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Police: Nine arrested, three guns seized in closing-time gang melees outside Theater District club

Ed. note: Story corrected to note police did not allege the people with guns were inside the club.

Boston Police report the street outside Bijou, 51 Stuart St., was packed with Dorchester gang members at closing time early this morning - and some of them came ready for trouble with loaded guns.

Police say what turned into more than an hour of violence that brought police officers from across the city started around 2 a.m., when gang-unit members spotted a pair of alleged Dorchester gang members just waiting outside, seeming to look for somebody in the departing crowd as they held their waists as if they were packing guns.

As officers approached they saw the demeanor of both men intensify as they quickly began to look back and forth while continuing to grab at their waistbands. When officers got close, both of the suspects attempted to run and two violent struggles simultaneously broke out. One officer was able to quickly subdue [a 16-year-old] after a brief foot chase and bring him to the ground where after gaining control of him, the officer removed a loaded Kel Tec .380 ACP handgun from his waist band area. As that was happening, [Randall] Mastin was attempting to push past officers and pulled out a loaded Taurus 9mm handgun which fell to the ground during the struggle. Mastin proved to be a challenge for the officers as it took in excess of five minutes to place him in custody with three officers sustaining minor injuries.

Around 2:25 a.m., with a large crowd still milling about, "a wild fight broke out," in front of the club, police say.

Motor vehicle traffic crawled to a standstill on Tremont Street as a large group of young men pushed, punched and kicked each other in a violent affray which spilled out from the sidewalk and onto the street. Officers were able to quickly gain control of the volatile situation, placing six suspects in custody and dispersing the angry crowd that had continued to grow and gather around the combatants. One officer sustained a minor injury during the chaos and was transported to a local hospital by ambulance for treatment.

Around 2:42 a.m., the portion of the crowd that had not been arrested finally began to disperse, police say, adding gang-unit members on scene spotted several alleged gang members they might want to have a chat with:

[They] learned that one of the men, Mario Barros, 26, of Dorchester, may be armed with a gun. Officers followed Barros to 830 Washington Street where they approached and attempted to pat frisk him. When an officer felt a gun on the suspect, a struggle immediately ensued but officers were able to prevail, taking a .22 Caliber Smith & Wesson handgun out of the suspect’s waist band while placing him in custody.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

Liquor board to discuss the type of clientele Bijou is attracting, admitting, and then not clearing from the streets as they exit?

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Seems like an important detail that was left out of these reports. Perhaps the club needs to at least temporarily change its booking policy.

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Subtle racism.

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Right "Dorchester Gang Members." Same on you Universal Hub.

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They're the ones calling them Dorchester gang members, not me. Police are usually kind of reticent throwing terms like that around, so when they do, it's news.

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If you were writing about a riot and murder at a concert in Altamont, CA, wouldn't you want to include the information that the Rolling Stones were performing there?

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Not a concert hall. There was no band.

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Yeah, I always like to know what is the latest incarnation of the devil's music corrupting today's misguided young people.

Oh, and you darned kids stay off my lawn! /s/

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Three cheers for the BPD. They controlled the crowd, prevented a killing(s) and quelled bad behavior without firing a shot. Take that Waco, Ferguson, Baltimore, NYC, etc.

Also, I can't wait on the spin is on this on the marketing of the $4,000 a month one bedroom units going in next door.

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Glaring stupidity. Certain performances attract certain crowds.

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Glaring stupidity is a good Album name. A band name, not so much.

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I'm an old fogey and have been out of the club scene since the Avalon/Axis days. I have no idea what Bijou is; asking what act was booked seems like a legitimate question. Or was there no act, just a DJ for some "(musical genre) night"?

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That's not a very good name for a band.

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The Twitter and Instagram accounts for Bijou seem to indicate that the music was French DJ Cedric Gervais who plays and produces house music...

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When will the leaders of the French DJ community speak out against this kind of systemic violence??

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Menudo. They would make me violent too! :p

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Why when it is a problem at the club now people always wanna say something because they say gangs why because it is black people. But a white person can do the same but you won't say gang violence on them but they have riots all the time but look who is calling the kettle black

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"Mario Barros" sounds like a Latino name to me.

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As I mentioned above, BPD tends to be very reluctant to use the word "gang," even when the gang unit (officially the Youth Violence Strike Force) makes an arrest. So their report on this incident was unusual:

At about 2:03 AM on Sunday May 17, 2015, officers assigned to the Youth Violence Strike Force while on random patrol observed a large gathering of known gang members in front of the Bijou Nightclub located at 51 Stuart Street.

Further down, we read:

Then at about 2:42 AM as the crowd continued to disperse, officers assigned to the Youth Violence Strike Force observed several known gang members fleeing the area on foot ...

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what reluctant cops are you talking to? Ever listen to Evans on wgbh radio? He loves the term.If the cops know they're gang members why not reluctantly name the gang?

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But I'll take your word for it. I was referring to the stuff they post on BPDNews.com.

As for the names of specific gangs, yep, you're right. I've had BPD folks tell me it's because they don't want to glamorize the specific gangs.

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Calling themselves a gang, gangbangers, thugs ect. BPD just so happens to know who they are, what they call themselves and who they affiliate with.

Trying reading the above post objectively and in its entirety before jumping to baseless accusations.

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The gange unit approached people known to them as gang members who had loaded weapons on them and were waiting for someone to leave the club so they could shoot them. That's racist how?

Also, if the gang unit, or any other police officer saw a white person standing around outside of a club with a loaded handgun they'd arrest them too.

Stop pretending this has anything to do with race. It has to do with people who were going to attempt to commit a violent crime who were stopped from doing so.

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Ok people there was no racism - the folks were from Dorchester - Barros is Cape Verdean - they were arrested for fighting and acting like a**holes while carrying loaded illegal weapons. It's not a conspiracy - stop with your drama and stop ignoring the fact people were breaking the law.

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Your unconscious racism is shining through, Adam.

Gang. Dorchester. Club. Waistband. Suspects. These are words to avoid. A suggested rewrite of your post:

"A thing happened last night. The police were there."

It's called being objective.

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You must be. Waistband and gang are racist? When the cops arrested all those guys in Waco, was it racist to call them members of a motorcycle "gang"?

The media, including UHub, has got to be able to report the news without worrying that every little toe out there in Sensitive-Land isn't being stepped on.

"A bunch of armed gang members, some from Dorchester, got into a big fight coming out of a nightclub and the cops arrested a bunch of them, without firing a shot." How's that?

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But re-read his comment; I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic, not accusing me of racism.

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waistband

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especially if elastic

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has provided a rich wealth of possibilities for band names.

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That's why I started by saying he MUST be kidding. But I've seen some incredible things posted here with 100% seriousness that have blown my mind, so I just can't always tell.

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Clearly this is an individual who feels that his rights are trampled on by discussion of racial overtones of the word "thug" that has gone on around here. By using absurd examples that have no comparable context, he's attempting to convince us that the word "thug" could not possibly have racial overtones. His logic is absurd and his conclusions are wrong.

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Where did I, or Adam, or anyone besides yourself use that word??

"Thug" can be problematic, sure, but nobody was talking about that.

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Sounds like you're hearing what you want to hear.

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When someone says Dorchester Gang members and I have watched the video to boot, I can say with some degree of certainty that it wasn't the Savin Hill Saigonettes, the Garvey Park Shamrocks, The Cedar Grove Cemetery Boyz, My Dad and His Friends from The Greenhills, nor the Bear Crew from Dbar causing the ruckus outside of the club this weekend.

It was a group of men who happened to be African American or Cape Verdean who were arrested. Yes,That is what happened. There is nothing racist about saying that. It is very rare for BPD to come out and apply any gang affiliated names or locations since Castlegate and the Orchard Park Trailblazers almost had their own clothing lines in the early 90's.

As a guideline, not necessarily a rule, the majority, not all by no means, of the gun tooting incidents in our fair city over the past 25 years have been in African American or Cape Verdean neighborhoods. Please understand this and everyone can get over accusations of subtlety and covert racism. The people arrested this weekend just happened to be darker than Edgar Winter. Boo Hoo.

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If that isn't yet the name of a local girl-group band, it should be.

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well said but you left out young Latino men when speaking of gun violence in Boston over the last 25 years.

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It's not racism to point out that the gang unit noticed known gang members standing outside a club with guns. It's called reporting what happened.

All of the people on this post shouting racism sure do sound dumb. Yourself included.

Reality check: if a person is a member of a gang, they're most likely know to the gang unit. If that person is latino, black, white, orange...not really relevant. If that person is waiting outside a club with a gun waiting to shoot someone, fuck them, go to jail. White, black, orange or purple, those scum bags belong in jail

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*whoosh*

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Sound the Beige Alert!

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All these guys with gun charge rap sheets out re-offending. The court system continues to endanger the public with catch and release. What a complete joke.

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Can't we come up with some new euphemism so white people can't be accused of being racist for using the word "gang" or feel less guilty for using it? Please?

How about "friends", "armed entrepreneurial associates", "social and business partners".

C'mon. We've tortured the English language no end in not trying to appear racists, sexist, and whatever so much already to the point that nobody can say what's what. Why stop now?

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Worked for a previous generation.

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Old enough for the mob to have, gays slightly less old in usage.

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You know, the word queer usually doesn't bother me, but when you say it, it sounds bigoted.

Also, you sound so dated as to put Fred Flintstone or Archie Bunker to shame. Your type cannot go fast enough into the golden years of senility and dementia for me.

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... and very different police response.

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Totally different situation requires a different approach.

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Well at least they didn't say "young people"

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Where was Matt Lauer during all of this?

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It definitely was not important which band was playing that night....but was is in fact important is that police officers intervened a possible murder(s) and usually gang task force recognizes gang members and the neighborhood they're from.

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