Morning briefing 7:15 AM 100+ police vehicles and AFD on scene
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Parking ban prevented extra thousands from attending
8:25 AM:
Townhouse quads in North Amherst are quiet as police are blockading both entrances
Police blocking entrance to Townhouse Apartments
Parking lots near Southwest still have plenty of room
Ch 22 with their hard to miss camera
High Noon:
2:30 PM:UMPD at Mullins Center concert: "Still under 1,000 patrons and we have more leaving than coming." #blarneyblowout— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) March 5, 2016
Townhouse quads quiet like a church mouse, although party activity in the front yards along Meadow Street
PD blockade was extremely effective
PD blockade at Puffton Village, another usual flashpoint
State Police Helicopter Air 1 flew lazy loops all morning into early afternoon
AFD responding for the 2nd time to 11 Phillips Street for a false fire alarm
APD K9 "Dash" assisted with party control on Shumway Street and College Street
Police broke up noisy gathering on Amity Street near town ctr
8:00 PM: Good night Blarney:
6:30 AM The Morning After:
Meadow Street
Phillips Street
Fearing Street
43 comments:
What do you think the We're Gonna Get You attitude is doing to the opinion that young people have of you? Not the couple thousand who otherwise might have a party today, but the 20,000 who wouldn't have....
25 years ago, what happened in Los Angeles did not come out of a vacuum.
Likewise, while Ferguson was created and the cop was perfectly justified in shooting that perp, it wasn't created out of nothing.
And sooner or later, this is gonna come back to haunt Amherst because no one is gonna believe that the official version of whatever happened is actually the truth.
Shame on these so called news outlets for trying to create a story. Report the news, don't try to make it. This means you 22news.
Not the warmest weather for outdoor parties.
Anyone awake and heading to the concert?
So the police state is effective at creating a police state.
People who don't like hunting often joke about giving the animals guns...and police state about how there is no hunt like hunting a human.
So I guess the joke here is imagine if the kids, those hunted and also the majority, were armed and angry like their hunters.
You'd think bringing hundreds of cops from 17 outside agencies into our town for a weekend would increase the chances 10-fold that we get one of those bad-apple cops hanging around our kids.
Does anybody know how these guys lunches are being paid for?
I like that balaclava that one cop is wearing.
Channel 22 really ought to get that camera kid some warm clothes, hats, gloves, if they're gonna expect him to work outside.
I believe a $100,000-130,000 salary plus benefits should be enough to supply yourself with the clothing that anyone would need to do their job, rather than requiring an allowance.
Channel 22 reporters earn about 12k a year. Not exactly a dream job.
There must not be much of a demand in the marketplace for Channel 22 Reporters.
The dollar amount spent today on concerts for college kids and personnel and their related expenses would have been enough to set up an endowment so that no kid in Amherst would have to pay for their own high school sports fees, equipment, and uniforms for a very long time.
I'd like to see the UM SGA consider getting involved with helping out some of their high school aged neighbors and their families with their high school sports expenses. Maybe skip the concert next year and study?
I'll bet it's about $500k in overtime. 1000 cops@$500 per. Seems like a little overkill for a one day party. Oh well, at least the paranoia is entertaining. Lived thru the seventies this ain't nothin'.
One very clear indicator to me, that we did not require all the staff requested, is that a member of the AFD was on facebook late on the morning of this event, making jokes about the way cops parked, and making jokes about a photo of himself attending to a collision the day before. I would have imagined that all public safety personnel had some task at that point in the day to be focused on, and that social networking would be off limits.
I believe that the concert is being paid for by the UM SGA, it was last year.
Enku Gelaye bulled them into cancelling the spring concert and having this one instead. One of the many problems with that is that SouthWest Week was an audition ("Battle of the Bands") for who would get the Spring Concert gig.
As to the SGA giving a penny to those whom they increasingly see as oppressors, ain't likely. (Now as to doing something similar to what the Cruz folks did to Trimp in Kansas today, well....)
And as to the larger issue, perhaps the AFD might want to explain what a "backdraft" is... Quiet isn't always good.
And think these HONORS STUDENTS are going to recommend UMass Amherst to their younger high school friends? Or graduate with fond college memories?
The kind of memories that lend to alumni giving and (in the case of a public institution) legislative support...
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/umass_com_college_students_wan.html
And remember one thing here folks -- a ban on groups of students can be applied elsewhere, say to groups of upset minority parents protesting the perceived treatment of a certain math teacher.
A precedent that the police can blockade North Amherst apartment complexes to prevent illegal drinking means that police can then blockade SOUTH Amherst apartment complexes to prevent illegal drugs. And the "racism" card won't work because what race are the people being subjected to it today?
And you know, a weekend-long police roadblock at both ends of Mill Valley Road might not be a bad idea. Those tenants have no more civil rights than student tenants do.
MassLive begging for an audience, now over 10 stories today on Blarney, yet nothing much happening.#overkill
Hey 2:17, if the firefighter was on duty for an accident yesterday he probably isn't on duty today. They work 24 hour shifts.
Have fun kids! Don't get too drunk!
Regardless of whether he was on duty or not, it's embarrassing and reflects poorly on our town's commitment to at least trying to look like professionals (I suppose I'm just sort of assuming that's a commitment.)
Wow, a comment turns into a joke. Way to overreact 2:17/5:13. Sounds like you really have a beef with firefighters.
Ed, as usual you are completely nuts.
It's heartening to see this issue-ALCOHOLISM-taken seriously-this is a lethal pathological social-disorder-criminality-it kills and maims-the Boltwood social project students who visit nursing homes-shall be working with maimed/crippled drunk driving victims-they need to have a much less cavalier attitude towards victims of alcoholism- DUI-etc, I think as a learning center-this is "teaching peace" an "Educational moment"..!!
All you are teaching them is might makes right.
They'll elect folks like Trump and....
No discussion from Cowardly Anon Nitwits is complete without a Hitler reference.
Wow, I counted six beer cans near the porch in one picture, taken by an old man with no life. Let's get rid of the students, who are the economy of this town? Or the old man?
You're free to try CAN.
Anytime.
Larry, these are the people who will (or likely won't) be funding your social security. As to the cops & firefighters, you don't want to think of how underfunded the state pension programs are!
When asked to pay significantly more taxes 20-30 years from now, their memories will be of might-makes-right and they'll say "no." Don't cry to me when that happens...
And one other thing -- if what was done to one group OF AMHERST RESIDENTS was acceptable, there is no reason not to do it to others -- i.e. the single mothers living in the South Amherst apartment complexes. The thuggish criminality (and gang activity) down there is every bit as bad as BB ever was -- except that the police ignore it.
So why not bring in 100 cops and clean out "Gunpoint" and the rest?
Why not?
Because whatever problems there are at Southpoint, they do not rise to the level of national headlines as Blarney did two years ago.
Ed, how would you know? You don't live here. Move along.
The old man with the drone and camera would never dare go to Southpoint, too afraid of the ramifications. BTW the plan for some of these old goats is to drive them to a dog track in NJ, drop em off and drive away.
Actually I live next to Southpoint.
`No Larry, it's got to be most of a mile from where you live to the first Southpoint building.
And Barney Blowout only made national news because the cops tried to stop it.
Things were WAY wilder in the '80's & '90's, let alone the infamous ZooMass days.
Although I'd call the place "ZooMass" now -- being a student is like being a caged animal...
Cops are worried about dying in South Amherst....
A mile to town center and less than half that to Southpoint.
Cops are no more afraid of dying in South Amherst than anywhere else in town.
Ed, perhaps if you lived anywhere near here you would actually know what you are talking about.
Anon 536
The old man you speak of used to kick heavy bags in half and send grown men hurtling through walls. BTW, the revised plan would be for your buddies to drive you to the ER, drop you off and drive away.
....and?
The most racist of all are the ones who love to point the finger at others.
Larry, the cops are afraid of South Amherst because they know how little backup they have. So it is permitted to be an open-air drug market in the summer, etc.
I'd like to see the same tactics used down there -- and we both know they never will be. And I think the reference to being abandoned at the dog track was a reflection of the fact that we all eventually become feeble of mind and body.
Elders were once respected because of how they had treated the young in the past. As that's now disappearing, well....
And I'll leave when I'm given what is owed to me.
Mullins has 10,500 seats.
Concert attracted less than 3,200 (2,000 less than last year).
7,300 empty seats. Someone is doing something wrong....
what was the cost of the Mullins Center concert? The Gazette said over $300,000. is that right?!
Don't forget to include all the UM staff time.
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