I saw two shootouts in Boston on Monday night. Unfortunately, the one that will stay longest in the memory didn’t involve Paraguay and Germany or any of their penalties.
It was around 10.35pm when the buses ferrying media at the World Cup returned to the theatre district of this beautiful city, having completed the achingly slow journey from Foxborough, where Paraguay had just administered the biggest shock of the tournament.
A colleague and I fancied a bite and a quick drink before heading for the hotel, which in my case was to be the final night ahead of returning home to cover some tennis and golf. Initially, we stepped into the Fourth Wall pub on Tremont Street, one I’d visited along with a large Scottish contingent on my first night of this trip almost three weeks ago. It’s a lively, fun, tight squeeze of a place, and a couple of dozen Dutch fans were crammed onto the stools where the Scots once sat.
But it was a touch too loud on Monday, so we stepped back outside, where a small group of German supporters were deliberating a stop at New York Pizza next door.
You find these scenes at major tournaments; that blend of migrating nations and shirts and beers and, at the end of it all, the same need to eat away the pains caused by Paraguayan goalkeepers. There’s a kind of magic in how dreams and realities collide in faraway lands.
But we are also aware of America’s realities. And one of those soon came screaming around the corner in the form of five or six scooters.
I saw two shootouts in Boston on Monday night. Unfortunately, the one that will stay longest in the memory didn’t involve Paraguay and Germany or any of their penalties
But we are also aware of America’s realities. And one of those soon came screaming around the corner in the form of five or six scooters
I’m not certain how many we saw, because what followed happened fast, but it did feel, at first, like a routine traffic incident. One scooter had cut aggressively in front of another, knocking the rider over, and the escalation came next, when the two men began fighting on the curbside, 15, 20 yards ahead of us. Others from the cavalcade, or hunt, got involved; I remember noticing they had cloth masks pulled up to their eyes.
My colleague had the presence of mind in this chaos to get out of the way and into the pizza place. I followed and, with my back to the door, said something about the chance of a shooting. It was at that point, or no more than a couple of seconds later, that three loud gunshots rang out, quickly accompanied by the sound of scooters screeching away.
Stepping back outside, the German fans were gone but there was a rider down. Flat on his back and clutching at his stomach, blood was pouring out onto the road around him. Before long, there were sirens and a block sealed off at either end.
A couple of hours later, after the ambulance had come and gone, there was still crash debris in that spot. And thick pools of bright red on the tarmac. But the place was largely deserted; life had moved on.
Around the corner, on Stuart Street, some Moroccan fans were hanging around – their side had beaten the Netherlands on penalties in Guadalupe, just like Paraguay had beaten Germany in Foxborough.
They are enjoying America. This version of America. And yet the other America is right there, living side by side, the backdrop to a tournament that holds the power to conceal the underbelly, if only for while. If only for cosmetic purposes, even in the beautiful parts, like the streets linking a few theatres in Boston.
But the veneer of a World Cup or Olympics is always thin and America’s gun crisis is far, far thicker.
I gathered from local reports that the victim was expected to live, and that it started over a stolen moped. Apparently two others were injured.
Four people were shot at a World Cup celebration in nearby Brockton last week
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 6,372 gun deaths in the United States this year, and 11,667 injuries
That’s a world we don’t understand at home. Same goes for the statistics. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 6,372 gun deaths in the United States this year, and 11,667 injuries. Every country has its problems but American problems have scope to involve firearms. By some estimates there are 500 million civilian-owned guns in this country, more than the sum total of the population.
One person was killed in the area used to host to the fan zone in San Jose on Sunday, another was killed four miles from England’s training base on June 16 in Kansas City, and four were shot at a public watch-party ended in Brockton, Massachusetts last Friday night. It’s right there in sight and invisible behind the show.
What struck me about Monday was the contrast in reaction between those passing through and those who live here. Put it this way, one group was more immune to it than the other.
I’ll always enjoy coming to the US, just I have enjoyed this trip to the US immensely. But there is something to be said for Wimbledon at this time of year.
