Fourth Of July: Boston Celebrates Against Backdrop Of Heightened Security
From the archive: published Jul 5, 2013, 13 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Fourth of July celebrations in Boston drew big crowds and strict security, as thousands poured into the city for the first large-gathering since the Boston Marathon.
After the April 15 bombing that claimed three lives and left more than 200 people injured, the city of Boston vowed to enact much stricter security for Fourth of July celebrations.
At one celebration in the city, attendees waiting in line for an hour to go through a security checkpoint, where event staffers waved metal detectors and asked people to transfer food and drinks into transparent bags provided by security.
The stricter security, along with temperatures that climbed into the mid 90s, kept attendance down at some Fourth of July events in Boston.
“I think it’s going very well, for the most part,” State Police Colonel Timothy Alben said about the security. “The public has cooperated tremendously. There are always going to be some people who don’t like [tight security]. We understand that. But I think it’s the world we live in.”
The city of Boston had already announced that Fourth of July celebrations would come with much stricter security. Just weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing, the chief intelligence official spoke detailed the city’s new and more strident approach to large scale events.
Superintendent Paul Fitzgerald said in May that the huge display of patriotism and the big crowds that come with Fourth of July celebrations in Boston would mean a big target on the city. In fact, investigators found that suspected Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev originally planned to attack the city on Independence Day.
The city’s police department worked with the State Police on a strategy for the Fourth of July in Boston, taking cues from how New York City handles its large events.
“We’re heading to New York City to learn about the Times Square plan that they’ve put in place for New Year’s,” said Fitzgerald. “Because clearly, that’s a very high risk event that they run there, but they’re so helpful to us we’re gonna go down and see how they run that event.”
Despite the lower attendance and hassles of long security lines, the Fourth of July in Boston was a success from the standpoint of law enforcement officials. The city escaped with no incidents.