I am appalled at the tone of The Daily Free Press’s lead story (“Cops force away Faithful after win,” Oct. 22, p. 1). The article unfairly states the Boston Police Department was unjustified in the crowd-control measures it took to keep order at Fenway Park and in Kenmore Square last night. The BPD was unfairly portrayed as aggressive and belligerent. One of the people interviewed in the article declared that police action was uncalled for stating, “This is not ’04.” It is because of prudent police action last night that the crowds did not become out of control, as they did three years ago.
In 2004, university students and others in Boston showed they were not mature or responsible enough to assemble safely to celebrate a Red Sox victory. Perhaps we have all forgotten how out of control the crowds became. To quote the 2004 Free Press article covering the riot: “The area surrounding Fenway Park deteriorated into chaos around 2 a.m. . . . resulting in eight arrests and 16 people injured, including a Boston Police officer whose nose was broken by a projectile thrown from the crowd. Vandalism was commonplace in the surrounding area as numerous storefront and bus stop windows were smashed. Newspaper boxes were strewn in the streets and signs were destroyed” (“Emerson student killed in riot,” Oct. 22, 2004, p. 1). I am impressed that the BPD was able to prevent this situation from repeating itself last night.
Furthermore, the Free Press implied through the interviews it chose to publish that all of the fans who came to Fenway Park last night were innocent celebrants. This implication further served to portray police action last night as unjustified. One student interviewed stated that his friend was unfairly apprehended by police officers: “He did nothing to provoke it. Maybe he gave them the finger.” Nothing to provoke it, indeed. Any mention of disorderly conduct on the part of the celebrants last night, including the 26 arrests made in the vicinity of Fenway Park, was not included in this article.
While it is true that many of the people who came to Fenway Park to celebrate last night had peaceful intentions, it takes only a few people who mean to cause mayhem to turn a large crowd dangerous. This is why the police worked so hard to control the celebration. I acknowledge that the article included a quotation from a celebrant grateful for police action in the final paragraph. However, this one quotation is not enough to change the tone of this entire article. I am disappointed that the Free Press published such a biased article, especially because it attacks the BPD force — people who do their best every day to keep us safe. They are owed an apology.
Rebecca Redner
SED ’08
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
