This past weekend was a lively one for local law enforcement as more than 200 calls were fielded by the Amherst Police department alone.
“During the three-day period, officers made 78 arrests for offenses such as alcohol and narcotic violations, disorderly conduct and operating under the influence,” said an APD spokesperson.
Of the 200 calls, one made early on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 15 was initially for a noise complaint. This particular call, received at 12:30 a.m., resulted in the break-up of a large party on Olympia Drive. According to APD, “It took five officers over 30 minutes to clear out over 400 college-aged individuals and restore the peace to the area.”
Patrick Archbald, deputy chief of the University of Massachusetts police department, reported a similarly busy weekend.
One UMass student was shocked to find his laptop computer stolen from his room in Dwight Hall. The rest of the area was undisturbed, but the machine, valued at $800, vanished even after the owner insisted he left the room locked.
Jonathan Astrada, 22 of Jamaica Plain, MA, was among those arrested over the weekend. He is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after forcibly slamming a female victim into a wall, bouncing her head against the barrier. The wall is considered as the dangerous weapon in the police report.
On Sunday, Sept. 15, at approximately 1:25 a.m., the UMPD responded to a call outside of the John F. Kennedy Tower. Eitan Bogoslavsky, 18, of Mansfield, MA, was arrested shortly after the police arrived. He is charged with aggravated assault and battery. Bogoslavsky allegedly struck his victim in the facial region several times, resulting in the victim’s hospitalization several surgeries. The victim suffered a broken jaw, a laceration on his forehead and the misaligning of several teeth.
There were conflicting reports regarding the cause of the fight. The victim had allegedly asked Bogoslavsky for a cigarette, a request that was not fulfilled.
The weekend was typical of September weekends in years prior. UMPD reported 571 calls last weekend compared to 622 in 2006 and 451 in 2005. The average number of calls for the first weekend of the semester is 290, compared to 258 during the second. In its book, Best 366 Colleges: 2008 Edition, the Princeton Review did not include UMass in the top 20 colleges in the book’s Party Schools section. The survey, based largely upon student responses to the Review’s questions, has been declared by UMass spokesman Patrick Callahan to be “junk science.”
While UMass was rated 9th and 7th in 2006 and 2007, respectively, the University’s falling off the party school list has resulted in no change in police call frequency.
Will McGuinness can be reached at [email protected].
