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Boston Cops Go Undercover Online To Crack Down on Concerts
Boston Police, according to an article at Slate, are engaging in a strange use of social media to fight crime. Or at least, to stop raucous music from disturbing the city. As the Slate writer says, "While police departments have been using social media to investigate for years, its use in such seemingly trivial crimes would be rather chilling, if these efforts didn’t seem so laughably inept."
OK, I can see why cops go undercover to prevent murders and bank robberies and such, but to head off noise complaints? Is there some reason why simply to responding to noise complaints isn't enough? Are there no longer any murders, rapes, and robberies in Boston to investigate or prevent? What a waste.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
>"loud rock shows can, in fact, be a nuisance to neighbors, as many of the people who put the shows on will admit. "
Of course they are. In fact, to many people (myself included), such noise in a residential area is not a "trivial crime" at all. But why is it necessary to go undercover? Isn't it easier to wait for a noise complaint, then sent units over to wherever it is and start issuing tickets??
If you read the entire article, there's no proof that cops are going undercover. There's only proof that DIY show producers are paranoid. I'm more inclined to believe the latter.
Joseph Elwell.
After all, they are going on social networks under false identities and trying to hide their real selves. Maybe Carmen Ortiz can make herself useful for a change.
A noisy "show" reveals itself. It doesn't make any sense to anticipate them. Upset neighbors will call *you*, then you just roll.
They should be more concerned about the parties that aren't loud enough to attract attention; but where drugs, date rape, and other crimes could happen. If a juvenile is busted at a couple of these parties that would be a WARRANTED, as in "get a warrant" reason to monitor his account. Sheesh! Either the Boston police are really that stupid, or the journalist is. Who knows these days.
I think the point is to stop the noise before it starts. Also, there's a reason why these things are kept to strict venues. You get a lot of young, dumb people in one place getting drunk/high and maybe doing dumb things. It's hard to set up checkpoints to check for drunk drivers, for example, when there's 20 little venues all playing.
Basically people in even small groups are known to do dumb stuff that requires a bit of oversight / public safety. It's like Mosh pits. When they first started there was an etiquette and nobody got hurt. Then dumb frat boys started showing up strung out on drugs and beating the crap out of people. No more mosh pits.
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I'm pleased that the Boston PD have a good, solid mission ahead of them. After all, you can only blow up so many Moonites before it just doesn't feel right any more.
Buffoons.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
Both asking and answering a question in a single sentence; well done sir!
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
So, let's get this straight: there's no proof that the police are connected to this, just a half-baked assumption based on someone's analysis of a couple two-sentence emails? And the messages aren't even very funny anyway... ("LOL, he used the word concert . What a loser! Must be a cop!")
Slashdot editors, you need to step up your game.
Seems the cops in Boston have a lot of free time these days. Time to save the city some money and reduce the police workforce a bit.
is all they need for most of these cars running around with the stereo playing so loud the trunk appears to be passing wind.
I'm now wondering what sort of live music scene there is in Boston. Sounds healthy if there's a lot of bands setting up on street corners or in parks.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Boston's not a country. Did you go to Public School?
How about you let me keep you from getting any sleep for just 10 days.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
lazy assed cops, thinking shutting down house shows is somehow more important than chasing after murderers, robbers, rapists, etc... and they wonder why civilians fucking hate them. Waste of tax money, for sure.
Uhhh, what's the joke I'm supposed to care about, man? Like, you said I'm supposed to seriously fuck someone in my country?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
--The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America
I would say these people are rather peacably assembling, certainly more so then in say Terminiello v. Chicago or worse R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul
They only think he's a cop because he said "show" instead of "concert." So yeah that's dumb but--wait, you're telling me he called it by both names? Wait--he called it a show FIRST? As if they weren't going off of nothing. (not to mention that the article refers to it as both a concert and a show.)
Whoever wrote this article is a fucking moron, as is whoever posted it here and wrote the ridiculous summary. This is worse than like CNN bullshit.
Boston PD, continually proving how batshit wacko a police department can be. They've caused a terrorist scare over a bunch of light-bright advertising signs, blown up their own "Department of Transportations" traffic monitors & have a well documented history of arresting/attacking people who legally videotape them.
There's no reason to go undercover or assign police to track social networking. There's already an early warning system for nuisance loud music -- it's called neighbors. If you get a call that someone is playing obnoxiously loud, that's the only clue you need.
It's not raucous if nobody is disturbed. If someone is disturbed, they'll say. What undercover work is necessary here?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Time well spent !
...not for the cops engaging in pre-crime enforcement, but First Amendment violations related to the ordinance they passed. It's not a noise ordinance as others have been trying to make out, it's a fine for any gathering "which consitutes a violation of law OR [emphasis mine] creates a substantial disturbance of the quiet enjoyment of private or public property in a neighborhood. Behavior constituting a public nuisance includes but is not limited to excessive noise, obstruction of public ways by crowds or vehicles, illegal parking, the service of alcohol to underage persons, fights, and disturbances of the peace."
(note that "quiet enjoyment" is a term of art which doesn't refer specifically to noise)
It's overbroad, it's vague and it implicates the 1st amendment.
There might be a surge of house concerts, causing mass disturbances, and now the police are actually trying to do something about it BEFORE it happens.
OMG, somebody make it stop.
Police taking a few minutes out of their day to try and curb this in the butt.
http://bmoremedia.com/features/houseconcerts031213.aspx
I don't know if this is the type of concert that Boston PD is targeting, but if it is it seems like people getting together for a party that has musicians playing. The pictures don't suggest a bunch of drunk kids partying it up and doing drugs. The one mentioned in the article doesn't seem to be violating any laws. Charging money to get in probably would, but they're simply asking for donations and selling CDs.
Years before "social media" in another town I remember going to a couple of things very similar. They were not big and were held in upscale houses that rotated around - not to avoid hassles from police, but because people were sharing the responsibility of playing host. Boston probably has a higher population density and so the chance to bother neighbors and generate noise complaints is probably higher.
It's much safer to use the spies and SWAT team on suburban white kids playing music!
That way you can pretend to be tough without actually being in danger!
Next up on Cops - shooting grandma's dog and throwing her to the floor looking for illegal Canadian pain killers!
Where is Boston again? Is that in North Korea?
to get a home in a decent neighborhood that should be relatively free of pointless noise
then they probably aren't living in allston.
Nothing new here, I went to college in Boston in the late 80s and both the music scene and the cops were doing the same thing, sans Facebook. The Ska scene was waning but bands like the Bosstones and Bim Skala Bim and Post-punk college bands like Scruffy the Cat and were playing house parties in Allston, Brighton, and Jamaica Plains and warehouse clubs like Paradise and The Rat. Cops were undercover trying to find and bust them for "noise violations" and underage drinking.
Same old same old in a college town... only reason this is news is that the cops are now flailing on Facebook to boot?
Are you are saying police can't investigate *any* misdemeanor while a serious crime is on the books? Bullshit. More like you're a waah waah i wanna turn up my stereo baaaaw crybaby who doesn't understand the reason the cops are knocking on your door is your neighbors want you to STFU. Grow up and get over it.
If you don't live in Boston then you wouldn't understand why we do the things we do. Have you ever gone driving on the Jamaicaway, walk around Berkley around 3:30pm on a Friday, tried talking to people on the street, parked at an inner city gas station that doesn't even have gas, getting a combo meal at Dunkin Donuts, used the Green Line, get a parking ticket in Beacon Hill for sitting in your car for 3 minutes, or done any of these delightful things in Boston? If you have then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Boston is the city of hate. Everyone from good old Tom Menino down to the foul-mouthed Red Sox fan knows that the primary objective is to maximize annoyance and dysfunction. The police wasting our time and money on this garbage so fits the profile of our fair city that nothing surprises me. If you disagree, then you've never been to the court house in Roxbury or the police station in Jamaica Plain. I can't see how any institutions could be managed worse. Remember the JP clerk that tampered with the evidence of thousands of drug cases? Eh, we'll forget about that. Instead let's try to chum up to some lousy Harvard/young person ideal by using Facebook to do everything. Remember, the crippling failures who are administering essential services in our city are utterly hopeless and need something to distract themselves with, otherwise they'd try to do their job and end up doing more damage. If you've never had a taste of this while living in Boston then clearly you're living under a rock or working for some very insular ultra-elitist academic cell. Say, dood, mind if I come ova to your office and tak about the Patriots? See what I mean?
Hilarious would be if the officers could somehow apply for the permit for the organizers upon hearing of the event, have a judge sign off on it and show up to the event to scold organizers on not getting the permit, charge the process fees for the permit they processed for them before wishing everyone present a safe and fun night as they leave.
It would take being that renegade non-conformist type up a notch
Celtics and Red Sox. I hate them. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
What's not being said here is that Clearchannel (who owns basically all of Boston's "legitimate" music venues) puts pressure on the city to crack down on DIY music venues simply because they don't like competition. There are no actual noise complaints involved, here, they're just using a noise ordinance to crack down on independent artists. On your tax dollar, of course.
House shows operate without and alcohol or drug regulations, as you would find in a legitimate venue. Underage drinking has always been as issue at house shows, but now I see kids doing a lot more molly and stupid shit at shows, and the cops are all over it in my area.