“Yousa tinkin people gonna die?”
Well, the Boston Red Sox have made it to the World Series once again - a fairly impressive feat considering they were just there three short years ago. Funny how before 2004 they hadn’t won the national championship since 1918. Then I move to Boston and they make it to the World Series twice. Coincidence? Probably. We’ll see how they do once I leave Boston next year. Either way i could care less…
I normally wouldn’t quote the irritating Jar Jar Binks but I feel that his heartfelt line from 1999’s The Phantom Menace is appropriate for this situation. People in Boston know how to party. They love to drink and they especially love to get rowdy. The riot police were already out after the Red Sox’s victory over the Cleveland Indians earlier this week. You can bet they’ll be out in full-force starting tonight and every night until the World Series ends.
Back in 2004, after the Red Sox beat the Yankees, more than 80,000 screaming, belligerently-drunk fans crowded near Fenway Park. As the crowd grew more unruly they began breaking things, climbing on cars and lampposts, and swinging from trees. And that’s how they behaved when the Red Sox won. Imagine what would have happen if they had lost…
Naturally the city’s riot police came out in full-force. That’s when Victoria Snelgrove, a 21-year-old Emerson student, was hit in the eye with a pepper-spray canister. She died several hours later.
Regardless if the Red Sox win or lose, here’s hoping the police and, especially the people of Boston, can control themselves by exercising enough restraint for the sake of preventing another needless tragedy.
Boston used to be a city where people died for a purpose. I wish I lived in that Boston.