There was a crazy party going on at what I think was 54 Forbes last night.
It was so loud that our house on Wyman was vibrating.
We called the police and they were pretty jerky and unresponsive.
If you live in the area, did you call the police? Has someone new moved in there? This ha happened a few times this summer. I don't think it did ever last summer.
I live next door. It was 54. I did not call the cops, but i think my roommate might have, I'm not sure. I don't think they're new but yea, they have had these parties a few times. They usually cut them off earlier though...
We're down at 17 Forbes and didn't hear anything particularly loud(er than usual), but about 2 weeks ago I did call the cops re late-night noise right under my window. I have never called police before for noise-- this was loud and unrelenting. No one ever came by so I won't try it again. Noise is a recurring issue so if anyone ever wants to discuss action plans, let me know.
Permalink Reply by Todd on August 23, 2010 at 11:38am
Hi Nancy, please keep calling for noise complaints. And make sure you call 911. If you call the local station, supposedly it doesn't get tracked as well and they cannot dispatch police as easily. Ask your neighbors to call and complain about them as well. If the police don't come, keep calling every hour or so. At the crime watch meetings, the police tell us that they want people to call 911 about these types of issues.
Permalink Reply by Todd on August 23, 2010 at 11:40am
Hi Laurie,
Unfortunately, the police were not super helpful that night. My neighbor reports that they showed up at his house and were rude to him. Please keep calling for noise complaints. And make sure you call 911. If you call the local station, supposedly it doesn't get tracked as well and they cannot dispatch police as easily. Ask your neighbors to call and complain about them as well. If the police don't come, keep calling every hour or so. At the crime watch meetings, the police tell us that they want people to call 911 about these types of issues.
There were problems like this with a house on Wyman St a few years ago that have been resolved in this manner. The same people still live there but they don't have those raging parties any more.
Supposedly, if a house gets enough complaints like that, they start getting fined.
What I'd like to know is, where do we complain about our JP COPS? I'm not surprised to hear that they were less than helpful - I've been shocked on a couple of occasions at their attitudes...really rude and even confrontational. Not sure what that's about, but I find it an extremely negative mark on our special corner of Boston.
Often people hear what they want to hear. I recently saw my neighbor berate an officer when he didn't do what he wanted him to do. The officer insisted that the law didn't allow him to take a certain action. The officer told him several times how to rectify the situation. The neighbor wasn't having it. We are often our own worst enemies. When dealing with quality of life issues in a neighborhood we often expect too much from the police. I am amazed by the amount of people who don't know their neighbors but yet are quick to dime them out for any little incident. If you move in next to a park with a basketball court, then why complain about the noise they make in the day. It's clear to me that most of the folks on my street live in anonymity. Reach out to your neighbors. That should be your first course of action. Bashing the cops is always too easy.
Thanks for that - though that's not my case. I'm sure many people expect too much, but I've actually been berated/spoken to rudely asking the most innocent of questions. I lived in NYC for 17 years and never felt the energy there from local police that I do here.
Permalink Reply by Todd on August 27, 2010 at 1:33pm
In terms of the 54 Forbes situation, at the last crime watch meeting, the police recommended not approaching the people living there in person.
I can't vouch for my neighbor's experience with the police. I believe him when he tells me his story. He's a very nice guy and not a jerk. However, I've met a variety of our officers and most have been really nice, helpful people. I'm not out to paint anyone w/ a broad brush.
Todd- it's been my experience that E-13 is usually responsive to noise complaints and such (a while ago, I had some neighbors who were fond of sitting on their back porch and loudly playing a guitar and singing/yelling well past 1-2AM.) 'round this time of year, lot of new undergrad/grad students are in the area who don't yet have anything keeping them off the streets :-)
I've also been at two parties where they showed up, and in both cases, they were direct but professional, and it was mostly a you're-gonna-quiet-down-so-we-don't-have-to-come-back,-right? sort of discussion, and both hosts took it seriously. In neither case were things loud enough to cause anyone's house to rattle- just a lot of noise for the time of night.
Call Boston 911 directly at 617-343-4911 (I have that in my cellphone as "AAboston 911", mostly because it cuts out the game of Twenty Jurisdictions with the State Police.) Tell them how long it's been going on for, and try to figure out what house + apartment it was before you call.
IMPORTANT: if after a reasonable amount of time the house is still a-rockin', call *again*. Yes, call again! Say you called earlier (tell them when), and that there's still a problem. Why? Because a)maybe they were busy with more important things (like people getting shot...sigh) and knowing it's still a problem will help them know they wouldn't be wasting their time coming by late. b)maybe they DID visit, told the host to settle-down-now, and they need to know the host HASN'T, and their second visit is going to be to send everyone home and slap the property owner with a noise complaint.
Also, I'd suggest emailing Officer Lara, not calling him; might make things easier for him in terms of passing along info to shift commanders, tracking the # of complaints, etc. I could be wrong (I'm also a little surprised nobody from E-13 has replied to this yet- they're pretty active here.)