Temple: Party Organizer Lied about Event That Ended in Stabbing
The applicant said it was a party for a Haitian church.
An official from Temple Tifereth said a party organizer lied to temple members about who he was and the type of party he intended to throw Saturday night. A Malden teenager was stabbed outside the temple at the conclusion of the party.
“We believe we were, to a substantial degree, misled,” said Jordan Shapiro, Temple Financial Secretary and former Malden City Solicitor. “We are investigating internally. We’ve called a meeting of the executive board of the temple to discuss what happened and how we can avoid this moving forward.”
Party organizer said party was for Haitian church
Shapiro said the applicant said he was from Eglise Philadelphia Church, a Haitian Seventh-Day Adventist church off of Main Street. The church has routinely rented the temple’s hall for occasions. The applicant said he wanted to throw a small church-sponsored birthday party Saturday night.
“This person was looking to take advantage, because we offer a discount rental rate for charitable organizations,” said Shapiro. “We were made to think it was a birthday party for the church.”
Instead, the organizer charged for entry to the party, which has been described online as a “Project X” party, named for a new movie that depicts a wild high school party.
The stabbing occurred after the party let out and did not happen inside the temple, said Shapiro.
Police detail needed for party, never requested
Shapiro said generally applicants are responsible for contacting police and setting up a detail for an event. In this case, temple officials did not expect a police detail because they thought they had rented the hall for a small religious party.
“That would be the responsibility of the person renting the hall who would have to disclose to use that they are going to have more than 50 people at the party,” said Shapiro.
Greg
6:41 pm on Monday, March 19, 2012
Sounds like Shapiro just wants to keep passing the buck on the blame. What function hall manager does not know how many people will be at a function in their hall? You do have to set up tables and chairs for a function no? Yes you do. Also what hall would want to accept the liability of there not being a police detail there?
Brian Triber
12:52 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Absolutely not true. Have you ever organized a wedding or bar mitzvah? The hall goes on what the renter says. If they misrepresented themselves about the function of the party, what makes you think they'd tell the truth about how many people would be present, or the age of the renter or guests? And once again, I'll say that it's the renter's responsibility to hire a detail. If it were true that a church or synagogue or mosque is supposed to have a police detail at every service, there wouldn't be enough officers in the city of Malden to cover every single one on a Sunday. So the question is do we try to make an example of a synagogue and ignore Sacred Hearts, First Baptist, and all the other churches in Malden (notice how anti-semitic that looks), or do we actually have the police go after the renter of the hall who MISREPRESENTED themselves to the synagogue?
DannyBoy
7:52 pm on Monday, March 19, 2012
MPD or the DA's office (or both) should investigate both the temple and the organizer promptly, and should press charges if either (or both) are found negligent and broke any laws.
Diana
9:46 am on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Is coordinating the police detail really routinely left up to the renters? That's a recipe for disaster, and I can't imagine that any sane business owner would accept that kind of liability.
Brian Triber
1:00 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
It's not a business like Stop & Shop. It's a temple for religious worship.
Diana
1:19 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Brian, it's a function hall that happens to be inside a temple for religious worship. This was not a prayer meeting.
Michael Genzale
10:21 am on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Most halls add the detail cop into the price. Everyone now is passing blame on one another.
Brian Triber
2:02 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Not having a youth center in Malden is short sighted. Opening one would be a proactive approach, and would actually reduce occurrences of these crimes. Why not have the city court the Boys & Girls clubs? We have plenty of space and they have plenty of experience. But to simply say no to a youth center because it MIGHT attract gangs is counterproductive. It punishes those innocent kids who need a place to hang out because of one or two bad apples, and this kind of paranoia feeds into preempting any kind of solution.
Michael Genzale
2:31 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
I deleted my comments. I think I will keep my opinion to myself on the Teen center. It is a sensitive matter and I hope the city does the right thing in being proactive while keeping everyone save.
DannyBoy
2:42 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Before we even begin to contemplate a youth center, why not look into having more after-school programs and activities in the public school system? And why do people think that a youth center will magically do away with the problem of gangs and youth violence? Young folks under 18 should not be out roaming the streets at late hours on weekends, they are prone to mischief, and I guarantee that incidents like vandalism, stabbings and shootings will happen!
Greg
2:44 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Hi Brian. First of all. Most responsible fuction hall managers would make damn sure that there is a detail offiicer at their facility so it would show that they took the correct measures to help prevent something like what just happened. Oh and before you ask. Yes I do have experience in this field.
Second. There are A LOT more than just one or two bad apples in the city of Malden right now, unfortunately.
Brian Triber
3:09 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Greg, I agree that most function hall managers require a detail officer. In my experience (circa 1988-2003) I've rented halls where no detail is required, both in Boston and in Malden. We were producing plays and musicals, so perhaps it has more to do with the type of audience you expect. As a Malden ordinance, though, it seems unenforceable on a non-discriminatory basis. There just aren't enough officers to police every house of worship in the city. Nor should we be doing so. It comes down to, I believe, on whether we should have a totalitarian police state where the police are in everyone's business, or if people take personal responsibility. If it's the first, we don't have the money to support that. If it's the second, then the stabber should be held responsible for the crime, and the event coordinator responsible for not hiring a police detail, since according to this article they misrepresented themselves to the temple. The city ordnance calls for groups of 50 or more to have a police detail, and they were told it was a small birthday party. The temple is a victim of this whole thing too.
Greg
3:15 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
There you go brining up the religion angle again. HELLO IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION. ARE YOU LISTENING HERE. NO ONE BUT YOU IS BRINGING IT UP
Greg
3:18 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Oh and by the way. The police department uses a mutual aid type system for details. Officers from outside police departments will come to the city of Malden for detail purposes. Just as Malden officers, on a daily basis are covering details in Somerville, Cambridge, and Lynnfield, just to name a few cities that our officers go.
Roberto Scalese
4:38 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
OK, folks, let's all agree religion has nothing to do with this incident and focus instead on the topics at hand. We were having an interesting conversation before we took this detour. Doesn't matter who started it, let's agree to end it now.
Obviously, the chief concern is the victim, and for law enforcement, finding who attacked him. The detail question is also interesting. The temple says it's the renter's obligation, but I've rented halls where they handle everything for you, and I've rented places that just unlock the door and expect ou to handle the rest. I'm not sure what the statute is in Malden, but I can find out and get back to you all.
Michael Genzale
4:46 pm on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Roberto, we miss you. Chris is great but he is not you. Chris don't stand outside city hall and talk to us and joke around like you did. Maybe you can talk to him about that. We need more jokes.
Mitch Graham
9:18 am on Thursday, May 3, 2012
Regardless of the religious aspect of the hall and the premise under which it was rented - the hall has the responsibility of knowing to whom they were renting and for which purpose. Did they not have a custodian or anyone from the church present at the party? I don't know too many halls where you can rent a space, pay the rental fee and get a key to do whatever you want. Additionally, contracts for rentals should detail the responsibilities of the party renting the facility. There had to be some sort of written agreement on the rental. Ultimately, the responsibility falls on the temple. Whether it was benign negligence, or intentional misconduct – the temple is responsible and was not the victim in this situation. We do have a Y in Malden that serves many youths in the city – and most of (if not all) the K-8 schools offer after-school programs. The high school is filled with after school clubs. Let’s not blame this on the city. Where were the parents in this situation – how many parents didn’t know where their kids were going that night?
DannyBoy
9:41 am on Thursday, May 3, 2012
Mitch, two of the suspects in the stabbing are Malden residents in their twenties (link: http://malden.patch.com/articles/police-arrest-second-suspect-in-temple-stabbing), so parental control is not a factor here.