I was at the party on Sunset Street right behind Amanda Smith when the police barged in, and can say with absolute certainty that she did not punch a cop in the face. What really happened, was they got pissed off when she sarcastically said she was 12 and then proceeded to grab her and throw her against a wall, at which point she tried helplessly to push them away from her. Amanda is the one who was assaulted, the others just tried to get the cops off of her, and there's plenty of witnesses to attest to that. No one was fighting for their right to party, although 21 year olds do have that right, they were fighting for the right of a 90lb. girl not to be beaten up by men more than twice her size.

Hey, chucklehead -- when you say snarky things to cops, you'd better believe that you are going to go up against a wall; and if you try to push them away you will only add to the list of charges against you. If you then try to take the law into your own hands, you are volunteering to be arrested as well. You have no right to play "cop" yourself. Finally, 21 year olds may indeed have the "right to party"; but that right ends where the peace and quiet of the neighborhood begins. Disturb that peace and quiet, and the police will come and end your party.

Somehow, I don't think that I'm going to get through to you, though. You seem too focused on your "rights" and the victimhood of the partygoers to understand what I've said.

It's because of people like you that cops get away with whatever they want. There's a difference between cops having the right to break up a loud party and cops having the right to get together and make up that someone punched them in the face, because they get their egos bruised whenever their authority is challenged. You're right to say that I'm focused on my "rights," and that I think people can take the law into their own hands when the people in charge of the law are corrupt, because they're OUR laws and this is OUR country. Too bad the Soviet Union didn't work out, you might be better off there.

If you bothered to study anything about the law and Constitutional rights, you'd know that there are legal remedies for things like this -- and they don't include pounding on cops when you feel justified in doing so. You want to "challenge their authority"? Do it in a legal way, and no one will question you.

Your problem, as with so many people, is that you think in platitudes. You say that "they're OUR laws and OUR country"; but you prove yourself ignorant of what those laws say. As for your crack about my preferring the Soviet Union, you only betray a headline knowledge of the USSR. If you had bothered to study Soviet history, you'd know that there was no effective way to challenge State abuses. Here, there is.

When I was in college, I joined the ACLU. My membership card included, on the back, a list of things to do or not do when arrested. One thing went something like "your arrest is probably legal even if it does not seem justified. That idiot woman at your party thought that she knew better, mouthed off to the cops, and paid the price. Did she get roughed up excessively? Perhaps -- but had she just kept her mouth shut, or at least kept control of her words and avoided being a smarta**, the cops would have had no excuse to do anything to her.

Before you demand your rights, Pal, you ought to try studying just what they are -- from a reputable source, not from some blog that says what's politically comforting to you.

I was there as well and have known Amanda for quite awhile, and I've read the complete police report. Traveler, you seem to be missing the point. It is not the arrest of Amanda and a couple of her friends that is infuriating, it is that they MADE UP the fact that she punched them in the face. It simply never happened. She is being charged with assault and battery of an officer, which is a very serious charge, and it is completely based upon a false claim. THAT IS THE ISSUE. FALSIFYING EVIDENCE. LYING IN A POLICE REPORT. If those are the standards that you are defending then I seriously question your judgment. These officers should be ashamed of themselves.

Here's the simple breakdown: Sensible charges- 1)Disturbing the Peace 2)Resisting Arrest, Absurd charges- 1)Assaulting an Officer

You are also missing MY points. I'm well aware that cops can be less than truthful in their reports (review Alan Dershowitz's comments on how cops "cheat elite" or engage in "testilying", for starters). However, neither you nor the other guy addressed the issue of Amanda's stupidity in mouthing off to the cops, and the stupidity of the others in trying to interfere with the cops. THAT is begging to be arrested.

If Amanda and her friends had approached this halfway intellingently, they would have planned to wage their battle in court. The assault charge on the cops probably wouldn't have held up, nor would many of the other charges. Instead, they had to be geniuses.

Not too long ago, my son was at a party in a community where the local cops are known to be jerks, especially toward young-people parties. they showed up, just as they did in Mattapan, and told everyone to knock off the noise. They did that, and pulled the party inside; and the cops left. IDs had been at the ready, in case the cops got sticky on the alcohol issue, BTW.

I cannot at once be \"well aware that cops can be less than truthful in their reports\" while also always treating them with the utmost respect. If they are dishonest, vindictive people who get together and make up false reports in order to convict people whose attitudes rubbed them the wrong way, then they don\'t deserve respect and people shouldn\'t be punished for disrespecting them. Maybe if they were a little more upstanding, honest, and professional, people would give them respect willingly instead of them having to demand it by throwing tiny girls against walls and twisting their arms back until they cry out in pain. Of course it was stupid for her to mouth off to the cops, but does it justify her being convicted of assault and battery on a police officer? Are you suggesting that cops should be ordained with so much power that we give them free reign to falsify charges so that instead of people getting punishments that fit their crimes, they get whatever punishment the cops personally want them to get? Or only that we should just passively accept that that\'s a possibility and walk on eggshells around OUR civil servants because we know they\'re dangerous individuals and are likely to get us unlawfully convicted for crimes we don\'t commit?

You seem to be caught up on this issue of (to paraphrase) "had they handled the situation better it wouldn't be a problem in the first place". Which is fair enough. HOWEVER this in no way rationalizes or excuses making up information and putting it in a police report. You might call it "less than truthful" I call it a crime.

Also she IS fighting this in court. Maybe you are not familiar with the efficiency of the court system, but she hasn't gotten a date yet. And for the record, the charge not holding up in court doesn't justify it being made on false pretenses.

To conclude, it's not that I missed your points, I'm just not concerned with them. Not one thing on this planet will convince me that falsifying a police report is ok in ANY circumstance, but you are welcome to keep trying to persuade.

Joe, you got your head screwed on straight. thank you. and traveler....the bottom line is there was not an opportunity for amanda or anyone at the party to "approach this halfway intellingently" because he kicked in the front door without a warrant and started pushing people around. had he used his words like a smart man, the scene would not have escalated to chaos. and anyways....you sure have a lot to say about something completely unrelated to your life. now be a good traveler and move on.

I'm not going to keep on arguing points which people don't seem to fully understand, so I'll leave you all with this. I'm old enough to know that there are times and places to pick battles with cops. This issue came up for me, not too long ago, when a cop in a nearby community was, to put it politely, a jerk. I could have said some choice words to the cop about what she was doing; but I thought: I can say those words, and come out of this with a citation and maybe even an arrest. Or, I can keep my mouth shut, let the cop shoot her mouth off, and maybe go on my way unmolested. I chose option #2; and I went on my way unmolested.

The people at the party, knowing that the cops intended to be jerks, could have lowered the noise level at the party, and avoided giving the cops any reason to act out. Instead, they "knew better", and now they are facing criminal charges. Yes, these people are fighting their battles in court -- and may even prevail -- but would it not have been better still to not have to fight the battle at all -- or at least as a defendant, with an arrest record and the need to spend time and money defending against criminal charges?