last night was completely insane here in boston. i live litterally a minute or two from fenway park, so when the sox won we (and half the drunken population of boston) all headed out and went to to the park. at first it was mostly a bunch of college kids from northeastern (where i go), BC and BU being loud and cheering the typical "lets go red sox" and "yankees suck" stuff...but after not too long the streets were packed with people for blocks. after a couple hours of people climbing on stuff and being crazy it started escalating, people started setting fires in kenmore square, throwing stuff at signs (i saw a trash can get thrown through a City Bank sign for example), and the smart ones started throwing stuff at the cops (who were armed with full riot gear including, as we would later find out, tear gas and submachineguns with rubber bullets). so after a little while of this im starting to get worried, and segest we head out of kenmore for somewhere less tense. about 20 seconds after i say this, a person about 10 feet away from me decides to throw a metal signpost through the citybank window (which had already been cracked, but apparently that wasnt good enough for this follow). as people around us started to push into the citybank atm place (for what reason, i dont know - its one of those enclosed rooms off the street that you use your atm card to open the door, with 5 or 6 atms inside - maybe they really needed some cash) the cops gave us a "hell no" and threw tear gas infront of the bank, which i was about 15 feet from at this point. the next few minutes are a blur of stinging eyes, coughing, everyone running like hell, picking my friend up twice after he got nocked down and trampled, and trying my best not to have the same happen to me. at least we ran, the people inside the atm and the ones that didnt run (despite the tear gas...) were arrested, or taken out with the rubber bullets and then arrested. so after that we (and the cops) decided it was time for us to get out of the area, and start walking back to the dorm. on our way we see a car with all its windows busted out (...apparently it had a new york license plate, great reason, eh?)...as we walk by we see something on fire get thrown into it, and before long it went up in flames (we had to stay and watch, from a reasonable distance)...it was crazy, the flames got about 15 feet high at one point and there was a lot of balck smoke. after the fire department put the car out we headed back to the dorm and that was prettymuch the end of the nights excitement.
and that wasnt even the world series! who the hell riots in what is essentially the semi-finals? lol
i <3 college
anyways, it was crazy, and a lot of fun...but also tense and frightening at points, you could tell that something was gunna happen just by the atmosphere.
edit: found this, the video has some footage of the car i was talking about and some other stuff.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3838267/detail.html
(Edited by Lifesbane at 11:35 am on Oct. 21, 2004)
Red Sox fans are the worst! lol
My dad is from the Boston area and he was pretty happy as well. Congrats Red Sox fans, the Bambino's Curse has finally been lifted!
Nice man-on-the-street report, LB. I've never been tear-gassed before, doesn't sound all that fun though.
what's funny is that after the '84 series, one car got set on fire in Detroit and all you heard for years was what a hellhole Detroit is and how we're all a bunch of anarchist pyromaniacs. Oddly enough, this hasn't been getting loads of national press, at least not that I've seen. Sounds like media bias to me. hehe, or maybe they just feel sorry for Sox fans. :)
hehe yea axe, its not so great...it felt like someone sprayed me in the eyes with mace and nocked the wind out of me at the same time (thats as close as i can describe anyway). i was coughing so hard i couldnt breath at all heh. today my lungs feel like i have pneumonia and smoked 20 packs of cigarrettes or something.
ross, hehe either that or its just not too uncommon. boston went crazy last year when the sox lost, and when the pats won the superbowl.
my school has a really bad reputation for rioting too. after the pats won there were a bunch of cars flipped and fires set infront of my dorm, and a student died when a drunk guy plowed into the crowd with a car. (turns out the students father was some high-up guy in the state police, so mr. drunkdriver got a pretty fast trip to Federal Pound-You-in-the-Ass Prison)
edit - and caoh, we still need to win the series bro, its not quite over yet hehe...god damn bambino...<grumble>
(Edited by Lifesbane at 3:23 pm on Oct. 21, 2004)
The Globe had a little article on it, and mentioned "rubber pellets", but never said anything about teargas. I remember here during the NBA finals the out-of-town media was pretty much going around hoping to find one garbage can with a fire so the headlines could be DETROIT BURNS AFTER PISTONS WIN.
I'm just QQing because you rowdy drunks don't get the credit you deserve, hehe.
So when are you hosting "LB Buys Free Series Tickets for Guildies" night?
One of my DBA's got tickets to game 3 and 4 for the series... he wrote me this really meek letter asking if it would be OK with me if he takes 4 days off next week to go, and a list of all the things that he already set up to have covered by other people.
I'm like dude I'd tell me to go to hell if I said no.
c'mon, Axe, where's your entrepreneurial spirit? The correct answer is:
"Sure, you can have those days off. It'll only cost you one ticket per game. Be at my house 4 hours before the first pitch. Oh, and none of that draft beer crap for me at the game, you need to buy the bottled stuff."
QuoteQuote: from Rosslyn on 3:34 pm on Oct. 21, 2004
So when are you hosting "LB Buys Free Series Tickets for Guildies" night?
right after you guys pay for my college, hook me up with a lucrative career and buy me a small island in the caribean...yea, that'd be about even
"Oh, and none of that draft beer crap for me at the game, you need to buy the bottled stuff"
You guys get bottled beer at the games? We only have draft unless you go in one of the bars but then you have to drink it in there.
yeah, they have those plastic beer bottles. I think those are mainly sold by the vendors who come to your seat, but the concession stands pretty much just have draft. There is some kind of beer specialty stand in the part of Ford Field that used to be an old warehouse, but I never felt like walking that far (it's about halfway around the stadium from my seats) for a beer when a guy would bring a different beer right to my seat. Maybe I'll go there at halftime during the next game or something.
yea, the riot police attacked us at UMASS - it was fucking insane, but rioting was fun and well worth it. I heard a BU law student got shot in the head with a rubber bullet and died, she was only like 23 with no criminal record or anything.
yea i just found that out about an hour ago, she went to emerson i gues, but yea, she got hit in the eye and died in the hospital today
RIP, such a horible thing to have happen :(