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Brighton bar beating result of spillover from Jamaica Plain gang beef, police say

Police aren't saying just what it was that ticked off members of the Bromley-Heath gang, but whatever their problem, the result was a brutal attack that sent a 20-year-old man inside the Green Briar Pub to nearby St. Elizabeth's Hospital on Jan. 24.

At a hearing before the Boston Licensing Board this morning, a police sergeant and a bar manager said all of the 13 men indicted last week for beating a man to the ground with their fists, and bottles had actually spent the night in the private party at which their victim was also a guest. In fact, they were "socializing with the victim throughout the evening," the sergeant said.

But shortly before 1 a.m., police and the manager said, the large group of men went outside. They took off their jewelry, put up their hoods and rushed back into the Green Briar, and onto the side of the bar where the party was going on. By the time police arrived, the floor was littered with broken bottles and doused with fresh blood.

"They made a beeline for this individual and began beating him," the sergeant said. "It was an ambush planned by these people."

The bar manager said when she saw the men rush in and head to the victim, she figured something was up and rushed that way as well - but she was stopped by a bouncer, who ordered her back for her own safety as the beating began and other party goers fled for their lives. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bar, regular Green Briar patrons stayed put and continued enjoying their beverages.

It was the sudden flight to safety that actually led to the violation for which the bar was cited: Letting patrons go outside with drinks. The bar manager and another employee said that if that happened, it was only because people who had drinks in their hands fled so quickly they didn't think to put their plastic cups down, and bar workers had their hands full with what bar attorney Dennis Quilty called "a melee of the highest order - people ran for their lives."

Police say they were able to identify all the attackers thanks to video - from both the bar's security system and from cell-phone videoos that were, of course, quickly posted to social media.

Quilty added that the person who reserved space for the private party had done so at least twice before and that the bar had not had problems with the previous parties.

Also at issue: When the bar notified police of the attack within sight of the D-14 station. The sergeant said nobody called 911 for at least ten minutes after the attack started. The bar manager, however, said she immeidately called 911 when she saw what was happening.

The board decides Thursday whether the bar could have done anything to prevent the attack and, if so, what punishment to levy.

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Comments

My prediction: after this week, the Green Briar will have a dress code meant to exclude riff raff and especially lower class black patrons, as some of the other places in the area have already done (e.g. White Horse).

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You clearly havent been to white horse in a while

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Have at it.

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You never see black guys in skinny jeans and dress shirt.

You're a fool for assuming all black men dress like gang banggers.

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Generally dress like gang bangers, hipsters dress like hipsters (skinny jeans/dress shirt isn't exactly "hipster", but we're generalizing here). Generally, hipsters don't attack in groups of 20 and beat someone nearly to death. Gang bangers on the other hand, seem to.

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Relax ignorant!!! I'm black and I just left the "white horse" Saturday night. Me and a group of my guys played pool against a group of white guys and we all had a ball playing over drinks!!! " where were you"

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>Me and a group of my guys played pool against a group of white guys and we all had a ball playing over drinks!!!

Awesome! Did that involve and 80's montage where you all bonded and taught each other how to breakdance?

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bromley- heath gang fights in irish pubs on the other side of the city? wtf. I grew up drinking in these places and the worst thing you might see was some drunken idiot hit someone with a bottle. the last 5 years?!?! stabbings, shootings, muggings, murder. this does not appear to be college kids or local townies. glad my drinking days are over......

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Uh, the Kells closed in 2010 following a spree of violence, so this is definitely more than a 5 year old problem.

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The savage beating of a customer inside the bar didn't draw a violation, but the people who didn't put down their drinks before fleeing the knife-and-bottle-bearing gang of guys beating someone into the ground were enough for a summons?

I just... is the board TRYING to make themselves look like Keystone Kops? This has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard about them, and this is a group who has sent police officers to measure the linear shelf feet devoted to selling wine.

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And in this case, what the police gave them was a citation for customers drinking outside. I suspect the police on scene probably thought it was a better use of their time collecting evidence for possible criminal prosecutions (and, in fact, 13 men were indicted last week and more indictments could be coming) than writing up citations for a non-criminal licensing-board hearing.

But given that the reason people were outside with drinks in their hands stems entirely from the beating inside, and given that the board took testimony from both sides on that issue (which is how I get to write it up), I also suspect the board will take the fight into consideration as well in their deliberations (and remember: their key standard is always whether the licenses holder could have done something to prevent what happened, not whether what happened sent somebody to the hospital, or worse - as we say in the cases of Who's on First).

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Adam, I think most people who rightully criticize these license board hearings question why the hearings were called at all. You were able to summarize it in a sentence, people fled outside to avoid a dangerous situation inside. No need for any type of hearing when the "violation" is self explanatory. If a fire broke out and someone failed to put down their drink rushing to safety, would that warrant a write up also?

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Cops respond to gang attack inside a bar.

Cops collect evidence and work on arresting the involved parties.

Cops decide bar has to "answer for its part in this" by putting together some trumped up licensing violation because the bar wasn't complicit in the criminal activity that the cops have responsibility over...so the cops can't crack down on the bar directly.

Bar ends up in front of licensing board to answer for "patrons with drinks outside establishment" which leads to discussing the criminal activity...which opens the door to the board taking that into account when dealing with the bar that didn't do anything wrong in all of this.

Bar starts to refuse private parties to "certain people" or take additional "precautions" so that they don't run afoul of cops who don't want to do their jobs and have put the impetus on the bar to prevent those actions from ever happening for fear of ending up in front of the licensing board for something they didn't have any involvement in.

Patrons get discriminated against so the bar doesn't have to deal with cops or the board.

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The real questions....

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For $7.3 million, the Green Briar could buy the street and patrons could drink outside. Then again, Menino is gone. While I agree that gang members fighting at the Briar is unusual, I doubt this will result in special dress codes targeting blacks. Troublemakers come in every race and the bar staff quickly gets to know them. I imagine that's why the Bromley crowd was on a roadtrip.

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7.3 million officially went to the thieves at the BRA. Want to bet John Henry slid a lot more in envelopes under the table to make that happen?

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