No classes and the first really hot day of the year means crowds of college aged youths at Puffer's Pond in North Amherst. A noontime throng of 100 had grown many times over by 2:00 PM and by 4:00 PM, with assist from UMPD, Amherst police had cleared the beach.
After all, town officials did not want to see a repeat of last year.
APD Chief Livingstone was directing Operation Break Up and when I asked him an hour later if the beach was closed he replied, "Not closed to everyone, just people with alcohol."
Around 6:00 PM one of the officers stationed at the pond arrested a college aged perp who had been skinny dipping and consuming alcohol. He was charged with "indecent exposure" and "open container" violations.
Did they have to clear the beach? Couldn't they just tell them to use trash cans? (And no drinking,of course.)
ReplyDeleteThis is a real question from a geezer who looks awful in a bathing suit,or she would be there with them.
It was the "drinking of course" that caused the clearing.
ReplyDeleteBut Chief Livingstone just confirmed the beach is "Not closed to everyone, just people with alcohol."
So "by 4:00 PM" they only cleared out the people who were drinking?
ReplyDeleteI had to pick up my daughters at school so I was not there when police cleared the beach. I think they removed everyone and then only allowed back those who were not there to party.
ReplyDeleteBut as Mr. O'Reilly would say, "I could be wrong."
Nice. Good job. No tolerance. Diffuse. Proact. Prevent.
ReplyDeleteSome of the chicks in your party photos are so hot. Are you SURE you aren't just a peeping Tom?
ReplyDeleteShe sure would. In fact, she's there on the beach, in a tube top.
ReplyDeleterIf you had let the kids drink there, provided they sorta behaved themselves, then you wouldn't be kept up all night by them drinking somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteWhile it may not be constructive, I suggest that letting the students "burn off" this pent up desire to drink is far safer than suppressing it -- it is far better to reduce an explosive hazard than let it accumulate.
E.G, if a Propane tanker truck -- or a dozen train tank cars -- was to flip over and catch fire, the AFD could very quickly extinguish the fire -- but in most cases, they wouldn't, they would instead let it be a controlled burn.
And unlike Methane (Natural Gas), Propane is heavier than air and will flow across the ground like a morning fog, in search of a source of ignition which one should always presume it will eventually find. and if it is still at an explosive concentration -- KABOOM! (It is not quite the same thing, but the yield on a fuel-air explosive approaches that of a small nuke.)
At least this was what I was taught a quarter century ago, and while I stand in awe of the equipment the AFD has and what they can do, I doubt that their protocols on something like this has changed much.
The college kids want to drink and act foolishly. It used to be that you try to keep it under control, let it happen -- but with limits.
Starting with the public drinking ordinance, not a "drunk & disorderly" ordinance but a possession ordinance, there has been a move toward outright prohibition. The use of ever-increasing resources to totally prevent student consumption of alcohol.
Consumption of any amount, consumption regardless of the behavior, just total prohibition.
And I keep saying that one really big/bad explosion is inevitable because that fog of Propane isn't being burned off -- and you are running around preventing ignition sources from existing, but eventually you will miss one and then KABOOM.
And Ed will be saying "I told them, and they refused to listen..."
These idiot children were speeding up and down Sand Hill Road all day. Not one of them was doing less than 40mph by the time they rounded the bad turn at the top of the hill, and at least twenty of them slammed on their brakes to make a wrong turn onto Puffer's Circle.
ReplyDeleteMy solution? Close State Street at the railroad bridge and at the corner of Sand Hill, for starters...
Hey Ed, you know what's even more satisfying that Schadenfreude? Watching an idiot waste his life waiting for a moment of Schadenfreude that may never arrive. I don't care one way or another what happens to UMass, or the town of Amherst, or Maria Geryk, or any of your countless other betes noires. But it sure is fun to watch you shake your fist and plan your moment in the sun, that day when you may -- may -- finally be able to say, "I told you so," while in the meantime life passes you by.
ReplyDeleteEven 'bach and Roach Patrol seem to have had the sense to put their pet grudges on a back burner and get on with their lives. So congratulations, Ed -- you win the Biggest and Most Pathetic Fool Award!
Cue the "Jaws" theme music ...
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a worthy story to me, I haven't seen it in other news outlets. Maybe it's just me, but that bugs me. I've sent notes asking why they haven't written about it, but in response, the silence is deafening.
ReplyDeleteThese idiot children were speeding up and down Sand Hill Road all day. Not one of them was doing less than 40mph by the time they rounded the bad turn at the top of the hill
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that the APD ought to have been concerned about traffic safety. And if they snagged a few OUIs in the process, so much the better...
Hey Ed, you know what's even more satisfying that Schadenfreude? Watching an idiot waste his life waiting for a moment of Schadenfreude that may never arrive.
Who says I am "wasting my life"? You schmucks don't even know what I am doing, or even where I am.
in the meantime life passes you by.
Not now... :)
"You schmucks don't even know what I am doing, or even where I am."
ReplyDeleteI think we can guess pretty accurately: You're living on Hot Pockets in your mother's basement.
How do we know? Because your combination of ego, grandiosity and logorrhea would make it impossible to keep your mouth shut if you were doing anything more meaningful than minimum wage labor.
Yo quiero Taco Bell!
How do we know? Because your combination of ego, grandiosity and logorrhea would make it impossible to keep your mouth shut if you were doing anything more meaningful than minimum wage labor.
ReplyDeleteReally????
doing anything more meaningful than minimum wage labor.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the meaningfulness of what one does can be measured only in what one is paid for doing it.
That is exactly what those eight words state by implication, and they say far more about the person who wrote them than they ever could about me.
I'm at a loss to comprehend how morally bankrupt such a person is. I truly feel sorry for such people as they are living very hollow and empty lives -- lives devoid of any implicit meaning.
Now, now, Ed, no need to get defensive. I was serious: I really do quiero Taco Bell! Next time I drop by for a snack, I'll be sure to say hi.
ReplyDeleteEd must be independently wealthy.
ReplyDelete