«The Boston Police Department assigned only 43 crowd-control officers citywide to handle the thousands of revelers that streamed into the streets after Sunday night's Super Bowl, with just six assigned to the Symphony Road area where a man was killed when an SUV driver drove into a crowd near Northeastern University, documents obtained by the Globe show.
The Police Deployment documents show that only one supervisor and five officers were assigned specifically to control the Symphony Road area, and another supervisor and five officers were sent to Kenmore Square. In those locations, mobs of some 5,000 people each swarmed the streets after Sunday night's game and became unruly. »
Both areas mentioned above are a five minute walk from my apartment.
I can confirm it was more than a little loud in the `hood last Sunday night around midnight. You would have thought that the fans themselves had won the Super Bowl and not the paid employees of a multimillion dollar franchise. Where I live, I get to see a lot of extreme sports fan behavior and it's neither pretty nor amusing. Where are the riots over Super Tuesday? Or NASA debugging and repairing Spirit and Opportunity (a task not easily accomplished on Earth let alone another planet).
It's true that I'm not a regular spectator of any sport, but I absolutely loathe those fans who use sporting events as a justification for their jackassery. I hope that the fine Boston PD makes some pointed inquiries into yesterday's rally and Sunday's wanton chaos. Homeland security starts at home (with the crazy white guys).
Which is a greater tragedy? A child watching tv seeing an exposed breast at a great distance (not even a close up), or someone dying after a sports game?
Re:Intriguing...
kag on 2004-02-04T19:55:40
Is there any evidence the Boston police can't handle the vehicular homicide case? Why should the feds get involved there?
On the other hand, the alternatives to the FCC handling the breast issue (I might want to rephrase that) are 1) every local jurisdiction deals with the local CBS affiliate according to "community standards", or 2) we give up on restricting TV content. The latter appeals to my libertarian side, but isn't terribly realistic.
