Boston faces riot-control test

The city of the Fenway Faithful is buzzing with pent-up energy, the kind that may aid and abet a Red Sox triumph - or a riot in the streets.

As Boston reels with hope for its first World Series victory since 1918, residents and officials here are also grappling with difficult issues of mob control and public safety. Last week, the celebration after the Sox won their series slot, beating the Yankees in New York, turned deadly. Thousands of fans filled the streets near Fenway Park, and in the chaos a Emerson College student was hit in the eye by a police pepper-spray bullet. She died hours later.

The Boston Police department has been criticized for its role in the death, as it attempted to control a joyous crowd turned riotous. The resulting publicity is prompting debate about proper police response, and is shaping preparations for crowd control if the Sox win this week.

The death also highlights a challenge that goes beyond Boston: an unruly brand of sport celebration, especially among college-age males. The challenge is especially acute here, where the culture is ruled in equal measure by sports and academia. This city could be a test case for understanding why such a tribal response has become an almost automatic extension of tense playoff games.

"What's happening, and not just when there are losses, but when [the team] is victorious, fans torch cars, turn them over," says Leonard Zaichkowsky, a sport psychology expert at Boston University. Celebrations should be associated with joy and gratitude, but they too often transition into a hostility and destruction, he says.

This "mob mentality" isn't new. It was seen in Roman spectator riots in the 6th century. And Europe has long dealt with soccer "hooligans."

But in America, rioting has increasingly marred celebrations in professional and college sports.

Earlier this year after the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl, a 21-year-old was hit by a car in the rowdiness that erupted in Boston. Dozens of students were arrested for flipping cars and setting fires at the University of Connecticut when the men's and women's basketball teams won national championships last spring.

Last week, with tens of thousands of fans in the streets here, some hurling garbage cans and throwing bottles at officers, police in riot gear tried to contain the chaos. The pepper bullets were not supposed to land above the shoulders, but one of them hit Victoria Snelgrove in the eye. The use of so-called nonlethal force in this case turned deadly. In a statement, Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole took full responsibility for any errors on the part of the police and announced that an internal investigation would be opened.

She has also harshly condemned rioters, but the police will shift to lower-powered pellet guns.

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