"We watched the police unload from buses. They were in riot gear, with batons and shields. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, and I looked around and said, 'Is this really necessary?'.... People were high-fiving each other. They weren't fighting. It was not a hostile crowd. But the police kept pouring off the buses, and they were very aggressive and very hostile, and I was thinking, 'Do they really need this many cops?' And I was thinking, is this going to make things better or worse?"
It made things worse for David Woodman. He mouthed off walking past a group of cops, with a beer in his hand. Woodman said what Jim Rufo was thinking: that it seemed like there were an awful lot of cops around.... experiencing something that felt like a police state"
"Police to curb drinking at parade; Complaints from residents spur effort" by Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | March 8, 2009
Boston police will be flooding South Boston for the legendary St. Patrick's Day parade next Sunday, beefing their patrols by up to 200 officers and sending out the gang, horse, and bicycle units in an aggressive attempt to curb public drinking that officials say has grown increasingly out of control.
I know how to take care of that: PROHIBITION!!!
If it's GOOD ENOUGH for POT it's GOOD ENOUGH for BOOZE!!!!
And think of the $$$ saved!
Yeah, I guess the Boston's finest have better things to do, too:
"Earlier this month, police wrapped up a 30-day sting involving plainclothes officers mimicking tourists and other pedestrians. Once they were panhandled, they essentially became victims guaranteed to show up for a trial"
Related: The Boston Globe's Good Cop
The Boston Globe's Bad Cop
Police will place two officers outside every liquor store and bar along the parade route, a strategy meant to stop anyone underage or intoxicated from buying alcohol. Bars have been told to close by 7 p.m. and liquor stores by 5 p.m., to help cut the party short. Hosts whose gatherings become too loud or disorderly could face fines of $200 or even jail time.
So the COPS are going to be BOUNCERS, 'eh?
The department has also issued a warning to visiting police officers and firefighters who historically march in the parade and have not been above tippling in public. Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis has sent a letter to their unions asking leaders to tell members that Boston will be cracking down.
There the Globe goes again, crapping on the cops and firefighters while corporations and banks suck the state dry. Last I checked, alcohol was a legal product.
Police said the tough tactics are a response to complaints from South Boston residents fed up with public drinking and the department's own realization that last year's show of about 400 officers at the parade was not enough to control an unexpectedly large crowd of revelers, many of whom drank excessively and started fights.
"Last year, people forgot it was a parade about families and kids and thought it was Mardi Gras," said Superintendent Daniel Linskey. "We're not going to let drunken idiots get in the way of people just enjoying their family time."
I guess that explains the gays wanting in the parade. You know, good, wholesome, family stuff. And drunken idiots must be killed like young Mr. Woodman, huh?
Some who have seen too many people urinate in public and stumble drunkenly in front of children said the extra measures are welcome.
"We're very concerned that breaking the law and becoming intoxicated in a neighborhood with children is seen as fun," said Kay Walsh, project director of South Boston CAN Reduce Underage Drinking, a nonprofit that pushed hard for the increased police presence.
Walsh said a half-million people attended the parade last year, far more than the usual 300,000, and many of them were college students.... Walsh said she was shocked when she saw people drinking hard liquor on the street and sucking alcohol from straws hooked to backpacks usually reserved for water.
What bubble have you been living in, lady?
Last week, she and others in her group met with police, who told them of their plans to keep the crowds under control. In addition to the security measures, police said they will enforce a new city ordinance that forbids people from standing on roof decks that have not been approved by city inspectors. And after the parade, the MBTA plans to send a half-dozen buses to the neighborhood to pick up celebrants and take them to the T station.
The TYRANNY of REGULATION NEVER ENDS!! Go up to the roof and moon the SOBS!
But in South Boston, where many storefronts are decorated with green shamrocks, some rolled their eyes at the police plans.
"There is never that much trouble that you have to make such a big deal out of it," said Gina Magione, a 27-year-old salon worker who stood outside her beauty parlor on East Broadway. Magione was smoking a cigarette with her friend Billy Crehan, a 34-year-old longshoreman.
"Let the kids have fun," she said. "Let people have fun."
No, government would never want that for the people. After all, they work so hard to deny us that.
Especially after the state and business promote alcohol consumption and wish to raise revenues of taxing it! Figure that one out.
But Jack O'Neil, 59, a lifelong South Boston resident and social worker, said he is tired of seeing revelers urinate in front of houses and yards. "Just having [police] presence here will keep them from drinking in public," he said. "They won't walk down the street holding those paper cups."
And if they do, they will be smashed to the pavement by nine cops!
