On February 28, Mitchell Martinez allegedly stabbed and injured four men and killed another near a string of bars in Allston before authorities had a chance to respond. Five days later, a slew of Boston Police Department officers arrested 10 college students at a neighborhood fraternity party party after a premeditated Trojan horse attack. There were no reports of violence at the party and no evidence of alcohol poisoning or endangerment to attendees, but a small bong sighting and scattered red plastic cups were enough for a plainclothes cop to take students into custody instead of just sending them home.
Rationalizing the deliberate effort of city police to arrest students who were casually drinking just a few steps away from the scene of a crime committed by a non-student less than a week before is impossible. The unfortunate death of Boston University student Michael DeVito at the Sigma Chi house does not appear to be a direct cause of drugs or alcohol, but, rather, a preexisting condition, and the stabbings at Harvard and Brighton Avenues were allegedly committed by an Allston resident who is not connected to BU. There seem to be no other specific trends of misdeeds, either, around areas like Ashford and Chester Streets &- the spot of the March 4 party &- that could stand as catalysts, so the aggression by law enforcement toward student inhabitants in the area seems vainglorious, misdirected and a total waste of city police resources.
BU students deserve penalties for drinking underage, disrupting their neighbors with loud noise and raucous behavior and for violence. But when a city police officer took off his uniform and replaced it with casual attire, tried to pass as a student and slyly score an invite inside, he made an unnecessary attack on a harmless party &- the severity and danger of which must have surely been eclipsed by some other incident that evening. Moreover, it is insulting for students who are still shaken by a brazen murder a block or two from their front steps to see their own carted off for misdemeanors when they have no sense of security or safety from other neighborhood residents who have proven they are capable of more damage than the stuff of speaker systems and shouting.
If BPD wants to arrest students for hosting parties, it should first make sure they feel safe in their own homes. The still-present threat of spilled blood should run thicker than beer.
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