Agents of chaos descended en masse on the South End, West Roxbury, and Randolph communities last weekend and prompted an uproar after a Boston Police cruiser was destroyed when it was set ablaze by fireworks.
Members of the group in the South End – apparently numbering around 100 – reportedly were street-racing and fighting while some were surrounding and vandalizing police vehicles. Two young men from Rhode Island were arrested in the South End incident.
The next day brought condemnation from officialdom and declarations by our police commissioner and other municipal elected officials that Boston “would not tolerate this behavior.”
With all due respect, it is tolerated, and it has been for a few years now and it’s not just the South End or West Roxbury. These car meets and incredibly loud parties into the early morning hours are par for the course on Blue Hill Avenue across from Franklin Park and along Talbot Avenue. They are less common but frequent under the railroad bridge on Columbia Road, at McConnell Park in Savin Hill, and in the parking lots at Port Norfolk.
Along Blue Hill Avenue, Seaver Street, Normandy Street, Columbia Road, Old Road, American Legion Highway, and Talbot Avenue – and on all of the side streets connecting to them – people have been calling for help for the last three years as roving parties have descended on normally quiet streets doing whatever they want without consequences.
Sometimes, these gatherings have resulted in shootings and violence.
And all of it continues to be tolerated and— dare I say it: encouraged.
No one has done anything to signal to these folks that they will be confronted and turned away.
Officers seem to be “policing” with their hands tied, appearing feckless against the taunts of the hooligans. Few outsiders can bring themselves to believe what is actually happening: Hundreds of people in the street, on porches, “patronizing” businesses that are closed, parking three or four deep and blocking the street, shooting guns, starting fires.
Add in the larger festivals along the Blue Hill corridor and life becomes unlivable as outsiders, and some neighbors, flood the zone and create havoc long after the official celebrations end.
All of this is tolerated.
On my own street about a year ago, at 12:30 a.m., it suddenly sounded like a Fenway Park crowd had landed outside. Hundreds of young people were fighting, screaming, jumping on cars, racing scooters up and down the street, and wandering into yards. A group of about 50 were brawling on a neighbor’s front porch when a gunshot rang out and everyone screamed and tried to flee.
But that didn’t last. More fighting ensued, more partying on neighbor’s lawns, all followed by a lukewarm police response. They came, turned on their lights, then left while we were still under siege. They were called back, and still did very little to address the mayhem; they even helped some of the vandals find car keys and wallets that had been lost in the melee.
There was no search for the gun, no seriousness about quelling the situation, and police were still being mocked and pushed around when they left again.
Neighbors got the message: We were on our own. All this was tolerated – officially.
One young man— a 19-year-old from Brockton—couldn’t find the keys to his mother’s car, so he left it on our street. He returned later that morning after the sun had come up and apologetically admitted that it was a social media-fueled gathering by a young woman on the street who had charged $20 a person for admittance. Expressing regret, he said he would never come back again.
“But why did you all choose to come here in the first place and think you could just take over our streets and homes?” one outraged neighbor asked.
“I mean, it’s Dorchester,” said the young man. “You can do that here, right?” Apparently so.
One is left to ask: What does not tolerating look like? It’s a much stronger force of action. It’s monitoring social media— already done by police— and being prepared and serious to act when necessary. It’s towing huge numbers of cars like they do in Chelsea – ten at time. It’s blocking in the chaos agents and putting them in protective custody (PC) for 24 hours. PC is an old tool that could send a clear message that if you come here and do this, you’ll have time “in the clink to think,” as used to be said.
PC doesn’t show up on an individual’s record, and no one is arraigned, but it shows seriousness. Rounding up people who are exhibiting bad behavior, particularly if they’re coming from outside our communities to wreak havoc, can’t be wrong.
What’s been tolerated and normalized in our neighborhoods is apparently now spreading to other communities. It’s time to bring a stronger hand to the problem, because the message out there now is that, in Boston — particularly in Dorchester and Mattapan— anything goes.
