Fire Department reverses course, decides to fine Rise for overcrowding after all
Post update with further information from BFD.
This statement just in from Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser:
I have reviewed the evidence provided by the Boston Police Department regarding the events at the Rise nightclub as well as the documentation provided by my Nightclub Inspectors and have determined that the Rise was in violation of their posted capacity and have fined them accordingly. The Boston Fire Department takes overcrowding or any other violations of the fire code which would endanger the public's safety, very seriously.
Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said that even the club's own counters showed the club had exceeded its 292-person capacity by 25 to 30 people, and that the club was fined $100. He added the department told club owners yesterday they were free to re-open.
MacDonald said the department couldn't get into the dispute between the club and the police department over the exact number of excess people inside because its inspectors did not get to the club until most people had already left. Police allege 800 people were crammed into the club; the club says that is physically impossible.
In hindsight, MacDonald said, he shouldn't have told the Herald yesterday the department wouldn't cite Rise, because inspectors were still compiling their reports at the time.
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Comments
Circling the Wagons...
and so it begins..
Commissioner Davis has a problem he should act on promptly
Attendance 12/31/2009
Rise 300
BFD 317-322
BPD +800
The officer who made the judgment that there were 800 people in the club and then used his law enforcement authority to clear the club based on that assessment was either lying or showed extremely bad judgment.
Either way Commissioner Davis has a problem and he should act on it promptly.
Assume if you will BFD and RISE numbers are most accurate
What is the appropriate BPD brass response to the BPD officers on the scene who (we'll assume) conducted themselves in the manner described in the BPDNews report and the interview Adam did with Rise?
Please fact check that, Adam
Surely, you meant to write that their own counters exceeded the 292-person capacity "by 2500 to 3000 people".
See, kids, Club Sesame Street is open for rolling again!!
See, no need to get your knickers in a twist anymore!
And remember kids, you can't spell RISE without "E"!
Kids?
18+ means membership is restricted to people who are legal adults.
Sorry if none of them asked you for special permission to attend and assemble in an entertainment venue. Also sorry if you wasted your own youth and now resent others enjoying same - or get a special tingly feeling by acting as if age somehow entitles you to bullying privileges.
Why..thank you, Swirly!
If that is your long winded way of calling me an asshole. I've never denied in any posting in this forum that I am one. If you don't like my comments, don't read them. I only answer to one person here, and that's Adam.
Secondly, where did I ever state anyone needed my permission to do anything? I'll also refrain from making uninformed assumptions about what life as a bored hausfrau in the teeming metropolis that is Medford is like, if you refrain from making uniformed statements about how I spent my adolescence.
Housefrau?
Nope. I gots me a bored househerr fer that stuff.
Your contempt for people younger than you is obvious and sad.
Meanwhile, that's Frau Doktor Swirrly to you.
That's right, Swirly, and if I have my way..
next we'll keep that Elvis Presley fella from gyrating to the devil's music on the family friendly Ed Sullivan show.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get off the internet machine, because somebody here at the home needs to use the phone.
Inzwischen ist das Frau
Inzwischen ist das Frau Doktor Swirrly zu Ihnen. Haben Sie eine Tochter, die Sie sich Gedanken?
The other violations?
So I wonder, does this mean that the other alleged violations were found to be untrue? Meaning the flammable decorations and exposed wiring? I think the exposed wiring would be up to Inspectional Services, and the Fire Dept. would rule on the decorations. I doubt the club would be allowed to re-open without correcting both.
Not to mention all the half-naked dancing girls.
Anyway, Adam, thanks for following this story. Cops like Keeler need the media checking on them.
$100 fine = sorry for Keeler
$100 fine = sorry for Keeler being an a-hole, carry on
Adam
Is there any merit to the safety violation associated with the use of a barriers on the sidewalk or associated with the line waiting to get in, according to BFD or BPD?
This was the original issue the officer cited as why he entered the club.
Would a citation for this reason be one he would issue or of a type the BFD would issue? In either case, why (or why not) was it issued?
If it was not issued, was it not issued because it was not an accurate assessment or because it was an untruthful allegation?
widest sidewalk in Boston?
wide shot
speaking of barriers
ahhh - so that's where Rise is...
Funny comment in the original story of a cop thinking the barriers were a problem. I often walk home Saturday nights through the theater district; by the Marriott near the Shubert theater. The two clubs that flank the Marriott have barriers that take up half the sidewalk. But the other half of the sidewalk is taking up by smokers and the 'hang out' crowd. Add to that taxi's and other double parkers in the area, plus the Marriott's own barriers to try to keep the club rats away from the hotel entrance. That whole sidewalk is a disaster.
I often end up walking in the street because of the crowds. Of course, nothing is ever done about this - including a BPD officer that is often present to deter violence, but does nothing to actually make the area passable.
So I'm wondering how the Rise barriers were 'unsafe and unpassable' that one night, when there are other sidewalks that are impassable every weekend night. hmmmm
Doesn't Viga have lines just
Doesn't Viga have lines just as long during the lunch rush? If it happens after dark nothing good is happening. Continuing to push this city towards 2nd class status with our Puritanical police state
Adam
I'm thirsty. Can you buy some cold beer and bring it over to my house for me?
I was surprised there was no citation for the safety violation
on the sidewalk too. It goes to the question of whether the claims had merit or were pretense.
Adam
What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Detective who pursued killers
Two reasonable concerns about Officer Keeler's police work
This is precisely what Commisioner Davis' "Bright Line Policy" was created to address
Note to self: Keeler has a history in filing police reports with inaccuracies. You'd think he'd learn. Maybe this goes to jim thinking the ends justifies the means.
Oops, there it is.
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.
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Defense lawyer sues Keeler for accusing him of lying in court?
Keller's defense is that he was being smeared by a defense attorney and an assistant Suffolk County DA. OooooKaaaay. Now these are two adversaries in court, a defense attorney and a prosecutor yet Keller thinks "smear campaign" is what it was all about. I suppose from his point of view it could feel like a smear while from their point of view, he's responsible as charged. I'd love to read the decision. The article is from the day the trial, a civil action, started.
If it's true Keeler helped get a conviction by witholding exculpatory evidence it is indeed deeply troubling. Our system of justice was designed to keep innocent people out of jail, even to allow nine guilty men to go free rather than put one innocent man behind bars.
link
Touch of Evil
I think Orson Welles made a movie that featured this sort of character prominently.