Editorial, Opinion

STAFF EDIT: Guns of Allston

In an email sent to Boston University students on Friday, the BU Police Department and Boston Police Department revealed their new enforcement program to crack down on underage drinking off-campus.

The BUPD will be teaming up with both the Boston Police Department and the Brookline Police to patrol the areas of Allston and Brookline on weekends to “assess, investigate, and address outstanding and reoccurring public safety issues” according to the email . There will be heavy patrols on streets known for parties, including Gardner, Ashford and Pratt. BUPD has also alerted the Brookline Police to patrol local liquor stores to ensure that minors cannot buy or procure alcohol from others.

While measures like these are important when it comes to student safety, an extensive operation such as the BUPD’s plan entails seems a bit like overkill. Obviously, underage drinking is a huge issue, but the police department would do well to ensure safety in other ways before it focuses such an enormous amount of attention on freshmen at frat parties. Allston is a notoriously unsafe area, with or without the underage drinking that goes on within the region’s limits, and there are far more serious, dangerous crimes that could be curbed by a higher enforcement program.

Additionally, students who moved off-campus to Allston and Brookline did so for a reason. While it is important to keep students safe, invading off-campus territories with constant patrols and threats will become a headache for off-campus residents and only increases stress among the student body.

Did BUPD’s email deter the hundreds of freshmen who flooded the Allston streets last weekend? No, of course not. There will always be parties, and there will always be freshmen walking the streets trying to get into one. No amount of law enforcement is going to change that.

This is not to say that a police presence should be absent from off-campus weekends. Keeping students safe should naturally be the BUPD’s number one priority, but their new approach seems questionable at best in effectiveness. The police should focus on other instances of crime in Allston that are more dangerous than freshmen experimenting with alcohol at their first real college party. Bigger threats exist elsewhere that should be dealt with first.

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52 Comments

  1. Cute. What you don’t take into account is the view of taxpayers, homeowners, business owners, who have to deal with the late-night yahooing, sidewalk puke, broken glass, puddles of urine and other pleasant consequences of students drinking off campus – the views of the people to whom BPD is accountable and whose support BU needs to build, grow or expand in this city.

    Student writer says “let students drink freely anywhere” – no surprise. Also, no influence on grownups who have an investment here, who aren’t blowing town in four years, and who have to get up in the morning.

    • The yahooing you describe happens amongst the 21+ crowd as well as the 18-20 crowd. The article is about underage drinking. Your complaints are about student drinking and the party atmosphere that tends to be inherent in a university setting.

      I would argue that the real problem is the drinking age law itself, which only exacerbates the problems you describe (and a concern I share).

      We should simply lower the drinking age back to 18. If students were allowed to drink in the company of other adults, I think it would lessen the deleterious impacts over time. Raising the drinking age has only accelerated binge drinking and recklessness.

      The police, instead of focusing on dumb (and nearly unenforceable) laws, should be focusing on preventing the destruction/defacing of property.

      • So you represent “Liberty at BU” whose mission is:

        “Liberty at Boston University is a non-political group dedicated to the advancement of personal freedom and individual responsibility. We maintain that individuals have the right to pursue happiness, peace, and prosperity in accordance with their own individual values, and rational self-interests. We hold that the most effective and moral means to such an end is obtained by voluntary cooperation, private property, free-market capitalism, and limited government. We advance these ideas by organizing discussion groups, academic debates, and social events in a relaxed and tolerant setting.”

        So to sum up, you want to let college students do whatever they want without consequences, believing that they are mature enough to govern themselves in a large city. And when the laws don’t allow you to do so, you want them changed.

        • And if the college students are not mature enouhg to govern themselves, why do they charged for crimes as adults, and why can they vote, work, and pay taxes like adults? Double standards make people hypocrites.

          Also, looking up people’s groups who disagree with you is stalkerish and outright freaky.

        • “And when the laws don’t allow you to do so, you want them changed.”

          At one point in this country: people could own slaves. African Americans had to sit on the back of the bus. Women couldn’t vote.

          So by your logic, none of these should have been changed, Chrissy?

          Ok then…at one point…most states had an 18+drinking age. Which was changed by Reagan through the blackmail on state taxes. Hypocrite.

          • So now you’re comparing underage drinking to slavery? Gary, get a grip. You are blowing this so very out of proportion.

          • You missed my point…I’m generalizing disobeying dumb useless, and unfair laws. And I don’t see any links to anyone’s group…

        • Hi Chrissy,

          Firstly, no where in my comment did I say or imply “let college students do whatever they want without consequences.” Laws cannot be justified according to what people MAY do, otherwise by that logic we should ban alcohol because some my drive while intoxicated. People should be held accountable for their actions. To this end, that statement is wholly consistent with the idea of “personal responsibility” as noted in the mission statement of Liberty at BU.

          Secondly, only my name is associated with my comment and should be treated as such. The link is to let students know that the group exists. This sentiment is also on our disclaimer on the website.

          I think it is quite compelling and very interesting that students themselves would be against lowering the drinking age. It’s as if to say, “it’s not that I’m irresponsible, it’s all those other people.”

          I would like to put together an event one day to challenge the principle behind the law (spring semester most likely), maybe co-hosted with the BU SSDP. Speaking of which, they have an article on the issue if you are interested. http://ssdp.org/campaigns/lowering-drinking-age

        • I commented here yesterday, but it somehow never made it through?

          Anyway, your contention that I favor letting “college students do whatever they want without consequences” is neither stated nor implied in my original comment. People should be held accountable for their actions, but the law should not be written for what people MAY do, otherwise we should ban alcohol because some may choose to drink while intoxicated. To this end, this is wholly consistent with the statement of “personal responsibility” in the mission statement of Liberty at BU.

          My comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect that of the group and should be taken as such.

          I am interested in exploring this issue in the future and challenging the principle behind the law, possibly teaming up with BU Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

          Here is an article about the issue from SSDP: http://ssdp.org/campaigns/lowering-drinking-age

  2. Can you really blame the police for letting BU students know that underage drinking and disorderly conduct will not be tolerated in Allston/Brighton area? I think it’s a wonderful gesture to inform new residents of the active zero tolerance policy.

    Your editorial doesn’t seem to recognize that these new student-residents [who blatantly DO experiment with drugs and alcohol] are the cause of most crimes in these areas.

    As a former non-student resident of the area, it’s really disappointing to hear that BU students flaunt their lack of connection or investment in the community and think that they have a right to be illegal, drunken pleebs.

  3. BU students that live off-campus often break the law (underage drinking, noise ordinances and regulations, public drunkenness, not to mention any number of other offenses). The fact that the BUPD and the Boston and Brookline PD are teaming up to try to stop predictable, known crimes from occurring in the Ashford/Pratt/Gardner triangle shouldn’t come as either a surprise or as some sort of affront to anyone’s civil rights. You write that BU students choose to live off-campus for a reason. I assume that part of that reason is because they want to live like adults and get out of the dorms. Here’s the catch: if you want to live out in the community as an adult, you need to follow the law. And if you want to live out in the community like an adult, you can’t turn around and plead special status as a student when your neighbors and the local police ask you to follow the law like adults do. I’m sorry that students find it “stressful,” as you write, to be asked to follow the law. If only that defense held up in court.

    You also point out that other people besides students commit crimes in Allston, and question the PD’s allocation of resources. Respectfully, that logic doesn’t hold up. If anything, if the student body is concerned with the increasing level of other crime in Allston, maybe it would serve those concerns best by not having parties that require police attention and resources. It’s not the case that the police should leave the parties alone to focus on larger problems – should the police also ignore the five or six bank robberies that happened in Allston last year to focus more on stabbings or shootings?

  4. Dear BU students: You can’t chide the police for “invading off-campus territories” when you’re, you know, BREAKING THE LAW.

  5. Hey, guess what? Underage drinking IS a crime.

    • But it wouldn’t be if the law was changed back to allow 18 year olds (i.e., adults) to drink without persecution so they are less likely to end up doing keg stands in someone’s basement.

      • So you want to change the law to suit college kids’ needs? Lower the drinking age to 18 just so that those between 18-20 (majority of college kids) won’t get in trouble?

        Also, you think there are no people over 21 doing keg stands? Get a clue.

        • No. Peopke over 21 have better things to do, like going to clubs or bars,,,you know, the places off limits to 18-20 year olds.

          • Hey, 18-20 year olds, try doing something at night that doesn’t involve getting drunk and disturbing people in your neighborhood.

        • And even if some 21 year olds do..as long as thery are not making noise or creating a disturbance, how is it any of your business?

          • The reaon 18-20 year olds are in te enighborhood is because they have no where else to go. Give them more partying options and it would be so much less of a problem…as little as 21+ year olds, actually.

        • Hi Chrissy,

          I do not appreciate the attack. The point is to have rational dialogue about the issue.

          I favor changing the back to what is was prior to 1984, where we treated adults like adults (something that should be practiced in this forum as well).

  6. The law is clear:

    The Boston Municipal Code (chapter 16, section 26) sets the general standard for noise that is unreasonable or excessive: louder than 50 decibels between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., or louder than 70 decibels at all other hours.

    In addition, the CRIME of disturbing the peace is defined at:

    First: That the defendant engaged in conduct which most people would find to be unreasonably disruptive, such as (making loud and disturbing noise) (tumultuous or offensive conduct) (hurling objects in a populated area) (threatening, quarreling, fighting, or challenging others to fight) (uttering personal insults that amount to fighting words, that is, are so offensive that they are inherently likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction);
    Second: That the defendant’s actions were done intentionally, and not by accident or mistake; and
    Third: That the defendant did in fact annoy or disturb at least one person.

    Students who don’t care about the law, are going to be subject to police action. If you behave even remotely within acceptable boundaries, you can have do what you want. Screaming, vomiting, and urinating your way through every weekend of your undergrad in a residential neighborhood will significantly increase your chances of getting into a disproportionate amount of trouble with the law. And that is not funny. The police are only cracking down in this case, because of the appalling lack of maturity, restraint, or respect shown. Nobody cares about students partying IF THEY LEAVE THEIR NEIGHBORS IN PEACE. No more, no less.

    • Except with UNDERCOVER patrols, the police can enter anyone’s house, and arrest all underage drinkers even if there is dead silence and no disturbance onceoever…just for the drinking. Do you get what the issue is here?

      • T. Allston Resident

        If the party is dead silent, and no disturbance- then how would an undercover officer find it. Based on the police reports I’ve read, they find parties by looking for excessive noise and disturbances.
        Also- it sucks, but underage drinking, like drug use is against the law….

    • Also if you are too loud, but maybe don’t realize it, and say only one person is annoyed…technically the disruption was done “by accident or mistake”…so where to draw the line?

      • There is no argument that can be made for the student’s revolting and ignorant behavior.

        Many worthy discussions can be had about exceeding police authority or the best methods for helping students show more maturity and consideration.

        The telephone lines of the police are often full of nothing other than noise and disturbance complaints from Allston residents on Friday and Saturday. There is no question that hundreds of people are totally fed up, many of whom are likely also students. Its not students per se that are the problem, it is the collection of students who regularly treat Allston as their personal latrine and breeding cage.

        The simple message cannot be repeated enough. Leave your neighbors in peace, and the police can get back to other tasks. It could start with the simple understanding that the entire neighborhood is NOT PARTYING WITH YOU AT 2 AM. Lets just start there, just shut up in a residential neighborhood after 12 or so. That’s it, just stop yelling and yahooing your way through other people’s living room. Even your hormone driven alcoholized teenage brain is able to understand this. You made it to BU or another great university, now leave it without a criminal record for nothing. How about that thought.

    • Not to mention that there is usually a section of an apartment lease which addresses acceptable noise levels.

  7. First, let me say that when I was a college freshman, having the fuzz drop by on your night out in Allston was always a bummer. All you want to do is party hardy, have a good time, get AIDS and then the cops show up! F the cops, amiright?

    You’re missing an important part though and this editorial just shows how ignorant, selfish and bu-studenty you are. Underage drinking wouldn’t be so much of a problem if nothing came of it, right? When the underage drinking leads to belligerence, vandalism, littering, 2:00am noise, public drunkenness, etc. then it becomes a problem. Now, as you do point out, Allston is known for “public safety issues.” With a bit of research, I bet you that you will find the majority of these “public safety issues” can be traced back to drunk students doing drunk things. Well the way that buPD and BPD can begin to handle these issues is go after the root cause of it all, which to no surprise is drinking. So we have a possible root cause of these crimes and because you’re doing it and because you think it’s fun and because you want to piss away your parents’ money partying for 4 years, you complain about it. Other schools in the Boston area have kicked up patrols in off-campus areas in recent years, and I don’t see silly editorials about their woes do I?

    • So if the cops caught youa s a freshman at a houseparty…being normal, but holding a beer, and hauled you off to jail and given you a criminal record, potentially ruining your career prospects, you would be ok with this? ‘U MAD BRO’?

  8. If you want students to act like adults, ever considered giving them the same rights? Adults can drink all they want and get drunk as long as they don’t drive, so why shouldn’t students? You trust students enough to vote in elections, and consider them old enough to make the Ultimate Sacrifice, yet they are not responsible enough to have a beer? Underage drinking was created to reduce drunk driving…how many BU undergrads even have cars on campus? I’ll bet Lauren, Stormer and Chelsey were exactly the same way if they went to college…and if not did not have any friends.

    You guys also are apprantely clueless on the consequences of being caught, which is a misdemenaor, which potentially can stay on your record for FIVE YEARS. You seriously want to deny job opportunitites to someone who actually does the same things as everyone else who does not get caught?

    I work full time. I can tell you that work is nothing like college. You have free nights to relax and watch sports, weekends to relax, instead of cramming for exams, worrying about how every grade will affect your job prospects. You probably have friends to hang out with…guess what? People drink for social reasons, and no matter what you do, will always do so, as proven by the Prohibition. Students need to socialize and destress…always studying can lead people to insanity, which is why MIT and Cornell ahve the highest suicide rates. It’s good to just forget your problems once in a while, so let students enjoy themselves in the company of friends once in a while.

    You’re worried about noise? Call the neighbor ans ask them to quiet down, if that doesn’t work, call the police there. Dirty streets? Talk to the people hosting the party. Seek dialogue on how to avoid those issues. Cops aren’t going to solve your issues for you all the time, you know, time to grow up!

  9. Oh, and “BU Grad ’06″…like you never went to those parties? If you didn’t then you clearly had no friends, but no need to be jealous and knock on other people in that case. If you did, then you are a hypocrite. I don’t think you’d like a criminal record, which may have prevented you from gettign your current job. Did you forget where you came from so quickly already?

    • Now you’re resorting to personal attacks?

    • Hi Gary –

      I actually went to law school at BU, Class of 06. I partied in Allston, but I was of age and we were respectful of the people around us. I also lived in Allston in a condo I owned, so I was well aware of, and very concerned with, the destructive nature of the undergrad herd.

      I appreciate your concern for my social life! But, no worries – I’ve done just fine for myself.

      I also think you have a severely warped view of the way the law works, the policies that guide why laws are changed, and the difference between protecting one’s fundamental constitutional rights (slavery, racial discrimination, gender discrimination) v. not wanting to get arrested for breaking a law that doesn’t fall anywhere near the penumbra of constitutional concern. But that’s probably best left alone. God forbid you’ll call me a loser again.

  10. By the way, if the drinking/clubbing age was 18+, there would be much less partying on your neghborhoods, since everyone would be at the bars and clubs….what else do you expect people to do when there is nothing else to do?

  11. ok so basically you’re all a bunch of fascists. Let the students party and enjoy living in the moment.

    @Chesley what’s this sad appeal to emotion ‘think about the poor taxpayers?’ just for that your opinion
    is useless.

    @Stormer ‘drugs and alcohol’? alcohol is a drug so that’s a tautology you moron. Maybe the problem is not the alcohol but the people that drink it? People who act obnoxious while under the influence of drugs are probably obnoxious in real life, maybe BU should be a bit more selective in its admission criteria? I dunno, maybe realizing that a douchy frat-ish dude with a good highschool GPA is still a dumbass?

    @Grad ’06, Allston is an area for young people. Here, complaining about loud noise and partying is like being in a zoo and complaining about the animals.

    @Lauren ‘There’s the law, and there’s what’s right’

    @Chrissy Hey guess what, anyone gaining omniscience would realize that people like you ruin this civilization and therefore would want you dead. God is omniscient. Therefore he realizes this. Ergo…

    • Those who don’t believe in God would disagree.

    • BU students can go nuts for all I care. WHATEVS – get arrested – good! I was just like, oh. em. gee. wtf this article!? Really? BOOOOOOO SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY, YOU KNOW?? [polite caps] lulz go troll the convo on universal hub, chatroulette. lame. DERP DERP DERP

      • Dear Stormer, (if that is your real name)

        I have read your reply, and have interpreted it as a covert homosexual advance, which I accept.

        Sincerely

        Paul

        PS: Chatroulette? You kinky bastard.

  12. To the moderators: in all honesty, I firmly believe that my comment adds much more to the conversation than any of these previous comments ever will. Therefore, by letting this comment be posted, you are allowing an original and well thought-out point of view to be heard. Trust me, I put more thought into my response than they did.

    Many thanks,

    Paul

    • Regrettably you would not recognize a thought if it beat you at beer pong, let alone a good one. But there is still time, being 12 is not that bad. Puberty will come soon.

      • Enough with the hate. Can’t we all just have sex and forgive each other?

        Paul

        • Of course, stop treating Allston like your (not meant personally here) latrine and breeding cage, and then we can just get along famously (no irony intended). Nobody wants negativity, but the students have to stop terrorizing the neighborhood.

          • Ok European perspective on things:

            Dude honestly, every university needs a student area, with a strong atmosphere of partying, excess and fun etc.. I’m sorry but that is a fact.
            If anything, I wish there were more parties in Allston, so it could be more fully recognized as a student area. The cheap, immoral and primal parties are a great way for people to ground themselves and free themselves and forget, for a minute, about how hard they’ve been fisted all week by BU’s amazing grade deflation policies.

            Sure some of the parties (usually the ones hosted by frats) are overtly lame, but they’re a bit like Parisian Bistros nowadays: fake and aren’t what they used to be, but enjoyable nonetheless in small doses, and part of their country’s culture.

            On a similar note, I don’t wish there was less, but on the contrary, more widespread drinking. So that the strange attitude that Americans have towards alcohol would dissipate and be replaced with a more reasonable approach that can be seen (for example) in Europe.

            The problem here I feel is that the law is being used to subvert natural culture values. Obviously laws vary from country to country because they have to adapt to the culture of said country to be most effective. So why is the drinking age 21 in the US when it is 18 or 19 in the places that are culturally very similar to the US, for example Europe?
            Maybe all it takes is to look at the other countries that have a minimum drinking age of 21: Paraguay, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Micronesia, Palau and the Solomon Islands.

            What is the benefit of having a drinking age of 21? Heartbreaking unfamiliarity with a readily available and potentially life threatening substance? And what is the benefit of these reported police “crackdowns” To scare BU freshman (because you’re not fooling anyone else) into submission?

            More interestingly, the freep attempt to cover these issues in an objective way is clearly not objective since it’s giving the authorities the press that they want. Trust me, if nobody heard about these police crackdowns, there wouldn’t be as many.

  13. “Allston is a notoriously unsafe area”

    Is that a joke?

    • I know, that’s such a joke. It’s because there’s so many people around partying and having a good time that you feel such an atmosphere of safety. Ex: if you see someone seemingly following you on an empty street at night, you realize it’s just another student in the same situation as you..

  14. You’re all out of touch and throwing out talking points that aren’t really valid.

    1.) Myth: a lower drinking age would lead to more responsible drinking age.
    http://www.nabca.org/assets/Docs/effectsminimumdrinkingagelaws.pdf
    2.) Myth: European countries don’t have the same problems with drinking.
    http://www.dhs.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Pathways_for_Health-Project/binge_drinking_and_europe_report.pdf

    If you want to break the law because you find it unjust, that is your prerogative. But you can’t bitch about it when you get in trouble. The acts of civil disobedience listed above (Civil Rights Movement, Slavery abolition, etc.) were harshly punished by the law. But the people who fought those battles did not bitch and whine when they got caught. This sort of entitled attitude is the problem — you have no right to break the law. You can challenge it, if you wish, but know in advance that the research is not on your side. Read Dr. McBride’s comments on the increase of Binge Drinking at BU and the effects he’s personally seen as the director of SHS. Check the police reports, or check in with an RA in West or Warren on a Friday night.

    • Well you know what they say about statistics.. anyway, I actually read those two articles just now (did you?), and the general feel is that the drinking age is there to protect people for their own good. That’s really nice, but let me tell you that if by 18 you haven’t figured out how to control your urges and potentially do or not do dangerous things in moderation, then truly I say unto you that you are worthless.

      But let the drinking age stay at 21, hey why not make it 70? That way you really have time to think it over.

      For those who want to toy with death however, the government has been nice enough (I wonder why) to let the smoking age stay at 18. Alcohol is for pussies, check this other addictive substance out: it’s the second most addictive drug in the world, right next to heroin, and waaay ahead of um, let’s see.. all those taboo drugs that you can barely whisper about in public? ecstasy, coke, barbs, benzos, speed and pot. It’s extremely hard to quit once you’ve started, and if you don’t stop, you’re guaranteed the slowest and most painful death in the world! Damn, no wonder people think I’m hardcore when I light up a red and take a drag like I’ve seen it done on the telly.

      Back to the original point, it’s very hard to stop a human being from doing something if he is committed. Think about it, when does anyone not do something they personally feel shouldn’t be illegal, just out of fear/respect of the law, if there’s a reasonable margin they can get away with it? If I want to drink, smoke pot or shoot up that is my right. Freedom of doing whatever you want is a right given to all sentient beings of this universe. Your personal philosophy is what should matter to you more than anything else in the world, because it is the one thing that makes you worth anything. I don’t believe my opinion is just something to be taken to committee and ignored if enough morons disagree with it. I want to drink? I will drink. I want to risk my life, I will do so. or not. who knows? Am I entering a slippery slope that will lead to public disturbance, violence, noise violations, pillaging, rape or murder? probably not.

      And finally, I think your comparison of this issue to things such as the Civil Rights Movement and the abolition of slavery is well.. maybe completely out of place. Those people did not bitch and whine when they were arrested and jailed, not because they were accepting they were breaking the law, but because they knew that all the pain and hardship they were going through would bring about a truly improved society that would benefit them and everybody else in the world. Now I’m not going to say that having a nice beer in a little bistro in the quartier latin of Paris is not bringing civilization a step further in the right direction, but I will say that maybe it shouldn’t be compared to the abolition of slavery. (just a thought)

      oh, and by writing this I’m not bitching or whining, I’m telling people who struggle to come up with intelligent thoughts to go fuck themselves. (yes that does include you my dear friend Brian)

  15. (that should have said more responsible drinking, not more responsible drinking age)