Boston: land of the stoned *and* drunk???

[jesus marion joseph]

First the pot survey thingy, now a Massachusetts man is suing police for placing him in protective custody while drunk on private property:




Man sues for right to be drunk on private property
July 8, 2005

BOSTON --A man arrested when police showed up to break up a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house has filed a lawsuit, arguing he has a constitutional right to get drunk on private property as long as he doesn't cause a public disturbance.

Eric Laverriere, 25, of Portland, Maine, was taken into protective custody by Waltham police and locked in a cell for nine hours until the effects of the alcohol wore off.

Legal experts said his lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Boston, is the first to challenge a state law allowing police to lock up drunk people against their will.

Laverriere argues that the Massachusetts Protective Custody Law was written to combat public drunkenness and that the police had no right to use it to take him from a private residence.

"One thing people should be able to do is drink in their own house," Laverriere told The Boston Globe. "That's the beauty of the land of the free."

Waltham Deputy Police Chief Paul Juliano declined to comment on the suit on the advice of the city's legal department.

Several lawyers said they believe police have the authority to take inebriated people into custody, but they said it was the first time the law has been challenged on the grounds that one has a constitutional right to get drunk on private property.

The Protective Custody Law, enacted in 1971, replaced a Colonial-era law that made public drunkenness a crime. It authorizes police to hold people against their will for up to 12 hours.

Under the law, people must be drunk and a danger to themselves or others to be taken into custody, but does not explicitly say whether it applies to those in public or private settings.

Boston attorney Leonard Kesten, who has defended police departments in civil-rights cases, said if officers are investigating a crime or responding to an incident and discover that someone is drunk and posing a danger, they are obligated to take that person into protective custody.

Police have been sued for failing to take people into protective custody who later died from alcohol poisoning or killed others in drunken-driving accidents.

Laverriere said that he drank several beers, but wasn't drunk, when officers arrived at his friend's duplex saying someone had thrown bottles at a passing police cruiser.

When the partygoers denied throwing bottles, Laverriere said, the officers became angry, prompting him to pick up a friend's camera and start videotaping. Laverriere told the Globe that Officer Jorge Orta ripped the camera from his hands and threw him to the floor, injuring his shoulder.

Laverriere said he told police he had been invited to spend the night at the house, but the officers insisted on taking him into protective custody.

One police report says that Laverriere appeared intoxicated and expressed "displeasure" at being told he had to leave the party because he lived in Maine. He was then taken into custody. The report says he fell to the floor while resisting Orta's efforts to handcuff him.

[Enforcer]

Don't get too high and mighty yet, jmj. Until you've held the quadruple crown of Most Dangerous City, Fattest City, Best City To Catch An STD In and Worst City To Get Sleep In (I'm not making any of those up), you Bostoners are not even close to having bragging rights over my hometown.

[GoodSpeak]

Well.....seems to me if we are to be called a Free Nation, people do, in fact, have the right to become intoxicated on private property. He is also correct, IMHO, to declare that unless his behavior causes a public disturbance or is potentially injurious to those at the party [and the police were called to remove him] the police over stepped their jurisdiction here.


If not, then this is a clear case of the government invading a person's private life and telling him how he may act in private. I got a serious issue with that one.

[Jesse]

Composite factors that have driven the most disturbing stastical data coming from Detroit:
City In Which It Is Most Likey You Will Be Stabbed In The *Love Handles* By An Insomniac With Herpes.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

Don't get too high and mighty yet, jmj. Until you've held the quadruple crown of Most Dangerous City, Fattest City, Best City To Catch An STD In and Worst City To Get Sleep In (I'm not making any of those up), you Bostoners are not even close to having bragging rights over my hometown.

We're gettign there, one step at a time.

[GoodSpeak]

Psssh.

You guys need to come to my Little Land O'Enchantment.....

[groover]

If you're not allowed to get drunk on private property in Boston, there'll be a lot of bars closing up there. So much for Cheers!

[Noj]

The real question is, did somebody throw a bottle at the cop car? That's why the cops got their panties in a bunch and started throwing their weight around.

Although, cops do often break up parties for no reason other than the old lady down the street can't sleep. Inconvenience a whole party of people for one party pooper--that's their job!

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by Noj

Although, cops do often break up parties for no reason other than the old lady down the street can't sleep. Inconvenience a whole party of people for one party pooper--that's their job!

For the one who complains, there are 10 families who don't: the young parents who have to go to work in the morning, whose 2-year-old can't sleep; the family whose dog is wetting the carpet because the boneheads next door are lighting cherry bombs; the older gentleman who's afraid to call because the scary looking people across the street can cause him real harm.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Psssh.

You guys need to come to my Little Land O'Enchantment.....

For meth?

[Noj]

Originally Posted by Chris D

For the one who complains, there are 10 families who don't: the young parents who have to go to work in the morning, whose 2-year-old can't sleep; the family whose dog is wetting the carpet because the boneheads next door are lighting cherry bombs; the older gentleman who's afraid to call because the scary looking people across the street can cause him real harm.

True, but the cops in Burbank would also break up parties on Friday and Saturday nights, when people don't have to work in the morning.

Incidentally, when I was just out of high school I threw a huge party when my parents were out of town. I walked around and told all the neighbors I was having it, and none of them called the cops! Damn thing went until 2am, and I had the USC football team there for chrissakes. Darryl Russell in my kitchen, eating all the Cheeze-Its. People falling in the pool, people having sex in my parents bedroom, my friends' little brother passed out drunk in a hallway, various people puking, several fights, the keg got thrown over the fence into my neighbor's pool...totally out of control! The cops would have been doing me a favor to break that one up, too bad I took preventative measures toward that happening!

Mom and Dad came home early from their vacation, and I hadn't even picked up a single cigarette butt yet. Ah, that was fun.

[jesus marion joseph]

When I turned 18 I had a blowout party. At the time we lived just up the hill from the town common, where the police headquarters were, so I called them earlier in the day to let them kjnow what was going on. They told me "no problem, just make sure everyone parks on the same side of the street". I lived on a main road that went to the local ski hill.

Anyway, the party got huge, and there were cars lining *both* sides of the street for about a mile. A group of Harley dudes coming off of the mountain from sunset stopped by to see what was going on, etc. To their credit, the cops didn't hassle anybody, though they did drive by several times.

BTW, my parent barricaded themselves in their bedroom upstairs and didn't come out until the next morning. They couldn;t have gotten to sleep before 2:00 Am, either, with all the noise and drunkenness.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Surfer

For meth?

Good point.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Noj

True, but the cops in Burbank would also break up parties on Friday and Saturday nights, when people don't have to work in the morning.

That's true. Nobody ever, ever has to work on Saturdays and Sundays. Not in America. So it is perfectly alright for loud music to keep everyone in the neighborhood up. Sure, maybe some infants are kept from a sound sleep, but their parents are cool. They can catch some zzz's when it is convenient. And if old people are terrorized they should relax. Damn those cops. Noise Nazis.

[kedoane]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

That's true. Nobody ever, ever has to work on Saturdays and Sundays. Not in America. So it is perfectly alright for loud music to keep everyone in the neighborhood up. Sure, maybe some infants are kept from a sound sleep, but their parents are cool. They can catch some zzz's when it is convenient. And if old people are terrorized they should relax. Damn those cops. Noise Nazis.

Guess what, Monte: If you listen to a radio or watch a TV set on Saturdays or Sundays, there are people working at those places where their master controls are ran. I know this because I have worked as a Master Control Operator at a couple of TV stations for the past 11 years and I haven't had a Saturday and Sunday off since (unless I take a vacation day).

If you say that no body has to work the weekends, look at the shopping malls and grocery stores. There are people working on the weekends.

[Enforcer]

Yeah, Monte. Duh.

[Monte Smith]

No: nobody ever, ever, ever, ever has to work on the weekends. Guh doy.

[Noj]

Well, I'm convinced. Nobody ever party late into the night ever again. Never have fun after hours. How about established bed time for every American? We can put Monte in charge, he can decide when it's quiet time.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Noj

Well, I'm convinced. Nobody ever party late into the night ever again. Never have fun after hours. How about established bed time for every American? We can put Monte in charge, he can decide when it's quiet time.

Just keep it down.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Just keep it down.

That's not too much to ask. It's not that neighbours don't want you to have fun, listen to music, have people fighting on your lawn, into the street, drink yourself loop-legged and pukey if that's your pleasure.
What they ask is that you keep it in the house and don't turn the sound system up to TWENTY at two in the morning, or later. If that means that they are just uptight fuddy-duddies, who don't know how to have fun, then, so be it.
And yes, there are lots of people who not only work weekends, but evenings and holidays too. When you are not working and go to a store, a movie, a restaurant etc. etc. those faceless people you see, are indeed working.

[Noj]

I hate situations where few spoil the fun for many. It's not democratic. Besides, as long as the party's not every night or every Friday or every Saturday, what's the big deal putting up with noise for one night? I think there is malicious intent in calling the cops, rather than stopping by and discussing it like an adult.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Noj

I hate situations where few spoil the fun for many. It's not democratic. Besides, as long as the party's not every night or every Friday or every Saturday, what's the big deal putting up with noise for one night? I think there is malicious intent in calling the cops, rather than stopping by and discussing it like an adult.

I'll agree to the point that I wouldn't call the cops, unless I thought somebody was in danger, for example a fight got out of hand, but please.
If it was one night, there would be no problem. But if it's two, three, four nights a week, or even every night, then there is a problem.
Spoiling the fun?? Maybe.
But, you're right. I would probably go over, in my unattractive night attire and tell them to keep it down before I would summon the constabulary. I would at least give them the chance to tone it down. The cops are the heavy artillary.

[Noj]

This is a funny conversation, really. It is Saturday night, and I haven't partied locally in years--in fact, I don't party much at all. I'm a regular Boo Radley. I can't remember the last time I was at a party the cops would bother to break up. I go home early these days and hit the hay. Sad.

[Enforcer]

Originally Posted by patricia

But, you're right. I would probably go over, in my unattractive night attire and tell them to keep it down before I would summon the constabulary.

patricia, the lucky guy who answers the door is not going to have much of a chance to "keep it down" if you're standing on his front porch in your "night attire."

[kedoane]

Originally Posted by patricia

That's not too much to ask. It's not that neighbours don't want you to have fun, listen to music, have people fighting on your lawn, into the street, drink yourself loop-legged and pukey if that's your pleasure.
What they ask is that you keep it in the house and don't turn the sound system up to TWENTY at two in the morning, or later. If that means that they are just uptight fuddy-duddies, who don't know how to have fun, then, so be it.
And yes, there are lots of people who not only work weekends, but evenings and holidays too. When you are not working and go to a store, a movie, a restaurant etc. etc. those faceless people you see, are indeed working.

Thank you, Patricia. You hit it on the nose.

[Noj]

Sheesh. My apologies for disregarding the weekend workers. I realize that is by far the most important point in this discussion.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

patricia, the lucky guy who answers the door is not going to have much of a chance to "keep it down" if you're standing on his front porch in your "night attire."

You obviously haven't seen my night attire, Larry.

And Noj,
No, the most important thing isn't that there are people who work weekends.
There's a difference between a party with music, dancing, drinking and conversation and a gathering of wasted jerks staggering into the street, fighting and yelling at each other, disturbing the neighbours, revving their engines as they arrive and leave, etc., etc., etc. Surely you see that.

Having thrown a party with a cast of dozens on a weekend that my folks were away, that is still remembered by those who attended, I do know what it's like when a party gets out of hand. I even had a pickup band, guitar-player, saxophone player and drummer, from the rock band who played the school dances.
In the days that followed the party my parents were informed by the neighbours, who didn't call the police, though the festivities carried on well into the wee hours.
Turns out that my dad actually suspected something when he came into the house wondering aloud who had made a pyramid about a foot high of beer caps next to a tree in the back yard. I had spent hours cleaning the house, so I was almost home free.
Amazingly, the house was packed and nothing was stolen or broken. Wouldn't happen today.

[tippy]

Should the cops trust that the drunk people they come across will use their "sound judgment" and remain on private property v. causing a greater ruckus or getting into a car later? Should people be allowed to disturb the peace of their neighbors? There's ways to party hardy without having the cops the show up. It's about choosing appropriate spaces and the host maintaining some semblance of control--maybe bargaining with your neighbors a little bit.

[patricia]

Exactly.
It's only sensible to take the precaution of informing the neighbours of your intention to throw a good-sized whoop-up.
Inviting them to drop by is usually a good idea.
After all, unless you're going to be moving, you have to live among them.

But, even having done that, one cannot expect serenity to reign if your guests are staggering all over the neighbourhood, scarin' the horses.

I enjoy a good party as much as anybody, but if the untoward happens, there should be some sort of Plan B.
A burley taxi-summoner who is willing to accompany the rowdy and obnoxious home safely is not out of the question.
Use your head.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Noj

I hate situations where few spoil the fun for many. It's not democratic.

Oh, well if you put your soiree to a referendum and 50.01% of the neighborhood voted "par-tay!", then the people have spoken. Only a junta would call in the pigs at that point.

I suspect, however, that the democrat decrying the spoilage of his rights at two a.m. with the cops at the door reeks of alcohol and didn't poll didly.