Hey, there! Log in / Register
Mourners of man shot in confrontation with police turned JP bar into battleground: Chairs, glassware flew, regulars hid in the back
By adamg on Tue, 06/09/2015 - 12:39pm
The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday whether the Drinking Fountain shares any of the blame for an all-out brawl that sent at least one man to the hospital with a stab wound on April 7.
Two people actually wound up in the hospital - one with an apparent stab wound to the back, the other with a scalp laceration that police said they were unable to tell whether it was from a knife or one of the glasses, bottles and chairs that started flying shortly before midnight. Police said neither man much wanted to talk to them.
According to the bartender on duty that night at the small Washington Street watering hole, people started coming in to try to relax after the funeral for Angelo West of Hyde Park - who died in a confrontation with police in Roxbury on March 27: Police say officers shot him after he shot Officer John Moynihan in the face during a traffic stop.
The bartender said most of the people wore pins with West's photo on them. "Everybody was tense about the funeral," she said. She said two guys got into a fight. Some other people tried to break it up, but others began brawling, too. She estimated a dozen men were battling each other at the peak of the fight.
"Chairs and drinking glasses were thrown," a detective said.
The bartender said when she saw the chairs and glasses being wielded liked weapons, she herded the bar's regulars into a back room to keep them out of the line of fire.
Board Chairwoman Christine Pulgini expressed amazement at the fight, given the bar's reputation as a quiet neighborhood hangout. The bartender agreed, noting that with the regular crowd, when tempers flare, other regulars usually step in to break things up before they get too far - and that usually works. "Whatever happened to happy drunks?" Pulgini mused.
The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
drinking fountain.. ::shudder
drinking fountain.. ::shudder::
it's on washington
The Drinking Fountain is a
The Drinking Fountain is a great,classic old JP bar where everyone is welcome. Very much like Doyles. Just one block south. No need to shudder just cause you don't know the neighborhood or the establishment.
Drinking Fountain?
Fountain vs. bubbler
The problem is, the word "bubbler" is so inherently ridiculous sounding that nobody wants to use it.
"What happened to happy drunks?"
Jesus holy (expletive) Christ, is this woman 12 or naive or something? The people in the fight were wearing pins WITH A PHOTO OF A GUY WHO SHOT A COP IN THE FACE. What could possibly make Ms. Pulgini believe that somebody who is drunk and in league with a would-be cop killer is the kind of guy with whom you laugh and toss darts?
Is the bar supposed to run background checks on anybody who comes through the door? Am I demanding too much as a Bostonian to have Bostonians on our licensing board who actually have worked in a bar?
Indeed.
Yeah, once he was accused by the police, every person in the city should have immediately purged him from their memories. Friends and family alike should have refused to attend his memorial service, based on the accounts of the police officers involved with the stop. After all, the evidence was incontrovertible as of April 7th, three days before the DA's office released footage of the event.
It was a funeral party. Those were his family and friends. Even if the guy turned out to be a violent piece of crap, he's still a human being, with a family who wants to mourn him. And using the "they knew the deceased, so they must share his beliefs" standard is pretty disingenuous, even for you.
That said, I get nervous whenever the ISD pokes their nose into the Drinking Fountain, because they serve cheap mixed drinks that will strip paint off a wall, and I don't want them getting nailed for it.
Don't get hay on your clothes
Building that straw man. I'm the first guy to tell you that everybody deserves a funeral. But you mourn a guy like that quickly and quietly. You don't start a frickin' bar brawl. Come on now.
OK...
Where in the story does it say anything about the mourners starting the fight? All we know is that "two guys started to fight," and as it escalated, the bartender tried to herd people into another room. If I had to bet, it would be on someone spotting one of the pins and saying something. And remind me again why we get to dictate where his relatives go after the funeral, and for how long?
?
"Where in the story does it say anything about the mourners starting the fight? "
The headline.
But as far as Christine Pulgini's comments are concerned
Isn't is weird, at least the way she was quoted? From the story it sounds to me like we know more or less why a bar brawl occurred - tensions were high because of the manner in which the deceased became deceased, certainly.
It just seems weird that Pulgini sounded surprised, or implied that anyone who went from the funeral to the bar should have been happy - or become happier when they added alcohol to their grief. I don't know who started the fight or how, but given the situation it sounds totally plausible. A bunch of people mourning the death of a rather controversial man who died violently, and drinking? Sure.
The context
After Pulgini expressed surprise something like this would happen at a place like the Drinking Fountain - normally a quiet little place where neighborhood locals go to get their drink on - the bartender agreed and started talking about how the regulars would quickly intercede to stop any trouble and that would be that. That's when Pulgini said what she did, which I thought I said in my post. Although it seemed like an odd thing to say given the broader context of why the bartender and the owner were there in the first place, she wasn't referring specifically to the fight or why people might be upset after a funeral.
Ah, I see. And yet...
Thanks for the clarification - that part about it being unusual at that kind of bar was indeed in your article from the get-go. That explains her being surprised. I'm still not totally clear on where the "happy drunks" comment fits in, though. It doesn't really apply to the mourners or the regulars.
I hadn't heard of Christine Pulgini before today...
but based on these last two articles, she doesn't seem too bright.
mourning
Yup, to someone who refers to themselves as a "Bostonian" you might feel that folks have no right to mourn their family or friend if there is a cop involved in their death. Hail West Roxbury and Norwood, too. God Bless the Bostonian!
It would be a shame if The
It would be a shame if The Drinking Fountain, a place enjoyed by many including myself, was negatively affected because some losers who associate with a scumbag who shot at cops, unprovoked, on more than one occasion decided to start a brawl in their establishment.
This is the first I've heard of this.
Why on earth were these folks at the Drinking Fountain? West was from Hyde Park/Roxbury--what's the connection?
I've been trying to figure
I've been trying to figure this out too. Closest I can come is that a lot of churches in the area refused to hold a funeral for him, so they started branching out to places as far away as H-Block. If they ended up in one of the parkside JP churches, the Drinking Fountain would be a logical place to go.
1. H-Block isn't an area of
1. H-Block isn't an area of the city, it's gang territory in Roxbury.
2. Not all families/friends live within a block of each other and/or where funeral services may be held. It's not that hard to "figure out."
It's a mile or so up the road
It's a mile or so up the road from HP.
The last time I went to a post-funeral gathering, it was about 30 miles from where the deceased lived.
Huh?
No, it's not. Hyde Park Ave, maybe but not Hyde Park. That said, I wasn't speaking geographically, more like what connection did the deceased or his cronies have with the Drinking Fountain? It clearly isn't their local but I also think of their clientele as a bunch of...well, kind of cranky older white people. Just not seeing the connection.
People who live in one
People who live in one neighborhood can have friends and family in other neighborhoods. Or even go to bars in neighborhoods other than the ones they live in!
Also, if you haven't noticed, JP borders Roxbury, and there is a dearth of liquor licenses in Roxbury. If the family and funeral were in or near Eggleston Square (which spans JP and Roxbury), the Drinking Fountain is not very far and may have been the most convenient location for the post-funeral gathering.
Washington Street in JP is also on the route between Hyde Park and Roxbury. So if the funeral were in one, but people returning to the other, it would also be on the way.
Wow--thank you for edifying me!
JP is next to Roxbury? Who knew? I'll stick that in my book of Little Known Boston Facts.
I'll say it again--it just seems like a weird choice. You'd think after a funeral you'd gather somewhere familiar, the deceased' favorite hangout or something, not crash some slightly geezery bar in a random neighborhood.
Uh...
How do you know it was not his favorite bar? And you make it sound like the mourners drove out of their way to get to the Drinking Fountain from Hyde Park. It's about two miles from "downtown" Hyde Park to that part of JP.
And I second whoever said this better not bring any changes at the Drinking Fountain. I go pretty rarely but love it when I do. Strong drinks, a jukebox, and scratch tickets. Plus, an array of delicious fried goodness.
P.S. - Does anyone else remember the story from a few years ago of the gang members from Roslindale who stabbed a guy on Stanhope Street in downtown Boston? Gang members were attending a funeral, all decked out in their special gang color tuxes when a bystander made a crack about their fashion choice.
Well because...
the story is pretty clear about the "regulars" as opposed to the mourners. Who knows--maybe this WAS West's favorite hangout when he wasn't behind bars--it just seems highly unlikely given his proclivities, where he lived, and the style of bar it is. Maybe they were actually headed to Doyle's and got confused. Maybe they were actually going to get their cars washed and decided to stop in for a drink. Sheesh.