Some of the thousands armed with red solo cups who lined the streets of Boston and Brookline to cheer on runners in the Boston Marathon more than two weeks ago are still recovering — not from hangovers, but from the legal repercussions of their arrests for public or underage drinking.
Though more people were arrested on the street during last year’s marathon, there were more problems with uncooperative students this year, said Brighton Police Community Service Officer Steve Law.
“We don’t arrest in all cases,” Law said. “It becomes a matter of cooperation. A lot of times, it really depends on the level of intoxication. If someone is intoxicated and starts giving the officer a hard time, they’re going to get arrested.”
Boston and Brookline police patrol the South Campus area near Audubon Circle, Park Drive and Beacon Street along the marathon route, Law said, adding that people drinking in public can expect police to at least request they spill their cups, while those suspected of underage drinking are asked for identification.
In the Back Bay Southern Police District, which includes Boston University’s South Campus, 12 revelers were arrested for various combinations of public intoxication, open alcohol containers and underage drinking, said Boston Police Department spokesman Demetrios Marinides.
A group of eight people and another of four on Beacon Street were caught violating a city ordinance prohibiting open alcohol containers on the sidewalk, Marinides said.
Twenty-four-year-old Brad Thompson, a 2005 College of Arts and Sciences graduate, was one of the 12 arrested. He said at about 1 p.m., after watching the race for about a half hour, he was drinking beer out of red solo cups with several friends at the intersection of Beacon and Aberdeen streets when police approached them.
“One [officer] tapped me on the shoulder and spun me around,” he said, and asked him to pour his drink out.
The officer then “paraded” him down the street to the paddy wagon, where he said he remained with another young man for almost 20 minutes before police transported them to a South Boston jail. Thompson, who said he was drinking his second beer when police approached him, said neither one of them was drunk.
Thompson sat in a jail cell that afternoon before he bailed himself out with $40 from his own pocket. When he went to court the next day, the district attorney dropped charges against him and gave him a $50 fine for public drinking, he said.
“It was just a really big hassle,” he said.
“Obviously, I think there are a lot of better things they could be doing,” he added, “but bottom line, I guess I was breaking the law.”
The New Orleans native said he had not expected city ordinances in Boston to be stricter than in his home city, where he said he does not think he would have been arrested for public drinking.
“Cops who are there, they probably don’t want to be working that day — they’re probably a little ticked off,” he said, adding this year was his first time watching the marathon from the streets, which he only did because it was too rainy to golf with his friends as he usually does on Marathon Monday.
“It’s going to be the last time,” he said.
The BU Police Department is responsible for students on campus, but leaves the rest of Boston to the Boston Police Department, Law said.
The Judicial Affairs Office did not respond to requests for comment, but according to its website, the office gives students arrested in such cases punishments ranging from assigned community service, fines and mandatory alcohol or drug abuse education courses to residential reassignments or even dismissal from the university.
BUPD Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire said his department did not arrest anyone this year, but added the crowd was smaller than most years because of the bad weather.
“It was business as usual,” he said. “Mostly everyone was enjoying the marathon, and there were a lot less people out this year.”
BU’s zero-tolerance policy on underage drinking becomes especially difficult to uphold on Marathon Monday because of the many students breaking the rules, he said.
“You can be arrested for having an open container, but normally, [the offense] has to include disorderly behavior,” St. Hilaire said.
Thompson said he and the others with whom he was arrested did not fit that description.
“As a rowdy drunk, I can tell you I was definitely not rowdy yet,” he said.
Staff reporter Annie Mackin contributed reporting for this article.