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Celebrations across city after president's announcement
By adamg on Mon, 05/02/2011 - 12:37am
The scene in Kenmore Square, as seen from Myles Standish Hall: "Where are they running? Is there cake?"
Sean William took the video of thousands of students streaming toward Boston Common from Kenmore Square:
Cops galore in Kenmore right now, huge mass of people coming down Comm Ave ... SO LOUD!
As the crowds approached the Common, Boston Police called in officers from across the city for crowd control and closed off Charles Street at Stuart and Boylston at Tremont to auto traffic.
Via phone, Mark Corsillo reported around 1:15 a.m. that people had climbed to the top of the bandstand on the Common and hung balloons and American flags. People, mostly college age with just a few suits mixed in, chanted "USA! USA! USA" and waved American and USMC flags:
Photo by Mark Corsillo
Steve Burns shot some video:
More photos from the Common. And more photos.
Star-Spangled Banner on the Common:
Naturally, this being Boston, as the crowd dispersed around 1:45 a.m., people began chanting "Yankees suck!" Joe Hyer reports.
Vivian Ho reports people running down Comm. Ave. by BU with American flags, and at least one vuvuzela. She adds:
Gathering at Marsh Plaza now. T just honked its approval. Chanting "fuck bin Laden," guy with American flag pants just joined crowd.
Kevin Aries reports:
High-fives to the BC kids running over to Mary Ann's at midnight decked out in American flags. Well played.
Other BC students celebrated at the O'Neill Library on campus:
Matt Karolian and Chad O'Connor report fireworks in East Boston.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Cheers Obama!
Boston Cops
Have to commend the professional, solid job the Boston Police are doing at the Common- was just there and their presence felt welcomed, great job in securing all of the nearby streets! Wishing everyone a safe and happy celebration!!
Sure
But I'm wondering why the police should be needed, upon news that OBL was killed? It's not like there's a significant number of people here who mourn his passing.
Is it the fear of downtown college students, merely using this as another excuse for a drunken riot, just like they have at a spectator sport championship win?
Um, did you miss the news?
Several thousand people suddenly showed up on the Common. You'd rather the police just stayed away and didn't block off streets to keep impatient Massholes from just plowing into all those people crossing Charles Street?
This wasn't 2004 or 2007 or [fill in the sports victory year] when the cops put up barricades and got out horses - and not just because they disbanded the mounted unit. There were no nightsticks out, no guys in SWAT uniforms marching en masse behind large metal shields, etc. Just cops making sure nobody got hurt. That they called in units from other parts of the city wasn't particularly unusual; they do that whenever a large brawl breaks out at one of our fine drinking establishments downtown.
I've seen a bunch of posts/tweets from people who were actually at the Common praising the police for keeping them safe.
Thanks, you answered the question
The answer is that people felt we needed the police because we can't expect people here to behave in a reasonably civilized manner, even when receiving good news.
I don't live in NYC, because it's way too rough. I'm starting to believe that Boston, too, has more thuggishness than necessary.
Holy crap! You know when you
Holy crap! You know when you coop oneself in too much when there's virtually a riot outside but instead only found out by procrastinating to UH.
I guess I should step outside and observe and then return to do some homework.
I'm a little surprised there
I'm a little surprised there was nothing in Allston
Allstonians
are waiting for a much more obscure terrorist to be killed. ObL is sooooooo 2001.
unfortunately, the xtian
unfortunately, the xtian science center celebration never happened. shortly after we arrived we were told we could not sing the national anthem, so we went to copley where we met some others celebrating, and walked to the celebration at the commons.
Good riddance
.
oh man, downtown will be NUTS
oh man, downtown will be NUTS today
So, are all those ivy tower
So, are all those ivy tower intellectuals who told us that "We never proved Bin Laden did it" or "Even if we kill him it won't bring the victims back" going to celebrate since it happened on Hopeandchange's watch?
It seemed most people celebrated
Because a president didn't sit with his thumb up his ass for four years and go play in another sandbox because someone said something mean about his dad and -- instead -- reallocated forces to the war we should have been focusing on the entire time, found where Bin Laden was and took him out. It's definitely change, and it's about the best reason for hope anyone's come up with in a decade or so.
Go to hell troll. You can be
Go to hell troll. You can be Binnys butt buddy.
Oh, come on!
Seriously....what good did going in and killing him do, if it was, indeed, OBL? There are speculations that OBL has been dead for at least ten years due to kidney failure. The USA has no business invading another country and gunning sombody down who might or might not've been the culprit (OBL), especially when nobody can really be sure that it was the right person. In the event that it was OBL, no matter how evil he was, the United States had no business executing him. OBL should've been tried at the Hague or in a Muslim court, and the decisions as to what to do with him made from there. The celebrations throughout the country over OBL's death, no matter how evil he was, were totally immature, barbaric and disgusting.