Blarney Blowout 2013

And so it begins: Friday afternoon delivery to Stacker's.  My Anon photo contributor tells me there were at least three dozen kegs that came off this one truck.

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APD checking up on Stackers 10:55 AM Saturday morning

Hide the women and children, the 2013 Blarney Blowout has begun! And, unfortunately, the weather is fine.

Yeah, sounds like I'm writing a song.

I don't wake up this early for class but ill sure wake up this early to drink #blarneyblowout
— Tim Collins (@m0hawk_f0_sH0) March 9, 2013

Crowd waiting at The Pub much larger than Stackers or McMurphy's 10:30 AM

 Amherst Town Center 1:30 PM Post Office Bus Stop

 

 North Pleasant Street just outside Town Center

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4:00 PM

Townhouse Apartments Meadow Street North Amherst

Townhouse Quad area starting to look like Woodstock (including the mud) 

APD and AFD on scene for 18-year-old female passed out drunk

Couple thousand students cram into the Quad area Townhouse Apartments

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5:00 PM 

And we just knew this was gonna happen.  Amherst and State Police, including a K-9 unit break up the party.  Rather quickly.

Somebody is going to have a major clean up tomorrow 

How many cop cars do you count? This was shot just after Amherst and State PD broke up the party.

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The Morning After

45 Phillips Street 

20 Allen Street

However ... According to the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette:

BUSY DAYS FOR AFD

Party House runner up

The Enchanted Forest: 83 Morgan Circle

Nestled in a fairly solid, not-yet-overtaken-by-students residential neighborhood, 83 Morgan Circle made the police report this past weekend for the first time since last March . That may not sound like something to celebrate, but last year this address was party central, earning my "Party House of the Semester Award" for their repeated shenanigans.

Police responded early Sunday morning (1:45 AM) to a call complaining about a "loud party". When police arrived resident Ryan Good promised his remaining guests would "keep the noise down." Fair enough. APD issued a written warning.

Ryan Good's name did not show up last March when residents at 83 Morgan Circe were sited for the fifth separate occasion. So maybe we have had a turnover this fall with all new housemates who are not quite as outrageous as the Bad Boys who lived there all last year, but not exactly Mother Teresa types either.

Which makes you wonder what kind of background check the property owner does before turning over the keys to the front door?

Interestingly the house at 83 Morgan Circle is co-owned by Stephan Gharabegian who also owns almost half (4 of 9) the, errrr, dwellings on Phillips Street, arguable the worst slum in town. Which is why I dubbed him "King of the decadent street." One of the four he owns includes 33 Phillips Street, where white, pretty boy rapper Paul Markham proudly resides.

Mr. Markham's anthem "Welcome to The Zoo" perpetuates the party atmosphere that feeds the machine built around alcohol. Perhaps Markham will change his tune when some kid dies due to alcohol poisoning.

Former Amherst College Pres Tony Marx busted for DUI (driving a company car)

Third Watch

 AFD at Mullins Center 1:30 AM for patient with "altered mental status"

Amherst police and firefighters were kept on the go last night (Friday) into early Saturday morning instigated by warm temperatures, alcohol, and opportunity:  That brief luxurious time period just after UMass classes are complete, but finals have not yet started. 

And yes, trouble areas were mostly the usual suspects:  a few outside unpermited bonfires on Phillips Street (#45 and #51), a loud party at 15/17 Fearing Street, a passed out drunk in front of College Pizza, and of course a DUI.

Around 12:45 AM a patrol car observed a vehicle driving erratically on South Pleasant Street dead in the heart of downtown.  He took a right on Northampton Road (Rt 9) with the patrol car in close pursuit, was pulled over and descended on by a swarm of cruisers.  The college aged youth flunked his Field Sobriety Test, was arrested and his car towed.

 Ernie's Towing escorts DUI vehicle to impound 1:15 AM

I retraced the trajectory of the vehicle, a potentially deadly weapon, and could not help but notice the downtown was especially active.  How many could have been seriously injured if he lost control and plunged into the crowd in front of Antonio's?

Antonio's downtown Amherst 1:00 AM

Dispatch recieved a call from a young lady around 2:10 AM complaining about a "loud party" at 69 Meadow Street. The Anonymous caller only wanted it "quieted down, but doesn't want anyone to get in trouble."  

Party hardy types apparently were not on the same page, as APD arrested two for "disorderly conduct".

 

69 Meadow Street, Amherst 

Frisky Friday

 

500 Sunderland Road, Amherst (just barely)

Late Friday night around 11:45 PM,  Police were called to 500 Sunderland Road, almost at the Sunderland border, to break up a huge party, sending a stream of kids -- like a zombie herd -- staggering back to UMass via busy Rt 116.

One college aged youth was arrested for "failure to disperse" and a $300 "Nuisance House" ticket issued to the responsible tenant. Obviously neither of these kids read the memo from UMass Nanny -- I mean Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs -- Jean Kim.

 

45 Phillips Street 5:00 PM

And it's still early yet!

800 North Pleasant Street (Minutes before APD stopped to chat)

Frisky Friday (In a College Town)

APD makes alcohol related arrest after MV stop corner of Lincoln/Fearing last night 11:05 PM

Once again a major police presence and preemptive police footwork seemed to keep a lid on loud out of control parties last night as Amherst Police started the evening with courtesy calls ("community policing") to  some of the usual suspects on Alan Street, Phillips Street, and Nutting Avenue. 

Comfortable weather brings out the crowds, and it seems freshmen move in herds, but it also allows the APD bike patrol to operate at full efficiency.  They made a good number of "liquor law violation" arrests in and around the immediate neighboring streets to UMass starting at around 10:00 PM.

 APD bike patrol cruising down Fearing Street 11:45 PM

AFD was also kept busy with alcohol related runs.

A fight at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Fearing Street around 11:00 PM resulted in a head injury for a college aged male.   And almost two hours later AFD responded to the UMass campus for an ETOH male who had fallen and hit his head.  Liquor, naturally, was involved. 

Last weekend the boisterous activity peaked on Sunday night into early Monday morning due to the Labor Day long weekend.  Tonight's weather is going to be a tad warmer than yesterday.

Neighbors are now holding their breath.

Halloween Histrionics

Cooley Dickinson Hospital 1:15 AM. All five ambulances (2 from Hamp)  for Amherst patients

The scourge of rowdy student behavior seems to be turning inwardly as once again the medical side of pubic safety response bore the brunt of collage aged youth acting to excess.  In this case, drinking.

Although busy, mostly with crowd control on streets near UMass, Amherst Police Department only made three arrests last night, all for "minors in possession of alcohol."

Amherst Fire Department, on the other hand, was once again OVERWHELMED with ETOH (passed out drunk) young "adults".  In fact during those awful Bewitching Hours (midnight to 2:00 AM) all five Amherst ambulances were tied up (mostly with drunks) and Northampton had to provide two ambulances via mutual aid -- both of them for drunk college aged youth.

Last night into early this morning a total of ten college aged youth required transport for being dangerously intoxicated -- nine of them from UMass and one from Amherst College.

 AFD fire engines had to be pressed into medical service, this one at UMass for ETOH male

The excuse of course will be a tired one:   Amherst is a "college town" and all of this is simply a time honored "Rite of Passage."  Especially during a pagan ritual like Halloween.

But you don't check manners at the door like an oversized backpack.  Your right to be an uncivilized heathen slob ends when that bad behavior endangers innocent members of the general public, which includes families and senior citizens.

And yes, MY two children.

 

Ambulance again required at 45 Phillips Street for female who fell down stairs

The Mass Daily Collegian reports

DUI Dishonor Roll

Early Friday morning was not a particularly safe time to be driving in Amherst, although APD made it safer by taking two drunk drivers off the road, both of them female UMass students, and both incidents close to the flagship campus jam packed with potential accident victims. 

Stopped originally for speeding and "marked lanes violation" (swerving) at 1:17 AM on North Pleasant Street near infamous Hobart Lane, police arrested 21-year-old Hannah David, 58 Mt Vernon St, Fitchburg, MA, for Driving Under the Influence.

And a couple hours later at 2:58 AM on Phillips Street, the other infamous street in town, police stopped 20-year-old Meghan Fleming, 10 Valentine Road, Hopkinton, MA for "marked lanes violation".  The officer then noticed a "strong odor of alcohol, bloodshot glassy eyes, and slurred speech."

Ms Fleming took the Portable Breathalyzer Test and failed with a PBT of .173% -- more than twice the legal limit.  She was, however, smart enough to refuse the more sophisticated, fixed/stationary breathalyzer back at the station -- the one that provides results that are admissible in court.

So, theoretically, she loses her license for 180 days, unless of course she beats the DUI charge, which is now made harder to prove without the more sophisticated breathalyzer results.  And the fact she refused to take it cannot be used in court as evidence.

Although police also found a marijuana pipe and a small amount of the drug in the vehicle, so that will provide evidence to back up the DUI charge.  

Yeah, great system we have here in Massachusetts.  

Earlier in the week two other young ladies -- both UMass students -- were also taken off the road, handcuffed, and escorted back to APD headquarters under arrest.

Sunday, January 20 at 6:10 PM police stopped 22-year-old Lauren Derouin, 196 Triangle St, Amherst, and arrested her after she failed a Field Sobriety Test.  She did, however,  refuse to take the breathalyzer. 

Wednesday, January 23 at 1:09 AM police stopped 21-year-old Emily Rookwood, 3 Madison Rd, Marblehead, MA, for speeding (estimated 45 in a 30 MPH zone).  She failed the Field Sobriety Test and was transported back to the station, where she refused to take the breathalyzer test.

Sudsy Saturday & Sunday?

1st year students moved into Southwest Friday

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Not to be a killjoy prognosticator of dire outcomes but my Twitter buddy ZooMass does have a scary point:  By Sunday all the on-campus UMass students will be moved in --13,500+ of them ... with nothing much to do.

For the entire night.  With the weather predicted to be perfect.  And no school on Monday.

Yikes!

Saturday morning mist quickly burning off 

Phillips Street late Friday night

Crowd gathered westernmost quad Townhouse Apartments, North Amherst 4:45 PM Saturday