Thursday, 4:30 PM
Menino, police vow crackdown during Patriots' game
By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis today warned college students and bar owners in the city that police would act swiftly to curb rowdiness and excessive alcohol consumption during and after Sunday's American Football Conference championship game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.
Flanked by police department brass and chiefs of the police forces of major universities at a City Hall press conference, a stern-faced Menino said: "Over the past we've had some bad experiences after these play-off games ... The police department is well organized for the event on Sunday."
He said that, in addition to cautioning students, the city has put bar owners on notice that all alcohol laws will be enforced and has instructed barkeepers not to allow live television broadcasts from their premises during the game. Such broadcasts create an environment that encourages rowdy behavior, Menino said.
Davis said police staffing would be increased by more than 100 officers during and after the game, and that undercover details would be sent into bars in an effort to ensure that people who were drunk were not served more alcohol. He said drunks would be taken into protective custody, and the bar would be cited for over-serving them. Locations to which kegs of beer have been delivered in the days leading up to the game also will be subject to surveillance, he said.
When the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, Victoria Snelgrove, a 21-year-old Emerson College student, died after being hit by a pepper-pellet gun that police officers fired into a rowdy crowd of revelers.
