BOSTON --
Mayor Thomas Menino said he was considering
banning alcohol sales near Fenway Park during the World Series,
following rowdy celebrations of the Red Sox's league championship
that turned deadly when a police officer shot a projectile into a
crowd.
Menino planned to meet with bar and nightclub owners Friday and
also said he would press colleges to expel students found guilty of
criminal conduct in the melee.
"Since people won't accept responsibility, I, as mayor, will
take it into my own hands," Menino said.
Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove, 21, died Thursday,
hours after being hit in the eye with what was designed to be a
non-lethal projectile that would douse the target with a
pepper-like spray. Her father expressed outrage at the city's
response to her death.
Witnesses said Snelgrove was standing outside the ballpark when
a reveler threw a bottle at a mounted police officer. Another
officer fired the plastic, pepper-spray filled balls into the
crowd, hitting Snelgrove.
Fifteen other people, including a police officer, suffered minor
injuries in Boston's Kenmore Square neighborhood near Fenway Park
after thousands of baseball fans spilled onto the streets to
celebrate the Red Sox triumph Wednesday night at New York's Yankee
Stadium. Small fires were set and fights broke out. Boston police
reported eight arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct.
Menino said that to avoid a repeat of the rowdiness in his city,
he was considering imposing the alcohol-sales ban through a state
law never before used in Boston. The law lets him ban sale or
distribution of alcohol "in cases of riot or great public
excitement."
He said he may also ask bar and restaurant operators not to let
television stations broadcast live scenes from inside their
establishments during games, as at least one station did Wednesday.
Peter Martineau, manager of Boston Beer Works, across from
Fenway Park, expressed sympathy for Snelgrove's family but blamed
area college students for causing the problems.
"They all want to come out to the Fenway for the excitement,"
he said. "I don't think the remedy is banning bars and restaurants
from serving liquor. If you can't serve beer or anything, why would
people come out? It's a beer works."
Officials said the projectiles are not supposed to be aimed at
people's faces, and Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole said she
would "firmly and emphatically accept responsibilities for any
errors."
But, she continued, "I also condemn in the harshest words
possible the actions of the punks (Wednesday) night who turned our
city's victory into an opportunity for violence and mindless
destruction."
The student's father, Rick Snelgrove, said angrily that she did
nothing wrong. Standing outside the family home, he held up a
photograph of his smiling daughter.
"What happened to her should not happen to any American citizen
going to any type of game, no matter what," he said. "She loved
the Red Sox. She went in to celebrate with friends. She was a
bystander. She was out of the way, but she still got shot. Awful
things happen to good people. My daughter was an exceptional
person."
City officials had announced there would be a heavy police
presence in Kenmore Square for the history-making victory by the
Red Sox, who came back from 3 games to zero deficit to advance to
the World Series.
The city had been caught understaffed when riots broke out after
the New England Patriots' Super Bowl win Feb. 1, when one person
was killed and another critically injured by a vehicle that plowed
into revelers.
