Posted on 10/22/2004 3:46:41 AM PDT by ninonitti
The sequence of events that led to the death of an Emerson College student began when a half-dozen officers on horseback were surrounded by rioting Red Sox fans on Lansdowne Street about 1:30 a.m. yesterday, witnesses said.
By the time armor-clad cops dispersed the crowd of some 3,000 in the shadow of Fenway Park's Green Monster, Victoria Snelgrove, 21, lay fatally injured. She had been struck in the eye by one of a number of pepper balls fired by police to quell unruly fans throwing bottles and bricks.
``The cops (on horseback) pushed in and the people closed in behind them,'' said Emerson student Brett Schweinberg, 18, who was struck by two pepper projectiles fired by police while trying to scale the Green Monster.
``They were surrounded by people and a bottle landed near a horse and it spooked it. It faltered and it got jittery and 30 to 40 seconds later, cops turned around and fired at a group of people about 20 feet to my left. People scattered except for one girl who was bleeding from the nose and mouth.''
A Herald reporter in the midst of the crowd saw revelry turn to mob mentality. Several people tried to scale the Green Monster, at least one of whom plummeted to the ground after being shot by a projectile.
Small fires burned, street signs were torn down and trash barrels were tossed about as police struggled to control the increasingly hostile crowd. Several cars became trapped by walls of people while drivers spun their tires and blared stereos - some with people riding on the roof. Several bottles were thrown, one of which reportedly struck a police officer, breaking his nose.
Theshot that killed Snelgrove followed a standoff between a cop on horseback and a young man wearing a gray knit hat. Standing by a bustling sausage cart, the man refused the officer's orders to move, prompting the officer to reach down and toss him to the ground. After getting up, the man hurled profanities at the cop and made several obscene gestures.
More bottles were thrown as at least one riot cop fired projectiles into the crowd, one of which apparently struck Snelgrove. She immediately fell to the ground while her friends tended to her, rubbing her head as blood streamed from her face. Horrified onlookers shouted ``get an ambulance'' as the girl drifted in and out of consciousness. One of the riot cops checked on the girl briefly. Approximately five minutes after she collapsed, mounted police cleared a path for an ambulance and the girl was taken away.
As cops cleared the crowd, one young man who had been standing near Snelgrove shouted at police, ``Are you happy? Murderers!''
One officer was stunned at the ferocity of the violence. ``I saw the horses surrounded,'' he said. ``It was like a vacuum. They got sucked in. I saw guys holding small trees they had pulled out of the ground like warriors. They were holding steel sign posts they had bent over and broken. We had to fight to get control.''
I'll never, in a thousand years, understand this phenomenon.
"Hey!!! Our team won!!!! Let's riot and trash the place, then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Good God; we've become a nation of idiots and savages.
Life is full of choices and when you choose to remain as part of a rioting crowd which is destroying public/private property and resisting the police.....bad things may happen. A shame a young woman died, a shame that the police will now have to deal with the aftermath of her bad choice that didn't need to happen.
First of all they were celebrating so it wouldn't it be "exhileration syndrome"?.
Second I'm sure the cop who killed her will be getting "stress" time off and grief counseling.
Third the lawyers will sue the crap out of the city and the taxpayers will get the dirty end of the plunger as usual.
As we always told our kids growing up when they wanted to stay out very late, "nothing 'good' happens after midnight!".
When you insert yourself into Criminal Activity you are asking for trouble. By stupidly joining a mob of drunks obviously bent on criminal activity against the city and personal property owners, you recklessly place your life in danger. In my opinion, she didn't get what she deserved, but she foolishly and eternally sealed her fate by acting in an unwise manner in the presence of hooligans.
"This burning, rioting, and trashing cities when a sports team wins is not a new thing."
Yes, so it shouldn't take the cops by surprise.
"Anybody who showed up to celebrate could not have gone ignorant to this common occurrence."
So celebrants shouldn't go out and celebrate because of a couple drunk jerks that might take things too far? They should assume that if they go out they might not come back? That is not America, it's the old Soviet Union, its Saudi Arabia, its Iran. Not America.
"The Cops are known to 'overreact', when crimes and attacks are being committed."
Don't pigeon hole cops like that. It's not fair to them. Good cops act "appropriately" to the situation. They do not overreact like a nervous nelly.
Rioting is always fun until someone gets hurt.
Well first of all I know enough about FR to address fellow freeprs with respect.
FYI I live close enough to Fenway to hear Buffet or Springsteen when they play or to watch the fireworks from my porch on the 4th.
Every time, without fail, the people that get injured by the cops at these riots "just happened to be in the area" and weren't actually involved in the violence. Yeah, for the ten thousanth time I'm still buying that.
Good point....it bears repeating ;~)
>>You might hit anyone with a weapon like that.
That's why I've been a proponent of applying Rule .308 to key rioters. The guys turning over a car, firing up a bonfire, throwing a molotov, that sort of thing.
Riots would reduce substantially in size and intensity.
PEPPERBALL PROJECTILE CHARACTERISTICS
Safe at contact range
Allow for accurate suspect targeting at distances up to 30 feet
Allow for area saturation at distances up to 150feet
Kinetic impact less than or equal to standard paintballs Three-year shelf life
Powder-filled projectiles have an operating temperature range of —30 degrees to +150 degrees
Liquid-filled projectiles will freeze at temperatures of 35 degrees or less
WHAT IS THE IMPACT FORCE OF A PEPPERBALL PROJECTILE?
A PepperBall projectile impacts with 8 to 10 foot-pounds of force, which is comparable to the impact of a paintball round and significantly less than potentially lethal bean bag rounds.
WHAT WILL A PEPPERBALL PROJECTILE TO DO EXPOSED SKIN?
Shots to exposed skin will leave welts or bruises. On areas where the skin is close to the bone, it may break the skin or cause more severe bruising.
HOW LONG DO THE EFFECTS OF A PAVA (CAPSAICIN II) PEPPERBALL PROJECTILE LAST?
Response to inhaling the PAVA powder from a PepperBall projectile varies among individuals. In most cases, the symptoms last between five and 10 minutes. The PepperBall launchers deliver the projectiles with enough kinetic energy to produce temporary abrasions, bruises, and/or welts, which usually disappear in two to three weeks.
THE 5 BASICS
Treat all PepperBall launchers as though they are loaded.
Keep your finger outside (above or below) the trigger guard until you are on target and ready to fire.
Point the muzzle in a safe direction at all times. Use the "laser rule" to keep the PepperBall launcher safe during operations.
The laser rule: Always treat the muzzle of the PepperBall launcher as a laser gun with its beam on - whatever it touches, it cuts through!
Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
Never target the head, throat, face, eyes, or spine.
I missed that one from LTC Cooper. The lighter-duty version of what I suggested just above.
"I see pictures of this kind of crap on TV and think that if you'd shoot some of them, preferably in the legs, (with real bullets, not pansy paint balls), these incidents would occur less frequently."
Move to Saudi Arabia then. They do this quite effectively. And every Friday they have beheading on the square for all to watch. (To teach everyone a lesson...don't glance at other guy's wives.
"The problem in this country is that there are no consequences for actions anymore."
Yes, but that is because of poor parenting and a left-leaning judicial system. Criminals should pay for their crimes...but innocent bystanders? If your daughter's boyfriend's friend throws a bottle and the police shoot your daughter, are you going to just say, well, its ashame, but she got what she deserved.
If the Sox regularly won the Pennant the way the Yankees do, the cops may have had a better plan in place. But these "fans" were nuts and what the cops had to do to control thems did not seem out of the question. It's too bad this girl died but as another poster stated, when cops are in the area, you should leave. There is no excuse for people to act this way whether their team wins or loses.
My sentiments exactly. I'll never understand it. Hell, I'm a life-long MA resident and I really couldn't care less that the Red Socks won the pennant. Big friggin' deal. Certainly not worth rioting over, or being anywhere near a huge mob of stupid drunken fools.
It's a damn shame this girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time but come on, if you are stupid enough to put yourself into the middle of an idiotic drunken sports frenzy in an evil possessed city like Boston, Bad Things might happen.
I guess someone out getting donuts when they covered this is in training........
"Rioting is always fun until someone gets hurt."
I think calling it a riot is a bit strong. It would be like calling Farenheit 9/11 "honest." A riot is when a large crowd is flipping over cars, maiming people, throwing bricks into windows, looting, and other acts of mayhem.
What went on near Fenway was 99% drunk college kids celebrating and acting stupid like college kids do, but causing no property damage or other harm, and 1% thuggery. The police should have gone after the thugs. Instead they blinked and went after they easy prey.
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Victoria Snelgrove, an Emerson College student, appears in this undated family photo. Snelgrove, 21, died Thursday, Oct. 20, 2004, of a head injury suffered in a clash between police officers and a crowd of Red Sox fans who poured into the streets outside Fenway Park to celebrate their team's victory over the New York Yankees. (AP Photo/Family Photo) |
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