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Event meant to bridge gap between cops and teens ends with traffic-blocking melee in the middle of Blue Hill Avenue

Talk It Out

On Nov. 8, the Chez-Vous skating rink - right behind the B-3 police station - opened its doors for a police-sponsored teen event that started with police officers rapping with teens about relations between the two and concluded with some free roller skating.

Everything was fine and people had a great time - until the teens started leaving around 8:45 p.m.: A couple of girls, one of whom had not even been at the event, got into it at Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street and a crowd gathered around them and people began brawling and soon police dispatchers were having to call in officers from all over to deal with an unruly mob of 200 to 250 kids fighting and yelling and blocking traffic and mouthing off to cops and just refusing to leave, according to testimony at a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning.

Four teens wound up arrested on charges of being delinquent for disorderly conduct when, police say, they responded to police requests to move with various exclamations - including "fuck the police!" - or simple laughter.

And this, a Chez-Vous manager told the licensing board, is why the roller rink had stopped running teen-specific events in 2016 - after a similar melee in which one teen got bleach thrown in her face.

Since the 2016 incident, Chez-Vous has tried to limit itself to all-ages, family-type events, manager Derek Thompson told the board. He said the rink knows that teens "won't listen to us" outside, especially once they get across Blue Hill Avenue, to where the KFC used to be.

But B-3 asked if the rink could open up one night for an event designed to ease tensions between police and local teens, and Chez-Vous agreed to donate the space between 6 and 9 p.m.that night. The idea was to have cops and kids talk for half the time, and then the kids could skate the rest of the time for free.

"Inside, there were no problems," he said. "It was peaceful, successful." And, at first, he said, the end was peaceful, too, as small groups of kids began to leave, under the eye of at least 10 Chez-Vous guards.

He said he was standing outside when he saw a "very, very riled up young lady" coming down Blue Hill Avenue. He said he managed to get her to stop heading towards Chez-Vous, but that she soon returned and began arguing with another teen who had been inside the rink.

Calls must've gone out over social media and soon the area was flooded with teens, who began taking out their phones for pictures, which just led to more things happening, he said.

Lt. Det. Stephen Meade said two or three officers quickly headed out of the B-3 station when they got a report of a fight on Rhoades Street, which runs between the station parking lot and the roller rink. Outside, they quickly found themselves in the middle of a scrum of up to 250 kids - many right in the middle of the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street, which is normally one of the busiest in the area, but which had ground to a complete halt because of all the teens,, he said.

He said officers radioed for help, and more officers quickly responded, but that orders to disperse over cruiser PA systems had little effect. He said all of the arrested teens refused repeated demands by officers to move. One, he said, just kept pacing back and forth and called the officer telling him to leave "bitch!" - at least until the officer got out his cuffs and arrested him.

The licensing board could decide at a Thursday hearing whether Chez-Vous could have prevented the incident and, if so, whether it deserves any punishment.

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Comments

Business agrees and DONATES space for said event that again, the CITY OF BOSTON POLICE DEPT requested, despite their efforts to avoid such events since the last time things went sour at one.
Event goes sour, chaos ensues.
Business is dragged before licencing board.
UN. BE. LEEEEVABLE!

Who would have thought that a neighborhood business knew how to do business in their neighborhood?

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Do you have to be to start a fight AT A POLICE STATION.

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The licensing board could decide at a Thursday hearing whether Chez-Vous could have prevented the incident and, if so, whether it deserves any punishment.

It sounds like they tried to prevent the whole thing from happening in the first place, but the police didn't listen to them.

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And maybe it isn't clear, but my understanding is that the police and rink are always on the same side here. I heard one time a manager didn't want the police in but for the most part there is a good relationship and the police back them at these hearings. Not sure if Adam has ever seen it at any of these hearings, but there are often "racially charged" incidents and I have yet to see a bar brought in front of the board for it. I have heard of bar managers closing early because the crowd was too "urban" at other locations because if they don't they are afraid something like this will happen.

I always thought they should just keep this place open all night through the morning and see what happens, but on the other hand, this place is pretty much crime free 360 days out of the year and isn't even really a problem.

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The licensing board literally has nothing else to do.

If it didn't "investigate" incidents where the places obviously had no fault and tried their best to mitigate the situation, it wouldn't have enough work to justify meeting for more than 6 days out of the entire year.

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But then our valedictorians don't have exposes written about them, and our Mayor doesn't blame them for their own failures on WGBH.

And I'm offended that they blame females for starting this. Did they do genetic testing to determine this? If so, it's an invasion of personal privacy and the ACLU should be notified.

#nostereotyping
#noriotsinBrookline

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Women don't say "females."

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I find myself talking with women in residential substance use treatment programs on a weekly basis and they do, in fact, use the adjective "female" as a substantive, when the noun "woman" would be easier on the ears. The women doing it tend to have experience with incarceration.

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I hate that trolling is allowed by this horrible person.

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You can just scroll.

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I can’t get over the fact that the KFC closed.

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From scientists and teachers and parents ,
that teenagers are assholes. lmao

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--Hey Ma! It's Thursday night at 845pm. Goin' out brawlin' 'cause InstaFace told me to.

--Alright sugarbun. Fight nice out there. It's cold so don't forget to wear the hand-knit sweater mama made for her precious, precious, darling.

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Is this supposed to be funny?

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But hey? If you don't want to cry, and don't think bluntness is going to get you anywhere other than a flame war, may as well go with sarc.

Edit: see below for the difference.

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When you are getting lots of handouts and "resettlement" money to be a "refugee".

Too bad you seem to believe all the same stupid things the Russians you ran from do.

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This is despicable. I can see the racist undertones oozing out of this article. When will people wake up and realize that this isn’t a matter of race, it’s a matter of impoverished and oppressed urban communities. Please consider revising your choice of words.

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Where does the article veer off the rails?

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The constant excusemaking is the worst sort of oppression I've seen. Infinitely more harm is done telling a kid he is forever powerless against a system rigged against him than teaching him early to comport himself in a manner befitting a citizen of the greatest country on this Earth. The former makes for aggrieved and paranoid adults who see evil spirits in every minor disappointment and pass that mind cancer down to their descendants. The latter makes for people you'd be proud to call friend and brother.

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So, the price of brotherhood and friendship with you is to deny racism exists? Too high. Most people of color do "comport" themselves as citizens of a great country in spite of the fact we have often been denied the rights our citizenship guarantees. Every right we exercise had to be demanded.

The purpose of educating our children about the history of race, from slavery through Jim Crow and beyond, isn't to perpetuate grudges or hold them back. It's so they recognize when the country begins to regress and can call it out and address it. Nobody is sitting in a corner, paralyzed by racism. We're out here every day working to support our families and our communities.

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Or was I talking about the kids who decided it was a good idea to brawl in front of a police station at 845pm on a Thursday night...AND...the poster who said, and I quote:

This is despicable. I can see the racist undertones oozing out of this article. When will people wake up and realize that this isn’t a matter of race, it’s a matter of impoverished and oppressed urban communities. Please consider revising your choice of words.

You know...diverting responsibility and making excuses.

See the problem with chalking it all up to racism is not just that it'll poison the minds of black kids but that some white folks will start to believe it too, and start formulating their opinions and value systems on the assumption that black equals perpetual outsider. If I recall my history correctly, that tends to work out poorly for all concerned.

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Your imagined dialogue made it seems as though you believe all these parents are just fine with their kids brawling in the streets. You know, some of the same folks I see trudging to work just like me. Plus, it was just a bit stereotypical.

Also, you made a broad statement that cast racism as imagined slights. So, either you do believe that or you don't. Or, you've narrowed your commentary to the specific incident. On top of it all, the very genesis of racism in this country is whites "formulating their opinions and value systems on the assumption that black equals perpetual outsider." Pretending attention to racism leads to racism is a cute Jedi mind trick.

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What do you call it when dispassionate reporting on a street altercation that actually happened is called racist by an anontroll?

Taking as self-evident that most people, white or black, are not sociopaths nor do they aspire to be sociopaths, you've got to be kidding me if you believe there is no such thing as sociopaths and that there is no such thing as sociopaths who like to stoke racial grievances for personal and/or political gain.

Calling out racism where it exists does not create it, but conjuring it up where it doesn't certainly does not create a kinder, gentler, society, and it does not engender feelings of friendship and brotherhood across lines of race or class. It makes people paranoid. It makes it that much more likely that "You don't look like me, therefor I don't have to acknowledge you as a fellow human being" is not something people are ashamed to think or outright say.

To answer your earlier question, the price of friendship and brotherhood with me is not living in a fantasy land where nothing bad happens, but it is the suppression of the tribal urge (that we all have) to assume the worst of those not of our tribe without evidence.

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"What do you call it when dispassionate reporting on a street altercation that actually happened is called racist by an anontroll?" I call it someone's opinion. An opinion I don't agree with since I think I know Adam a little bit.

It took pictures splashed on front pages and film on the evening news before a lot of whites began to listen to what their fellow citizens were trying to tell them. A lot were already in the struggle.

Quite honestly, I think you're a little passive-aggressive on race. You like to bait and then try to William F. Buckley your way out of it. That's okay. I've had these "discussions" with the best of them.

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So's everyone. Doesn't make you an anti-white racist any more than it makes me an anti-black racist. Bad behavior occured, stupid people mouthed off...it won't be all smiles and sunshine in the comments section.

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I assure you, I would have made the exact same post if the incident in question had occurred in any lily-white jurisdiction of your choosing.

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"if white people recognize racism it means they differentiate by race which leads to oppression and racism"

jesus christ, roman.

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white people begin to acknowledge racism.

do you read what you write?

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"begin to" = say magic words and profess believe in and support of whatever commanded to by the SJW priests, unquestioningly and loudly.

"acknowledge" = apologize for things that you didn't do, and your ancestors probably didn't do, to people who may no longer be living

"racism" = the fact that through the actions of yourself and your family, you are better off than someone else who happens to have a little more melanin in their skin than you, to the exclusion of any people who are less better off than you, and for much the same reasons, but also have as little melanin in their skin as you.

I will acknowledge that racism exists when presented examples of it. I will not acknowledge the Jussie Smollets of the world as victims of racism. And I will not be guilted into shutting down my critical thinking because feelings. So far, the tally is running very high in favor of fake racism than real racism. That's a good thing.

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bruh, segregation, jim crow, all that shit was the NINETEEN SIXTIES. my parents remember it, and they're not especially old. this "bloohoo I'm getting attacked because my 8 times removed grandfather owned a slave :,(" shit is disingenuous as fuck. society IS just beginning to recognize this shit is a problem, and they're certainly not making any kind of attempt at payback, which is the only way the "it happened, it's fixed, get over it" argument makes any sense. address the generations of deliberately created obstacles to wealth and opportunity built by white people, and then we can see about all "moving past" this crap.

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your comments are dry to the point of parody these days. i imagine it's difficult when your shtick is to just pretend everything that is actually isn't.

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Goddamn your arguments are tired as anything. I guess I might as well call you a racist male chauvinist -- so apparent from your mind-numbingly boring comment -- such that you can trot out the rest of your idiotic screenings.

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This is 100% neutral reporting of an incident where teenagers acted extremely stupid, in spite of the best intentions and efforts of the adults involved. Teenagers of all races do that sometimes.

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Why not have MBTA buses standing by to transport the teens at the break of the event? Its not like the MBTA doesn't transport thousands of teens every day without any problems.

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Over/under number of times "World Starrr" was uttered?

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I'm kidless, and I think a lot of issues like this go right over my head. Could someone explain how the parents fit into outreach such as this meeting? What sorts of topics are they exploring here?

Would it have helped to have officers escort smaller groups off the premises instead of using a demi "crowd control" cadre of private security guards?

I don't understand the dynamics or context of how a single agitated teen could have gone unaddressed by the convening adults - assuming BPD/parents here.

Thanks - the whole situation saddens me. But I feel too ignorant to understand how I or the larger public might help.

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