Monday, July 3, 2017

Humarock July 3rd Shutdown Has Ominous Implications

Humarock will be closed to revelers on July 3rd. Citing "historical" cycles of drinking and teen rabble-rousing, the Scituate selectmen voted to nix the holiday revelry.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday America" like radically curtailing personal freedoms, right?

Humarock's beach, along with other coastal villages like Green Harbor and Duxbury Beach, have for decades been host to massive Independence Day celebrations on July 3rd (the 4th, in these parts, are reserved for fireworks shows in other towns like Plymouth). These celebrations feature family parties, heroic drinking, Gettysburg-style gunpowder expenditure, roving gangs of teenagers, Dresden-like bonfires and twelve hour adult drunks. It tends to get a bit rowdy, even for the Irish Riviera.

Police naturally tire of the annual Night Of Action on these beaches, and the simple solution is to shut the party down. Seems like a good idea, no?

Most bad ideas usually do at the time they are thought up. Very few people who aren't in Congress, think "That sounds like it will backfire catastrophically, let's try it out."

The upside of the beach closure is instantly apparent. A giant, wild party will be shut down.

Let's examine the downside, shall we?
Humarock is setting a precedent that will be adopted all along the coast. A century worth of tradition can be erased by a mere wet blanket of a selectmen group... especially if they own property in the former party zone. Something that many people take for granted can be snatched away with a private vote of five people or so.

The gentrification of the Irish Riviera is never more apparent than it will be tonight in the Riviera's capital of Humarock. It's not like today's people party harder than yesteryear's. I'd take some 1968 LSD gang of student radicals over today's millennial kids in a Gettin' Rowdy contest, and I'd also wager on my own kegs-and-kegs-of-beer 1980s compatriots.

It's the people who have changed, as well as the demographics and the style of governing. Many of the cottages we remember from 1950-1990 are now 3 story beach mansions that only a wealthy person could afford. The elite, even in a town like Duxbury where the ceiling is high but the floor isn't that low, tend to not reflect the will of the people. However, they do have disproportionate influence in government. The mick with the shanty cottage won't be hosting the next campaign fundraiser, if you catch my drift.

Lacking that connection with the people and certainly not about to go forth and mingle with the rabble, the pols and elite lose touch with some of the things that make living in town special.

The beach closure won't aid public safety that much. If they were serious about this being a public safety issue, maybe they would order the bars to stop serving alcohol on a night when many people will be walking down dark roads with no sidewalks or streetlights. I'd wager that Scituate's many taverns and bars have a higher body count than her July 3rd revelry.

Somehow, I don't see the need for public safety being THAT important to the people who make laws these days. Business is business, after all.

I don't think that it will lower arrests, or even curtail the teen presence. Many teens don't peruse the news every day, and will be unaware of the ban. Many will be lying to their parents about where they are headed, and will simply get dropped off down the road some before wandering into the party area.

Police will stop the first wave, but it takes time to chase off (and especially arrest) a gang of kids. It takes less time for another gaggle to pop up just around the corner. Police resources are finite, and the law could soon be overwhelmed.

This is especially true in that kids who aren't allowed in Humarock are going to turn up somewhere else, leaving police with a choice of "Let two cops try to control Humarock while we respond to kids turning up in large numbers in other parts of town" or the far more ominous "In order to protect Humarock, we're going to abandon policing of other beaches in town. Make your own law on Scituate Neck, folks!"

Kids who are turned away will be free to choose a new spot, in parts of town that will hardly be policed at all. Kids who wander into Humarock will get nonsense trespassing arrests, at the expense of chaos in other parts of town.

If the town does manage to cover all of the real estate, it  seems logical to assume that the same amount of kids will be arrested, just in different parts of town. We're left with a ceiling of "we arrest people in other parts of town now" and a floor of "white riot.' Neither of these seem like a benefit worth gutting a cherished holiday celebration over.

This closure could even hurt property values and rental rates. July 4th is the peak week for renting cottages, and the block party is the engine that drives it. "The town square has a barbershop quartet tonight" doesn't pull the same weight as "Relive your childhood for $3000 a week."

Again, if you are an elite not dependent on rental income to maintain your property, this tradition matters little to you. The ban may actually squeeze some of the rabble out of the neighborhood, in favor of the more acceptable rich man who will snatch up his property.

As we said before, you can't fault the police for wanting to control a ZooMass-style block party, but this beach closure sounds a lot like the downside always expressed in giant asteroid impact movies when someone mentions exploding the asteroid with a nuclear weapon... rather than a million ton asteroid hitting the planet all at once, we instead get the same weight hitting the planet in a buckshot-like manner. You get just as much damage, at least in a F=MA sense.

Humarock seems to be headed in this direction. After them, Marshfield, Duxbury, Plymouth, Cape Cod... it can only happen if you let it happen, people.


20 comments:

  1. kids will go to the Spit instead

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  2. Spot on. Public beach access everywhere is under attack. Same here on Long Island.

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  3. Public servants policing Private Beaches.

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  4. The issue here that's been overlooked by many (there was no mention of it in the piece above) is that Humarock is a Scituate beach that is not connected to Scituate.
    If they (Scituate PD) didn't station a detachment of officers at Humarock, the issues (teen drinking, fights, etc) that are of concern spiral out of control before the responding officers depart the other parts of the town that they've been assigned to, travel through Marshfield, and arrive at Humarock. Marshfield PD, although much closer and more accessible to Humarock, have their own beaches and areas to patrol - and have no jurisdiction over Humarock.
    Do I like the idea that the beach is closed? No. But do I see where the policing of it has become something that's too much of a logistical nightmare for a police department that is physically separated from part of their own jurisdiction? Yup.
    MAYBE the towns (Scituate and Marshfield) could come together and effect some sort of truce or joining-of-forces allowing MPD to "cross the line" and cover the Humarock revelry. Maybe Scituate could/should augment their police department on the night in question and have a presence at Humarock to let those partying there know that they're not "out of reach" of the authorities and their activities would remain more in line with what the police, the selectmen and the "common good" they're trying to protect could withstand.
    The bottom line is that - while there is at issue here the whole "kids these days" vs "the man" and such, there's also a very real concern about those doing the partying - they don't want a police presence or any sort of rules preventing them from doing their thing - but the second a fight breaks out or someone gets hurt or worse, the expectation is that those in Public Safety jobs (police, fire, EMS) will come rushing to their aid - from their remote locations - and without ruining the party of the others who are not directly affected.
    It's not worth one person's life or well-being so that another's bonfire or beer can go on without interruption - be they first responder or fellow partier.
    - Scott, Marshfield

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    1. TRUTH!!! said the same thing kinda

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    2. One night a year! Safty First but this....running out of Freedom. can't blame the kids today they only follow our footstep of yesterday.

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  5. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

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  6. I moved out of Scituate after being burglarized 3 times in one year. I lived on Cedarwood Rd. Next to the police station. You could not make this up.

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  7. Well written article full of the obvious truths. Why is it no one cracks down on the illegal professional grade fireworks along the "elite" sections of Scituate.
    Did you know that bonfires were originally an Independence Day means of celebration.

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  8. If kids want to drink they will find a way and do it somewhere. Stop the transportation of alcohol by underage drinkers rather than punishing families enjoying the beach. Closing the public beach on a hot summer day is unfair to those who paid for a beach sticker.

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  9. Do you live in Humarock? Have you been here on the 3rd when mobs of punks pile onto our beach vandalize our property and cause many disruptions wasting valuable police time? We're you here last night? From those of us who like to enjoy the 3rd with family and friends and not crowds that don't belong and don't care, it was a fantastic 3rd without police cars arresting kids that get in fights and disrupt those of us who pay taxes and want to enjoy our neighborhood, friends, and family. Thank you for closing the beach.

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    1. "our beach" gee I thought it was a PUBLIC beach

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    2. Geeze, i remember growing up saying it was a free country. Just keep letting the local government decide what we cant do as they see fit. As long as your not inconvenienced, who cares what they choose to shut down right?

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    3. yeah "our beach" "our properties" "our community". We are the ones who get stuck with the cleanup, the destruction, the vandalism AND HIGHER TAXES!!!! Why should the residents have to suffer and pay so you can enjoy and destroy. Did you ever think that maybe you ruined it for yourself?????

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    4. Because many generation's before the privelage came to town have been doing this together as a community so that others could enjoy the tradition. A tradition I grew up with, my kids grew up with, and now their kids don't have that pleasure. Sucks being stuck in a town where the wealthy just keep taking, but this is my home, and my families home for generations, and I will keep fighting against this.

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  10. "You gotta fight for your right to party"-Twisted Sister

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  11. Blame the kids but you failed to mention tha Humarock really isn't part of Scituate any more,those people in Scituate aren't complaining cuse they dont want their beaches to be shut down, WHY JUST HUMAROCK??? Why cause of coarse there will be extra police on EVERY 3RDof July and I RESPECT any person who puts their life in the line of duty but as Americans we celebrate America so BE SAFE AND BLOW IT UP TONIGHT HUMAROCK!!!!

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  12. Another, ACT of the Scituate Town Administer, When will Scituate get Smart.

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  13. Beaches are public. This was gross that the community at large let's the police and selectmen dictate what we are allowed to do as free men and women

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