Boston police arrest five at St. Anthony's Feast Saturday

Jun 30, 2023

Boston police arrested at least five Saturday for underage drinking at the St. Anthony’s Feast in the North End, including one who “ran” into a cop in an attempt to prevent the arrest of another juvenile.

The arrests came a week after police arrested one person at a separate festival and wrote at least 20 different reports based on underage drinking in the Italian district. Community members have urged police to step up enforcement after years of complaints of teenagers disrupting celebrations in the North End. Organizers even increased security at the St. Anthony’s Feast.

In multiple police reports provided to the Herald Monday, Boston police described two incidents in which juveniles were caught underage drinking and then started to run away from police. Police said they temporarily shut down the festival in the evening because of disruptive juvenile activity.

Two police officers saw a group of juveniles on N. Washington Street drinking High Noons, a hard seltzer, and “trying to conceal” Fireball nips just after 8 a.m., a police report said. Officers instructed one juvenile to hand over the alcohol, which they did before immediately running away, according to the report.

“Officers were able to catch up to the suspect and briefly detain her. At this time, the suspect began flaring her arms and kicking officers,” the police report said. “While trying to detain suspect #1, suspect #2 [redacted] ran into Officer Eaton in an attempt to prevent officers from effecting an arrest.”

Officers said they lost sight of the first suspect, who was able to break away “due to suspect #2 running into Officer Eaton,” the police report said. But police managed to later detain both suspects.

One suspect was charged with possessing liquor while under 21 years old, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on a police officer. Another suspect was charged with assault and battery on a police officer and interfering with a police officer.

“It should be noted that suspect #1 continued to kick and flare her arms causing Officer Eaton to sustain a minor injury to his right knuckle,” the police report said.

In another police report, officers said there was overcrowding in the North End and large groups of juveniles “openly consuming alcohol in public” while they concealed other alcoholic beverages inside their bags and pockets.

Police said the festival was temporarily shut down Saturday and cleared out because groups of juveniles were “having tumultuous behavior and being a nuisance to the festival-goers and sponsors.”

Videos provided to the Herald by bostonharbor.com show multiple police cruisers and crowds near Langone Park in the North End.

Organizers of the St. Anthony’s Feast upped security at the festival, hiring a private security company to run security checkpoints to check bags. The festival barred attendees from bringing bags and warned of a zero-tolerance for public drinking.

Police officers said two male juveniles who tried “recklessly” hopped over a metal barricade lining Thatcher Street leading to N. Washington Street. The individuals started running down Thatcher Street towards Endicott Street “with no regard for their actions,” a police report said.

One officer started to give chase, yelling at the pair to stop as they ran into large crowds, the police report said. A bystander started to assist police “with stopping and preventing [redacted] with running further,” the report said.

“At this time, Officer Kennedy escorted [redacted] to the exit of the checkpoint where he was placed into handcuffs and under arrest,” the police report said. “[Redacted] was able to be stopped by multiple other officers.”

The pair were charged with disorderly conduct and released to their respective parents, the police report said. Police also arrested a separate 19-year-old who they accused of underage drinking, according to another police report.

Police said they warned a vendor against selling alcohol after they were “made aware on more than one occasion” that a vendor was selling frozen beverages containing alcohol, a police report detailed.

“Officers were also made aware that alcoholic beverages were being sold to children,” a police report said. “It should be noted that no liquor licenses are given to street vendors at the festival unless they have an enclosed area to keep drinkers.”

An officer in plain clothes said they approached the vendor earlier to buy a frozen drink, the police report said. The vendor “offered to add rum to the beverage for an additional charge,” the report said.

“Mr. [redacted] stated to officers that he had been a vendor at the feast for 15 years and that he was not serving alcohol,” the police report said. “Mr. [redacted] stated that he had been serving a rum-flavored syrup that did not contain any alcohol. Mr. [redacted] showed officers a gallon bottle of ‘Inter County’ rum essence, which appeared to be a product used by bakers to mimic the taste of rum. Officers were unable to test the liquid for alcohol.”

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