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Authorities warn: Don't go on the Esplanade alone at night
By adamg on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 3:52pm
Boston and State Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office issued their warning today as colleges ready for new students and they are apparently no closer to solving a series of nighttime rapes along the Charles River.
Authorities recommended that joggers, cyclists, pedestrians, and others travel in groups if they visit the Esplanade at night. More specifically, they recommended that people in the area remain alert and aware of their surroundings, avoid one-on-one contact with strangers in the area, seek help if a stranger tries to isolate them, and not accept rides from strangers.
Police say there have been three unsolved late-night attacks along the Esplanade on women since 2006, along with a similar unsolved attack in Moakley Park in South Boston, all committed by a man described as a clean-shaven, bald black man in his mid-20s to mid-30s, between 5'8" and 5'10". The most recent attack was July 14, 2009, when a woman was attacked near the Massachusetts Avenue footbridge shortly after midnight.
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Comments
Let me be the first to say it
Somebody alert Emily Rooney!
Maybe there will be a benefit to those footbridge closures...
With any luck, maybe this jackass will not know that two of the footbridges are going to be closed down and his escape will be delayed long enough for him to be caught. Perhaps an even better outcome will be that he tries to play Frogger across Storrow Drive as a result, and loses in spectacular fashion.
Is there a regular bicycle
Is there a regular bicycle patrol through the Esplanade? Just to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, like loiterers looking like this sketch?
They do have bike patrols
I spent a good deal of time out on the Esplanade late in the evening (9ish to 11ish) doing night photography, and the police would bike on past every now and then. I DID feel seriously creeped out being there, but I was surprised by how many people of all ages would be taking walks that late.
Were there Hatch Shell events on the nights you went there?
If so, when the events let out, the crowds spill all the way down the Esplanade to at least Mass. Ave.
No Hatch Shell events
I usually went in the middle of the week, because I was trying to shoot empty landscapes. Nothing like having someone wander into the middle of your frame 6 seconds into a 15 second shot. *facepalm*
Hatch Shell - middle of the week
The biggest regularly scheduled Hatch Shell events are the Landmarks Orchestra classical concerts on Wednesday nights, so I wondered if you were on the Esplanade on one of those nights. The concerts finish around 9:15 pm.
Ive been on the esplanade
Ive been on the esplanade many MANY times after midnight (until dawn on more than one occasion) and Ive only seen police once. It was shortly after a rape, and they were driving in a patrol car down the path, with insanely bright light. They stopped to warn us that it was unsafe.
However, major kudos to Boston for not enforcing some ridiculous curfew, like other nanny cities enjoy doing. Some cities do dawn/dusk others pick something like 11pm.
It's complete BS. If I want to take a wonderful stroll at 3am, then I damn well will take one.
Also, youll be surprised at the number of cyclists out at 3am. Most of the idiots dont have lights though, WTF? The good news is that it's so quiet you can hear them coming from quite a distance.
Is it technically illegal to go there after a certain time?
I know most other parks do have an official "closing time".
Is it just me or does that
Is it just me or does that sketch look like such a stereotypical drawing of a black guy that it could be on an old cartoon?
Years ago
Years ago, the Esplanade was a semi-popular locale for nighttime man-on-man activity of the consensual variety -- pickups if not outright indulgence in same. I understood it had gone dormant; no idea what that scene is like these days.