News :: GLBT
Provincetown’s Summer of Hate? :: Barry Scott Fights On by Sam Baltrusis
EDGE ContributorTuesday Oct 9, 2007[Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a four-part EDGE series on the recent string of hate-related incidents that have occurred in the most unlikely of places, Provincetown. Click here to begin with the first article.
What started off as a celebratory evening of music at a backyard birthday party in Provincetown has transformed into an ongoing nightmare for Barry Scott.
The popular Boston-based radio DJ is fighting charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace after he was left bloodied and bruised by a crew of summer cops hired by the Provincetown Police Department on July 14.
Scott, who continues to be traumatized by the violent arrest, heads to court on Friday, Oct. 19 to combat the questionable charges.
The radio show host was spinning records at the 40th birthday party for Edward Foley when the local police showed up saying that a complaint had been called in from a neighbor. Yvonne Cabral, an operator of Provincetown Trolleys who has had an antagonistic history with members of the town’s GLBT community, reportedly phoned in several complaints.
According to EDGE interviews with party guests, the music was turned down to comply with the PPD request. However, later in the evening the police returned with a $50 citation. Scott, who says he had no interaction with authorities until the police apprehended him, was violently arrested at 10:30 p.m.
Scott’s partner, Bryan Richardson, says he heard an officer tell the DJ not to resist, to whom the 135-pound, 5-foot-4-inch Scott loudly responded several times "I am not resisting."
Witnesses at the scene insist the arresting PPD officers, after receiving several phone calls from Cabral, were out for blood and that the oldies DJ received the brunt of their wrath.
"They did not care," Scott wrote in an earlier e-mail to EDGE. "I was smashed into the wall of the house head first and [a nearby] propane tank ... Blood was coming from the top of my nose where there was a large laceration and blood gushing from inside my nose as well."
Scott also contends that an officer kicked him in the leg with such force that it knocked off his sneaker. The cop allegedly continued the assault by smashing the radio personality’s bare toes with his boot.
As they watched the scene unfold, a group of about 50 stunned guests were aghast. "They just really roughed him up for no reason whatsoever," adds Foley, the party’s host.
"The police assaulted me within one minute of meeting me the first time that night, while complying immediately with their demand to shut the party down." The report filed by summer officer Anthony Bova claims that after turning off the music, Scott announced over the microphone, "The Provincetown Police are here to ruin our night. We hate them."
Bova continues saying the partygoers began "to cheer and yell." The PPD account, which has been called "farcical" in an editorial by Boston Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich, also suggests that Scott’s injuries occurred when "his nose inadvertently came in contact with the external window frame."
Almost three months after the arrest, Scott has been advised by his lawyer not to talk to the press. However, speaking to EDGE off the record, he did refute Bova’s account of how the evening transpired.
"The police assaulted me within one minute of meeting me the first time that night, while complying immediately with their demand to shut the party down," he says in a statement to EDGE.
Meanwhile, Scott and his partner continue to be haunted by the PPD’s alleged excessive use of force.
One party guest recounts the scene back at Foley’s house after the bloody arrest at around 3 a.m. "In the living room Bryan, [Barry’s] partner, was sobbing hysterically... his body was literally twisted into a pretzel. Barry was obviously upset too, he was more together than Bryan was, but I guess from what they said... [Bryan] was on the floor of the holding cell, he needed to go to the bathroom, and they ignored him, and he had to pee his pants on the floor of the cell."
After cries from members of the regional GLBT community, Town Manager Sharon Lynn asked District Attorney Michael O’Keefe to review police actions that night.
"I find nothing which would suggest any unlawful action on the part of the police in their repeated responses to this incident," O’Keefe writes in a letter to Lynn. "On the contrary, their actions seemed measured in light of all the circumstances."
Scott, who sends out e-mail updates concerning the case, comments on the recent turn of events. "The District Attorney is out of control," he adds. "I shut the music down less than a minute after my first contact with the police...that’s not complying with a 3rd noise warning and justification for beating someone up?"
The Provincetown Police Department has refused to comment for the four-part EDGE series after repeated requests.
Next: More unreported hate-related incidents surface.
Click here for the third article in the four-part series.
Sam Baltrusis has worked for WHDH-TV, CW56, MTV, VH1, Seventeen, Newsweek and as a regional stringer for The New York Times. He’s currently a full-time freelance editor/writer based in Boston. Check out his blog at loadedgunboston.blogspot.com.
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