A Growing Spotlight

Chief John Horvath, on the job less than a month, standing in the hot seat

A grim faced line of state officials -- including Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, UMPD Chief John Horvath and District Attorney Dave Sullivan -- entered the conference room at UMPD headquarters about 20 minutes late for the 1:00 PM news conference, if indeed a 1:00 PM event was ever officially acknowledged as actually happening.

 Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy "with a heavy heart" addresses the crowd  

But obviously enough media got wind of it as two or three dozen reporters, photographers and videographers were present for the presentation.  The Chief would not discuss specifics of the gruesome case --whether alcohol was involved, who signed in the perpetrators at the dorm, how well the victim knew them, etc.

 Print, radio, TV, and web based journalists.  And it's only the begining

But he did confirm the arrest of four males, none of them UMass students, for the most heinous crime of gang rape, although nobody dared used that term.  And he praised the swift joint investigation of UMPD and State police, while DA Sullivan promised justice would be meted out.

 District Attorney Dave Sullivan

And while the Chief did acknowledge UMass reported 13 sexual assaults last year and 12 the year before, he did say firmly: "This doesn't happen on the UMass campus," referring of course to gang rape.

It did, however, (allegedly) happen.  And it's going to be a very long time before anyone forgets that.

Enku Gelaye UMASS Dean of Students



UMass official statement regarding the alleged gang rape. (update 12/6/14:  Apparently UMass doesn't want to be reminded, as they have purged the press release)

The (Springfield) Republican reports

Raw Sunday report with a (very) delayed lead

 51 Phillips Street (Sunday morning) note stolen sign

Just some of things I'm working on for tomorrow's start of the news cycle.  Cruising about late Friday and Saturday nights listening to the scanner confirms a bevy of "Party Houses of the Weekend" will rear their ugly chimneys at tomorrow morning's APD press briefing that condenses a weekend of controlling chaotic activity into tidy public log entries.

Poetic irony of course is 51 Phillips Street will make the list.  Yes, the address I posted a photo of last week because of beer debris on the roof and Cowardly Anon Nitwits have been complaining about in comments ever since, because the house was not actually cited for anything ... (except existing on a street the Amherst Redevelopment Authority consultant deemed "decadent.")

Sure enough APD was called there, 51 Phillips Street, for a noise complaint around 9:00 PM last night (so early I was not even in my car) and residents were cited for Noise and/or Nuisance violations.  Tomorrow at the APD press briefing I will get the details as to whether folks were arrested or simply cited civilly, but if I had to guess, probably arrested.

A DUI arrest showed up fairly early last night: a motorcyclist was pulled over on the access road from Mill Valley Estates leading into East Hadley Road early last night, about a quarter mile from my house. 

Officers arrested the driver, a young black male, and Ernie's towing carted off the motorcycle.  You drink and drive they tow your vehicle (and put you in jail).

Friday night one ranking member of APD was on taxi patrol, pulling them over left and right for sudden inspections.  Sounds like a few did not pass and received citations or had to be towed.  The Amherst Select Board has on their agenda Monday night a discussion about taxi regulations, so chances are they will hear a full report on what happened Friday night.
 

 167 College Street, late Friday night

Around midnight Friday police descended on 167 College Street for a large party.  You may remember this address from last year where a major brawl occurred that resulted in stabbings.

Interestingly Amherst College issued a public statement saying none of the students involved were from Amherst College (the property borders the campus and Amherst College police had to help back up APD in dealing with the melee).

Which leads me to me to just one more, exceedingly sad and no less shocking, thing.  According to reliable sources, UMass/Amherst will issue a public statement at UMPD HQ tomorrow @ 1:00 PM  concerning the arrest of four individuals for the most heinous crime to occur on campus in my exceedingly l-o-n-g memory:  gang rape. 

Fall Foilage Fun: for a good cause

 107 Runners Line Up (walkers left earlier)

As they have done for 41 years, hundreds of folks from all walks of life converged on the historic Amherst town common and then headed out for a scenic 5K jaunt under picture perfect skies, all to benefit the Amherst A Better Chance program that allows inner city minority youth the benefits so many of us take for granted:  a good education.

The morning mist lifted to unveil a beautiful fall day

View looking east

Jada crosses the line (ahead of Mom and dog, Jake)

Paul Wiley presents Jada with award for "youngest runner."

Friday Frolics

11 Eames Avenue , Amherst

Intermittent rain was not enough to dampen the renegade party spirit of the hard core party hardy types as evidenced by this repeat offender. And an unusual one at that as it's not a rental but owner occupied.

Neighbors called police around midnight last night to complain about throngs of loud people in their yard.  When police arrived they spotted a bevy of college aged youths fleeing the basement of 11 Eames Place and dispersing into the woods.  But they still found around another 60 hiding in the basement.  They also found the owner and arrested him for Noise and Nuisance violations.

Arrested for Noise and Nuisance:

Reed Smith, 24 Pain St, Wellesley, Ma, age 27 (owner of the property)
Christopher Roy, 11 Merridan Rd, Weyham, Ma, age 21
Kelly Norton, 62 Karen Ln, Abington, MA, 18 arrested for resisting arrest, underaged drinking

They Have Landed

Amherst Biennial: Encounter 2 by William Brayton @ The Lord Jeffrey Inn

Gotta Go?

Gotta Go Taxi is one of nine companies servicing Amherst 

Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone will meet with the owner of GottaGo taxi tomorrow to discuss a weekend incident noted in APD logs.

After pulling over a GottaGo taxi around midnight Friday, initially for a broken tail light and not having the "taxi" sign illuminated, the officer also found the commercial vehicle that carries the general public had a rejection sticker, the taxi was unlicensed and the right front tire and left rear tires were missing lug nuts. Yikes!

The company owner also refused to come to the scene when called by dispatch.

The taxi industry has grown exponentially in Amherst just in the past half dozen years going from one or two operations to a peak of ten. Oftentimes at party houses taxis will stream to the scene and unload a cargo of students like those little cars in  a circus clown act.

According to Chief Livingstone the inspection and enforcement end of taxi regulation has fallen into the lap of APD.  About half the taxis doing business in town have thus far been inspected and carry a yellow sticker, like a Good Housekeeping seal of approval.

The town is working on a new set of regulations that will go into effect January 1st and will require the installation of fare meters, an expensive upgrade to existing fleets that may stimulate a few more companies to withdraw from this competitive market.

Gotta Go taxi at the scene of Hadley Hoe Down down last month

Can You Hear Me Now?

 Good crowd for community forum.  Pat Archibald UMPD front left, John Musante town manger front rt

Clearly the crowd who packed the community room at the new $12.5 million UMass police station tonight to discuss uncivil off campus behavior of some UMass students could be broken into two distinct groups:  those who seem satisfied with efforts thus far to curb unruly behavior (UMass officials) and those who are not (townsfolk). 

And townsfolk outnumbered UMass officials, who were there in force.

 UMPD Chief John Horvath

Perhaps Fearing Street resident John Fox summed it up best with the last statement taken at almost exactly 7:30 PM, the scheduled end time for the "community forum".  Mr. Fox made brief allusion to Afghanistan and declared "the surge" is simply not working.  Not enough cops, and not enough programs.  Things are getting worse!  Time for something new.

 Two Johns:  John Coul front, reacts to John Fox's final statement of the night

Unfortunately that something "new" did not come out of tonight's meeting.  To quote the cliche, "same old same old."

Almost all the townsfolk in attendance seemed to agree that unruly behavior towards Amherst police should have zero tolerance with instant repercussions.  In other words, automatic expulsion.  But Enku Gelaye, Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students did not want to say what offense garners automatic expulsion, or even illuminating what line the five students (out of 652) did cross to get expelled.  Although she did reiterate they take assault of any kind "very seriously."

An affable Enku Gelaye, perhaps too affable for chief disciplinarian 

So yes, our gracious hosts staged a successful by-the-book community event, and they will no doubt sleep well tonight.  And perhaps even some of the townsfolk in attendance will also sleep well tonight, content that at least their voices were heard.  

Problem is, how well will they sleep this coming weekend?