Troubled

Friday, 7:05 am

By KateC

A 21 year old woman was killed near Fenway after the Red Sox win the other evening. She was part of a huge crowd of people who congregated in the area to celebrate the victory. It is a time-honored tradition for fans to gather near Fenway to watch away games together in the sports bars. This time a portion of the crowd got ugly. Rioters were mixed in amongst those who were simply caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the Boston police converged on the scene shooting ‘non-lethal projectiles’ into the crowd. This young 21 year old journalism student was struck in the eye by one of the projectiles and she died from her injury. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. For her friends and family it was a terrible, terrible tragedy.

I’ve listened to the city authorities since this girl’s death and I’m disgusted by what I’m hearing. I guess we have become so accustomed to people dying that it has become a rather abstract thing. The city could handle the situation more tactfully, but they’ve gone into full spin mode blaming everyone but the police officers who shot indiscriminately into the crowd with ammunition that is, obviously, not non-lethal. Trying to explain that the ammunition is like a paint ball only maybe a little more forceful says to me that these are not safe weapons to be used indiscriminately in a large crowd.

My son plays paint ball. And when he comes home his body is covered with welts. They play with helmets and face guards to protect their eyes. They’re not stupid. But I believe maybe the city is if they think a weapon that shoots ammunition with a greater force than a paintball gun is safe. And now we know. A girl is dead. She wasn’t a rioter. She was purely in the wrong place at the wrong time. The city comes out swinging in response, blaming everyone else and, sounding like the cowboy from Texas, saying they will hunt down the rioters and bring them to justice.

That doesn’t address what happened to the girl. She’s dead. Her parents are heart-broken. Devastated. The city’s response has been belligerent.

Death is abstract to them, apparently. I conclude that they are not fit for public service. I am very angry with them.