attack is linked to a series of other sexual attacks in recent years along the Esplanade - or to a non-sexual attack in the same area in June in which a woman was also thrown in the river.

Next year's display? By Aughtomat, who also gives us this.

The Globe talks to the guy who organizes the Esplanade fireworks, who basically goes, yeah, so we did some fake shots, big deal, David E. Kelley shoots his "Boston" shows in LA.

Prominently quoted is our own Kaz, who first noted the bogus shots.

Myron Freeman watched the Esplanade fireworks.

John Tammaro took photos:

Leslee took in the rehersal performance at the Hatch Shell.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

NECN reports on the early morning attack. Unlike in a series of other attacks, however, there was no evidence of sexual assault.

Nathanael Hevelone snapped some coconut heads at Earthfest on the Esplanade yesterday. Jeff Tamagini listened to OK Go ringing bells.

M. Morris Gaman sketched some of the concertgoers.

Hevelone's photo posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr. Tamagini's photo copyright Jeff Tamagini, tagged as universalhub on Flickr.

Historygradguy takes us back to those halcyon days of yore, like last week.

Copyright Historygradguy. Tagged as universalhub on Flickr.

Vikas Anand captured some stillness on an Esplanade dock.

Copyright Vikas Anand. Tagged as universalhub on Flickr.

A woman sitting on a bench by Mass. Ave. was attacked around 11:30 p.m. yesterday by a man who first engaged her in a lengthy discussion, according to a statement from Boston and State Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

The man was described as black, 25 to 30, 6'1" or 6'2", about 230 lbs., with short hair and a missing front tooth. He was wearing black sweatpants and a green top, authorities say, adding the woman was able to flee.

Since 2006, three women have been attacked on the Esplanade and one in Moakley Park in South Boston. Authorities say they have yet to determine if last night's attack is related, however - the suspect in the earlier cases was described as shorter.

Sure, there are the annoying people on the T and the panhandlers and the outrageous cost of an apartment, but Elliot Haney reports there's nothing like a run on the Esplanade in the fall to make you appreciate Boston:

Running in a city is unlike running anywhere else. There is such an energy here, that it may almost be worth the cost. I feel like I'm a part of something here, wether it's the fact that I feel such a connection to the city because of my work with City Year, or whatever it is, Boston is a pretty amazing place.

Boston University Police report a bystander sprung into action around 3:40 p.m. yesterday when he saw a man on a bicycle grab a woman's buttocks on the Esplanade by the Bowker Overpass: He followed the guy and held him until State Police arrived to arrest him.