Tuesday, October 26, 2004
There's a touching account of Victoria Snelgrove's memorial service on the wires this morning. Grief and anger over the senseless death is causing a mix of reactions.
Her pastor, delivering the eulogy, blamed the fans: ''Why did this have to happen?'' he said. ''I don't know why. Some people feel it's their God-given right to riot, to destroy property and cause mayhem. ... It is destructive and it is deadly."
The Mayor is implicitly blaming the bars in Kenmore Square, and somewhat more elliptically, the television coverage that fueled alcohol-consumptive-showing-off; the Mayor reached an agreement with the bars in the area to limit fan loitering, put a limit on the number of drinks served per customer, and to ban TV cameras from the watering holes.
The Boston Police are blaming bad luck: the article says police are calling it a "horrible fluke". Although it's worth noting three other persons were hospitalized because of the percussive effects of the pepper spray bullet casings (not the pepper spray).
One might question the very nature of "non-lethal force" weapons which <kill people with some frequency, anyway. Some have argued that rather than reducing the possibility of violence in crowd-control situations, they increase it because of fear and panic among the crowd when weapons are used, and the higher likelihood police will resort to the use of weapons earlier.
The fans, the bars, the TV cameras, the Mayor, the police -- there's plenty of blame to share.
There's an internal police investigation going on in Boston as to whether the use of force at the time was excessive. I've already got my own conclusion: yes. Somebody died celebrating a victory in a game. That's excessive.
posted by The Crank 10:23 AM
