It's 3:30 right now, and I've just returned from one of the most fucked-up nights of my life. And exactly one week ago it was exactly the same. Here's the report straight from the riot front:
Last Wednesday, only seconds after the last Sox/Yankees battle for supremacy was over, the streets around my dorm were filled with Emerson students. We screamed and shouted and shook our fists at the campus security, and then my roommate McManus shouted, "Let's go to Fenway!" and we all began marching out en masse. Cars sped down the road at high speeds, honking their horns while passgeners hung out the windows waving and screaming at the fans on the sidewalk. Taxi drivers hanging out on teh side of the road high fived us as we went past, and hobos danced around furiously whilst waving red rags.
A few blocks past Copley Square there was a small but furious riot acting independently from the main hooliganism going on by Kenmore Square. The street was completely flooded with a frenzied crowd, and cars trying to inch through were being assaulted from all sides. A Boston Globe delivery truck was sitting in the center of the road and in the middle of crowd, the driver nowhere to be found. People were dancing on the roof gleefully and trying to maintain their balance as the crowd rocked the huge van back and fourth, coming close to tipping it. Guys jumped into the back of the van and threw every single newspaper into the crowd.
At Kenmore Square things got ugly, to say the least. The cops were getting peppered with thrown bottles, cans, and flaming rolls of toilet paper. I can understand them getting pissed off about that. But I cannot comprehend doing what they did next: a 21-year-old girl from my college, who was doing nothing illegal or destructive, was suddenly shot in the face with a "non-lethal weapon" which was designed to be non-lethal only if fired at someone below the waist. She died later in the hospital. From there it got worse, and the cops got on the move with their billyclubs out. One of the guys on my floor got whacked in the back with a club, and then came the tear gas. Bad end to the night, but at least my roommate was able to bring a car bumper back for a dorm decoration.
After the death of the girl, a lot of people didn't want to go out tonight. I can see people being afraid of suffering a similar fate, but not I. And so me and a few others went out alone, and took the T to Fenway in a subway car jam-packed with rabid Sox fans. Things weren't as bad as the last Wednesday. Not as much wanton destruction, not as much police brutality. Some random fireworks, a thousands-strong crowd living it up, enough high-fives to make your palms bleed, and so forth. After a while, however, the cops decided that they had had enough of it and in came the riot police. Probably 150-200 of 'em in full gear, marching in formation. About fifty motorcycle cops. K-9 police with scary-ass dogs. All waiting nearby.
At this point me and my friends back into a side street momentarily, and I notice something lying on the ground. It is a chock-full pistol ammo clip. Completely full of bullets. I pick it up, and we walk back into Kenmore Square. I put the clip on a windowsill where nobody is looking and then walk up to a cop and tell him I saw this pistol ammo clip there. He walks over and pockets it. I'm supposing I did the right thing, though that would have been a kickass souvenir. There are at this point an entire army of police massed and ready to cut through this crowd, so I tell the others (including 2 girls I didn't want to get shot with a non-lethal weapon) to go back to the dorm.
I stuck around, however, I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because I'm crazy and if there was a huge riot war between the cops and the crowds, I didn't wanna say that I never took part in it. Maybe it's because I honstly didn't want to see another girl hurt by the cops, though I don't know what the hell I would have done in that situation. I'm not sure. But where I was it was rather tame. The cops formed a line and started marching through menacingly, herding us out of the Square. Apparently in another end of the Square there was tear gas and more of the pellets used (one of the guys from my floor I left with got shot in the leg twice over there), but I didn't find out until just now.
All in all, a pretty crazy couple of nights. I'm just glad the city didn't burn down.
Last Wednesday, only seconds after the last Sox/Yankees battle for supremacy was over, the streets around my dorm were filled with Emerson students. We screamed and shouted and shook our fists at the campus security, and then my roommate McManus shouted, "Let's go to Fenway!" and we all began marching out en masse. Cars sped down the road at high speeds, honking their horns while passgeners hung out the windows waving and screaming at the fans on the sidewalk. Taxi drivers hanging out on teh side of the road high fived us as we went past, and hobos danced around furiously whilst waving red rags.
A few blocks past Copley Square there was a small but furious riot acting independently from the main hooliganism going on by Kenmore Square. The street was completely flooded with a frenzied crowd, and cars trying to inch through were being assaulted from all sides. A Boston Globe delivery truck was sitting in the center of the road and in the middle of crowd, the driver nowhere to be found. People were dancing on the roof gleefully and trying to maintain their balance as the crowd rocked the huge van back and fourth, coming close to tipping it. Guys jumped into the back of the van and threw every single newspaper into the crowd.
At Kenmore Square things got ugly, to say the least. The cops were getting peppered with thrown bottles, cans, and flaming rolls of toilet paper. I can understand them getting pissed off about that. But I cannot comprehend doing what they did next: a 21-year-old girl from my college, who was doing nothing illegal or destructive, was suddenly shot in the face with a "non-lethal weapon" which was designed to be non-lethal only if fired at someone below the waist. She died later in the hospital. From there it got worse, and the cops got on the move with their billyclubs out. One of the guys on my floor got whacked in the back with a club, and then came the tear gas. Bad end to the night, but at least my roommate was able to bring a car bumper back for a dorm decoration.
After the death of the girl, a lot of people didn't want to go out tonight. I can see people being afraid of suffering a similar fate, but not I. And so me and a few others went out alone, and took the T to Fenway in a subway car jam-packed with rabid Sox fans. Things weren't as bad as the last Wednesday. Not as much wanton destruction, not as much police brutality. Some random fireworks, a thousands-strong crowd living it up, enough high-fives to make your palms bleed, and so forth. After a while, however, the cops decided that they had had enough of it and in came the riot police. Probably 150-200 of 'em in full gear, marching in formation. About fifty motorcycle cops. K-9 police with scary-ass dogs. All waiting nearby.
At this point me and my friends back into a side street momentarily, and I notice something lying on the ground. It is a chock-full pistol ammo clip. Completely full of bullets. I pick it up, and we walk back into Kenmore Square. I put the clip on a windowsill where nobody is looking and then walk up to a cop and tell him I saw this pistol ammo clip there. He walks over and pockets it. I'm supposing I did the right thing, though that would have been a kickass souvenir. There are at this point an entire army of police massed and ready to cut through this crowd, so I tell the others (including 2 girls I didn't want to get shot with a non-lethal weapon) to go back to the dorm.
I stuck around, however, I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's because I'm crazy and if there was a huge riot war between the cops and the crowds, I didn't wanna say that I never took part in it. Maybe it's because I honstly didn't want to see another girl hurt by the cops, though I don't know what the hell I would have done in that situation. I'm not sure. But where I was it was rather tame. The cops formed a line and started marching through menacingly, herding us out of the Square. Apparently in another end of the Square there was tear gas and more of the pellets used (one of the guys from my floor I left with got shot in the leg twice over there), but I didn't find out until just now.
All in all, a pretty crazy couple of nights. I'm just glad the city didn't burn down.
