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Two shot in Arlington near Alewife T stop; two arrested
By adamg on Fri, 06/05/2015 - 10:56pm
Arlington Police report arresting two homeless Boston men on charges they shot two men in a car at Thorndike Field near the Alewife T station around 10 p.m.; the victims managed to drive away - and injured one of the two suspects by hitting him with the car.
Police found the victims in the car about a half mile away, at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Lake Street.
One had been shot in the face, the other in the chest, Joe Brown reports. The victims, 18 and 21, were taken to Boston hospitals, police say.
Alerted by Arlington Police, Cambridge Police officers quickly nabbed Peter Harris, 37, whose last known address was a Boston homeless shelter, near the Alewife T stop; a handgun magazine in his pocket.
Back at Thorndike Field, Arlington Police say, officers found Stephen Meyer, 60, also of no permanent address, suffering from injuries of the sort one might get when struck by a car.
Boton men will be arraigned Monday in Cambridge District Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with intent to murder, along with various charges related to the gun police say they found near the T stop. Meyer will also be charged in connection with numerous warrants on felony charges, police say.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
Suspect in custody
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/06/suspect_...
Confusing story
Some reports are that the shooting victims were in a parked car near Thorndike Field which is adjacent to the Minuteman bike path, close to Alewife T station and the Route 2 underpass, and that the shooting victims drove over one of the 2 (?) attackers. Cambridge PD may have arrested one at Alewife T. The gun was thrown in the brush, but recovered by police. Confusingly, there appears to be a second scene nearly a mile away at the intersection of Lake Street and Mass Ave. That may just have been where the shooting victims stopped driving.
[update] NECN has the most coherent report:
http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Police-At-Least-One-Person-Shot-306...
Right
I've updated my post with new info from Arlington PD: The men were in a car near Thorndike Field when they were shot; they managed to drive away (and hit one of the suspects in the process), wound up at Mass. Ave. and Lake Street.
Sounds like a drug deal gone
Sounds like a drug deal gone bad
Apparently not
Suspects were arraigned today in CDC; Arlington Advocate reports
.
While we all probably thought this was a drug deal gone bad, the police reporting does not support this view.
My thoughts
Time to start enforcing the 9PM closing time for the bikepath and consider the same for Thorndike Field. Last summer there were several unsolved assaults, some involving knives, along the bikepath. The areas around Thorndike Field, the bikepath and especially the bridge near the dog park are known as unsafe areas especially after dark. Why isn't a cop on an expensive electric bike stationed there?
As far as the perps being homeless, that was the same cover given the home invader and alleged rapist Elsie Billingsley last year when, a reasonable person would think, he was living with his sister in HCA housing. We never heard from Ryan whether Billingslea was actually in HCA housing. What brought these "homeless" guys into Arlington?
Further, I'm tired of Ryan spouting the same lines every time there is a serious crime "but clearly the community is not in any further danger" and then patting his employees on the back for shutting the barn door after the crime has been done. Hearing that BS every month tells me, under Fred Ryan, the community is in danger and the complaint driven culture of the Arlington police fails at preventing crime.
9 pm closing time?
If you take the T to Alewife and your destination is the residential area of East Arlington, the bike path is the only reasonable way to walk there. "Closing" it at some arbitrary evening hour makes no sense.
This is also why the first few blocks of the bike path are now lighted, even though the rest of the path is not.
(Not to mention all of the bicycle commuters who use the three secure bike cages at Alewife)
Also, what is HCA?
9PM is the bylaw restriction on the bikepath
First, the 9PM closing time is the bylaw restriction for all parks in Arlington including the bikepath. I didn't make the bylaw, it just is; see here:
and
Now I agree with you that the 9PM closing time should be modified. However, unless proper lighting, regular police patrols, emergency call stations and other safety features are placed there, then closing after dark is just common sense as evidenced by the amount of crime that has taken place on the bikepath the past couple of years (citations upon request).
Hanging out vs just passing through
I've always understood this rule to mean that you can walk or bike (or rollerblade, skateboard, etc) through the park after hours, but you can't linger there. (I think that's the rule for Boston Common which also technically has a closing time.)
In practice, you'll often see plenty of people quietly enjoying the shore of Spy Pond in the evening.
Umm, ridiculous
Ron, your definition of trespassing is ridiculous. The bylaw states clearly, anyone on the premises. If you are on the bikepath after 9pm, or in Throndike Field after 9:00PM you are trespassing. Period.
Mass Ave and Lake Street?
That would suggest that Mass Ave and Lake Street be closed to traffic after 9pm
The idea that a major arterial to and from a transit station open until 1am should be closed at 9pm when the only alternative is to use a major highway with no non-motor accomodations is utter and complete stupidity. Like any other roadway, it should be open 24/7.
How is that ever suggested?
Arlington town bylaws state that the minuteman path and various town parks and recreational areas close at 9 pm. Arlington police have stated that they don't have the resources to adequately patrol all these areas 24 hours a day, and indeed, they do not. This is why they officially close at 9 PM. If you would like to help pay to extend hours, the town of Arlington would appreciate your support. Public roads are open 24x7 and not Arlington's to decide on operating hours.
Then close off Turkey Hill, etc. too
They don't have the resources to patrol up in the hills, either. They should close those roadways (and Little Scotland, too) as there is far less traffic in those areas compared to the need to get to and from a fucking train station that is open until 1am and has buses that don't run that late!
Totally ridiculous and bizarre. IT IS A COMMUTER BIKEWAY! It is NOT a PARK! It NEVER was a park!
Its a linear park!
I think that's the term used when park funding is wanted for bicycling infrastructure.
It's a floor wax and a dessert topping
Really, it's both a bike/pedestrian 'road' and a linear park. The same is true for the Southwest Corridor between Back Bay and Forest Hills, and for the Somerville Community Path.
Shouting hurts your argument
The Donald Marquis Minuteman Trail in Arlington and the Jack Eddison Bikeway in Lexington are not specifically designated as a commuter bikeway except by squatters. Those are the official names and are multi-use recreational parks. Sorry to upset you.
When it opened, it was called "Minuteman Commuter Bikeway"
The names you cite were added later, to commemororate public officials who helped make the trail happen.
Also, a tiny piece of the bikeway is in Cambridge, and a somewhat longer section is in Bedford.
Facts probably will make your head explode
Cambridge was originally called Newtowne and Arlington was West Cambridge. What is your point?
My point is that those are later, additional names
not replacements for the original, which is Minuteman Commuter Bikeway. And which indicated its intended purpose.
When you go to the Museum of Fine Arts or Northeastern University, do you say you are walking down 'Avenue of the Arts', or 'Huntington Avenue' ?
click on lexington link
Ron, I provided a link for the Lexington name in my post. It shows the original vote of the Lexington Town Meeting naming the path. Arlington has named the path for Donald Marquis for a loooong time. That is its name. Sorry, facts are inconvenient sometimes...
The point
It was specifically funded as a commuter link to Alewife.
All the renamings in the world will not change that. Ever. Federal funding, state funding for a commuter bikeway. It is, therefore, a commuter bikeway - a road for nonmotorized vehicles.
It is not and never was a park. Ever.
repeating yourself does not convince others
The Donald R Marquis Minuteman Trail is an MBTA right of way that has been leased to cities and towns along the extent from Alewife as public space. Arlington could decide to close it off and grow tomatoes on it as far as I know. The fact that the people chose to designate it as a multi use recreational facility is unquestionable. Only certain squatters think its exclusive use is as a commuter bikeway.
Primary use, not exclusive use
It was built as a commuter bikeway. It is also used by pedestrians, joggers, runners, rollerbladers, Razor scooters, skateboarders, and any other form of non-motorized transport.
In particular, the section between Alewife and Varnum Street is a major pedestrian path connecting a dense residential area to a T station. This is why the Town of Arlington eventually added lights to that section.
Truly Astounding
We now have two stories on UHub where people in motor vehicles misbehaved, and someone steps in to advocate severe limits on the rights of people not in cars.
AND get this: both claim to be from the same area of Arlington!
Its for your own safety
Arlington closes its parks at 9 PM and there is no guaranteed supervision after that time. Consider it like a swimming area. Its at your own risk after lifeguard hours, but most places try to gate a facility closed also. A park is less dangerous than a water body and rules are mainly to thwart teen drinking, but is likewise unsupervised should something happen.
You're all fucking nuts
n/t
I'd be interested in those
I'd be interested in any data that shows the bike path to be particularly dangerous.
Don't forget the denominator.
You do the math
I posted this yesterday, but the new user sometimes gets lost in the shuffle...
A sample from 2014 where the number of robberies in Arlington was 9, number of rapes=9 and aggravated assaults=42; stats found here. On the bikepath, many near Thorndike FIeld, the were at least 5 sexual assaults in 2014, 4 robberies and two assaults. This is not a comprehensive list since I know of at least two other assaults in 2014 on the bikepath near Arlington center.
Sexual Assaults
Feb 11
http://jgpr.net/2014/02/13/arlington-police-announce-arrest-tuesdays-ind...
June 2
http://patch.com/massachusetts/arlington/sexual-assault-reported-on-minu...
Sept. 10
http://patch.com/massachusetts/arlington/2-males-one-knife-assault-femal...
October 10
http://www.universalhub.com/2014/man-reeking-alcohol-sought-indecent-attack
Dec 15
http://jgpr.net/2014/12/15/composite-sketch-arlington-police-investigati...
Robbery
March 26
http://arlington.wickedlocal.com/article/20140326/NEWS/140327312
August 14
http://jgpr.net/2014/09/10/arlington-police-charge-juvenile-bike-path-mu...
August 6
http://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/News/News/2245/16?arch=1
http://www.universalhub.com/2014/police-man-robbed-knifepoint-walking-ho...
Sept. 9
http://www.yourarlington.com/search/news-archive/374-police/6911-mugging...
Melee
Aug 15
http://arlington.wickedlocal.com/article/20140823/NEWS/140828503
Okay
You were around when they opened this, and sometime before?
You know what it was like before lots of people started to use it, yes?
Old timer
I was a frequent user of the railroad tracks decades before the Donald R Marquis Minuteman Trail was completed. I even hopped trains and was one of those bad kids who would set off the train signals in Arlington center. When the path opened, it was my primary mode of transportation. Before the path there was little crime in Arlington along the railroad tracks except for what kids like me did.
Why do you ask?
Don't pretend it was any better
I ask because there seems to be a certain amnesia about what went on before it was a formalized pathway, that's why.
They were quiet boring towns.
And still are for the most part. The Commonwealth concept of home rule pitted against right of way laws seems to generate no end of confusion.
It is still owned by the DOT/MBTA with the towns using it on an interim basis. So the individual towns may put silly names on parts as typical provincial back patting but if Mass DOT decided it was urgently needed for light rail or some other use... poof.
Everyone is betting that won't happen, which is reasonable. The particular part in contention is easily the suckiest. I lived in Bedford in 2007 about 2 blocks from it and would pedal to Cambridge. But I always bailed when it hit Mass Ave in Arlington cause the last segment would leave me in a dumb place.
"sth" is making an incoherent muddle by citing a pile of daytime crime stats and then calling for a night time curfew.
Whatever happened to 'ya pay yez money and ya takes yez chances'? If I had to use the skank section after dark I'd be moving at a pretty good clip to reduce the malevolent wino hazard.
These towns are not going to blow money on added lighting for what they see as a relatively small constituency. They have rich assholes to coddle and disgruntled townies who don't want to pay more taxes.
You could just as readily run a short distance along the Alewife Brook Parkway sidewalk until you hit Mass Ave and head west there to Minuteman if you are coming from that direction. The distance difference is minuscule to a bicyclist.
There is basically a sad stinking little wino encampment along the Alewife Brook adjacent to the main Station area and they drift over to the bike path. It's a Cambridge problem that impacts Arlington.
You'd need some combination of Cambridge and T cops to shoo the winos and it isn't likely.If there were no ready alternatives, it would be one thing, but there are many, so suck it up. It's never useful for ideology to triumph over common sense whichever way ideology cuts.
Sure we all want a world where anyone can do any reasonable thing any time, but it isn't what we live in. It's a center right cheapskate state pretending to be liberal while living in mortal fear of Grover Norquist.
What don't you understand about that?
Bike path connection at Alewife has improved greatly since 2007
There's now a pretty seamless connection from the end of the Minuteman, alongside Yates Pond, under Route 16 next to the T station east entrance, around Russell Field, to the Cambridge-Somerville linear park headed towards Trolley Square and Davis Square.
The routing is circuitous, but you no longer have to deal with narrow sidewalks or risk biking against one-way car traffic on the Alewife access road or Harvey Street. I often prefer it to Mass. Ave.
That official routing goes
That official routing goes through some pretty scary deserted areas. First there's the walkway under Route 16 to the plaza behind the T station east entrance. From there you have to take either a fenced path through an overgrown lot to the W R Grace parking lot, or a very isolated path below the Route 16 embankment.
I'd much rather just use the T station exit roadway all the way. But they made it unnecessarily difficult. Where there could be a passable sidewalk, instead you have to climb up to an unofficial path on top of the Jersey barrier. https://goo.gl/maps/oTW7t
Spin
Sweetie, I recall playing spin the bottle on the train tracks near the Whittemore St tunnel while other kids experimented with smoking. How could I forget Kathy M?
Thank you
It does indeed sound like there's a problem there.
You are welcome
And a gentleman for acknowledging someone else's efforts at discovering the truth.
I wish the town would do
I wish the town would do something about the terrible condition of the path entrance on Thorndike Street. It's a mess of perpetual mud puddles (or a sheet of ice in the winter).
The town says they can't do anything because it's a private street. Well, isn't that what eminent domain is for, since there's clearly a public need for well-maintained pavement in that spot?
No, it's time to light the
No, it's time to light the bike bath. If it was lit after dark then more people would use it and you wouldn't get the crime problem you do.
This part of the bike path *is* already lit
the lighting goes from Alewife station to about Varnum Street.
The whole thing. Partly
The whole thing. Partly lighting it does nothing for anyone who needs to use it past Varnum Street, which is most people.
Lighting the bike path
I would very much like to see the whole Minuteman lighted, but my understanding is that when Arlington agreed to have the path built way back in the late 1980s, the town and the adjoining property owners didn't want lighting. I could be wrong about this, so feel free to correct me with facts.
Somerville's then-mayor Mike Capuano, on the other hand, insisted that his city's section of the path be fully lit before he would allow it to officially open. And I'm glad he did so.
Pedestrians needing to continue beyond Varnum Street at night can use parallel residential streets (Brooks Ave, Margaret Street)
In any event, more lighting would not have deterred or prevented this particular crime, which happened in an already lighted area.
The property owners need to
The property owners need to be told tough shit. If it needs to voted on by the town, so be it. Many many things in Arlington have changed over the past decade.
My argument wasn't that light has some magical property that wards off crime. The thing is that a well lite bike path would get more use, more through traffic, and that the increased traffic would be a deterrent to this type of thing.
Actually, there is not
Actually, there is not lighting along this section of the bike path. There's lighting in the parking lot, but when the bike path turns away from Thorndike Field towards Magnolia Park, from there up to Lake Street, it is unlit. I would like to see it lit, but last I heard, many abutters were against it because of the light it would shine into their homes at night.
As someone who frequently uses this path after 9 pm to get home from the T, rather than waiting 40 minutes for the 79 (which stops running at 9:50 pm anyway), it would be stupid to literally bar people from using it after 9 pm. I agree that there's not much reason to be loitering along the path itself later at night, but I see people stargazing in both of those fields fairly often after the 9 pm posted closing; likewise, similar at Spy Pond.
Use 9pm curfew to prevent crime
After this incident, there is no reason the Arlington pd shouldn't drive down to the Thorndike field parking lot at 9pm ,block the one exit and question every occupant of each car or person hanging out there. Belligerent or uncooperative scofflaws can be arrested for trespassing and, after a month, the cops will know those who belong and habitual offenders. Word will spread that hanging out in Thorndike to do drug deals, cause trouble or rob people is not a good idea. The same applies to the bikepath and any park, like Spy Pond, along it. It is called pro-active safety and enforcing the rules will only make everyone safer.
Horses for courses
A curfew at a park or recreation facility seems like a reasonable compromise between liberty and safety... maybe.... just barely.
A curfew on a commute path, not so much so.
Daytime is crime time
Much of the crime on the bikepath is during the day, see my comment above for details.
You must work regular hours
And go nowhere in the evening.
That's not how many people live, dear.
Also note: those of us who lived near where that path went in have stories to tell about the days when it wasn't paved and it was officially "closed". These weren't fun things.
How offensive
Since I've never posted here before, I am curious how you know so much about my nocturnal activities.
>> What brought these
>> What brought these "homeless" guys into Arlington?
I'll tell you this: there were always people haggling at the crazy Rt. 2 / Rt. 16 intersection, but there haven't been people sleeping on the bikepath under the Rt 2. bridge until about some time last fall. Coincidentally, the Long Island shelter closed down around the same time, and I started noticing quite a few more individuals sleeping under the bridge; one time I got scared by one of them walking against traffic in the dark on the shoulder of Route 2 eastbound in the.
There are a LOT of people passing under that bridge every day, call me a wimp, but no way in hell would I go through there in the dark anymore after all the assaults and muggins that have took place there in the past couple of years (see list posted above).
Oh, and as far as closing of the bike path at 9pm goes, I've walked the section from Arlington Center to Trader Joe's plenty of times after 9pm, and you can always meet a couple of stray joggers, dogwalkers, people going for an evening walk, or high school students quietly smoking pot/drinking beer. I bet I'm not the first person to have a couple of drinks at Tryst or Not Your Average Joe's and then quietly walk home on the path instead of driving.
"people haggling at the crazy Rt. 2 / Rt. 16 intersection"
Used to be, these folks were trying to sell you a Globe or a Herald. Haven't seen that in years.
Edit: actually, I'm thinking of the Route 16/Mass Ave intersection, a few blocks away.
Haggling at the Rt. 2 / Rt. 16 intersection
Before it was an intersection it was a rotary and there was no haggling / panhandling. Creating the intersecting and long traffic delays made the haggling possible. If that knot were to be restored to a more free flowing interchange like a flyover for Rt. 2 then the income opportunities for the homeless would be limited to mugging people on the bike path and hopefully they would go elsewhere.
Right now, they have "work" and "housing" co-located at Alewife. Take one or both away and the population moves. Building at the Mugar site in Arlington will help replace some of the outdoor camping space with indoor "affordable" 40B housing.
This isn't new
Actually, the first place that I ever saw panhandling of traffic backups was when that intersection was still a rotary! I remember it vividly because I had just arrived and was on my way to Devens and was amazed at such an odd thing.
That said, it isn't limited to this intersection. Dewey Square has become a central location for panhandlers, including the ones who walk down the freeway off ramps. Mass Ave coming off of I-93 has also had them for many years.
And, of course, the situation has become far more extreme in recent months - Alewife is hardly the only such locus of activity.
Homeless of living in subsidized housing in Arlington?
"Peter Harris, 37, whose last known address is a homeless shelter in Boston..."
According to this article, Harris admitted to living in Arlington last January.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/art...
“It’s a 100 percent improvement on the old place,” said Peter Harris, 36, who stays in Arlington but sometimes visits the center. “It has a very refined look.”
Is this another case of an alleged perp living in subsidized housing in Arlington? We will never know.
Wicked Local article deleted?
The article your link pointed to isn't there anymore.
full article
http://waltham.wickedlocal.com/article/20150108/News/150107483?template=...
Good job by the Police
It's a good thing the bad guys didn't make their escape into Alewife station where the Cardboard cop was waiting for them. Speaking of the Cardboard cop have any bikes been stolen out of the bike cage at the station while he has been on duty?
This post is about people
This post is about people being shot at, not bikes being stolen.
I'm New In Town
Is Arlington safe? I read this story and I think it might just be some random thing but this area seems really dangerous to have two people shooting at cars at night. This seems like those Roxbury or Dorchester neighborhoods I have heard of from the news media. Is this neighborhood known as The East Side? It seems really unsafe. Is there hope for the people that live there?
It used to be back when it
It used to be back when it the town was dry.
hahaha
when the town was dry
ok.
i grew up in arlington and still own property there today.
when the town was dry, i drove ~2 minutes to kappys by johnnys, which is probably still the closest or second closest place to buy booze from my property anyway.
"kappy's by johnny's" ?
I'm guessing that you mean the former Johnnie's Foodmaster at Broadway and Route 16 in Somerville (now a Stop & Shop). It does have an adjoining liquor store, but it's not a Kappy's.
Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, and Lexington all have liquor stores quite close to the Arlington line, a legacy of Arlington's dry days.
oh, whatever
we can nitpick the unimportant details or we can address the fact that arlington has only ever been a dry town in name
Lived there in the late 80s
When I first moved to MA I lived in Arlington for about a year and a half (on Alfred Rd, which is off Lake St). I worked in Cambridge and spent a lot of free time there and in Boston. One evening on my way home from work I really needed a drink and so got off the bus and proceeded to visit the convenience stores/small groceries on Mass Ave in search of beer. It was only then, after living in the town for approximately 2 months, that I learned it was dry. Where I lived was a nice neighborhood at the time, and I regularly walked to/from Alewife in the evenings. Sorry to hear that things have deteriorated.
East Arlington is still a nice neighborhood
It has not "deteriorated" at all, and this incident is not in any way representative of the neighborhood.
In recent years, Arlington has gradually allowed some beer-and-wine-only stores, and more recently general liquor stores. East Arlington has at least two of these now.
Deteriorated?
Oh, dearie me.
You must not have heard about all the rapes that happened in your neighborhood in that era. I worked at Arthur D. Little and would cut through to get to Mass Ave and it was far more worrysome then!
It just wasn't considered to be news.
You mean
Before the seven "members only" clubs in town put in their full bar service?
I remember people stopping to ask "do you know where "The Dav" is? Its a bar - I know it is around here someplace"
Reddit is over that way
Reddit is over there
Gather the facts
"Data" is not the plural of "anecdote"
Arlington is quite safe.
When I lived in Roxbury, just south of Dudley Square, my biggest worry about commuting was "am I or my husband going to get caught in someone else's crossfire?" In East Arlington, my biggest worries about commuting involve impatient drivers going between Alewife and Route 2 or along Mass Ave or Lake St ignoring the crosswalks and hitting me or my husband.
In Roxbury, these kinds of shootings happened almost every weekend (thanks, Blackstonian, for compiling the info). In Arlington, this one shooting is a bizarre anomaly; the last shooting in this neighborhood was almost 18 months ago during a bank robbery.
That area has been a problem for decades
Over the past 25 years or so, in the area where the shooting occurred, along the bike path there have been about 3-4 strings of muggings and sexual assaults, usually at night. Its dark there with woods and marshland for attackers to hide, especially when the lights are not working. So, given how years go by between any incidents, I consider it safe. In the past year, it seems like there have been around 6 sexual assaults and 4 muggings on the bike path. STH has submitted a post with the data, waiting for Adamg to pass it through moderation as he is not a registered regular.
Two ways to make the area safer:
1. Develop the Mugar property, which is a 17 acre parcel of woods where homeless people camp out next to Thorndike field where the shooting occurred.
2. Turn the traffic gridlock that was the former Alewife rotary into an overpass! The current gridlock gives these homeless people lots of opportunity to solicit money from drivers stuck in traffic at the traffic lights. A more free flowing overpass takes away the income opportunity that draws homeless people to the woods around Alewife.
Lighting the bike path is a challenge because there is no electrical service along the old rail bed as far as I know. There is some buried fiber optic cable along the right of way. The path got repaved once by the company who installed the fiber. Width is a challenge. The path is too narrow for all the two abreast cyclists, three abreast pedestrians with wandering dogs and kids, in line skaters etc. and some steep embankments on a narrow right of way to squeeze in lighting and conduit perhaps some places.
There has to be some way to
There has to be some way to use solar and LED lights. This can't possibly be an impossible task. If we put a man on the moon, perhaps we can light the Arlington bike path?
Better yet
Take your house for a superhighway between Alewife and Rt 128.
#1. Build a fence
#1. Build a fence
#2. You think homeless people won't camp under an overpass? Changing to an intelligent signaling system with loop sensors would fix most of the traffic issues.
#3. Solar powered LED streetlights or in pavement lighting fixtures
Safe?
I love that you guys took the bait. Fishy, fishy, fishy.
Security Theatre
Arlington Police were showing the flag, today on the bike path. Between Magnolia Field and Arlington Centre, I passed three Arlington cops. The one on the bicycle, I didn't mind. The two driving their cars along the path with their blue lights flashing were a pain. The cars took up most of the width of the path, and forced everyone else to stop and get off the path while they passed. One car was going from Lake Street to Magnolia Field, and the other was going from Spy Pond to Lake Street. They were moving slowly. I didn't get the sense that they were going anywhere, just cruising to show they were willing to inconvenience everyone on the path for the sake of security theatre.
Arlington Police have motorcycles
and bicycles and a brand new $3,600 electric bicycle. No need to inconvenience everyone using the bike path by driving on it.