Patrons Make Rowdy Exit From Joe Angelo's In Brockton

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—
At 1:40 a.m. Saturday morning—five minutes before last call—a request went out to Brockton Police for a cruiser at Joe Angelo’s Café.
Brockton Police and State Police had spent several hours searching for a man who ran away from a fatal fire at 75 Melrose Avenue.
Nearly all Brockton Police were involved in the search as were many State Police units and a State Police helicopter that had arrived in Brockton around 12:30 a.m. to help with the search.
The initial response came over the scanner: “No one’s available.”
Moments later another response came across that police would be sending someone.
At 1:45 a.m. the parking lot near the back porch of Joe Angelo’s was saturated with people who were leaving the bar.
Some were hugging one another. Others were visibly wobbling as they tried to walk to their cars. Friends gave them a shoulder to lean on. Most others were milling around and watching as more and more police arrived on the scene.
As this reporter got out of her car I came across a woman screaming at a young man not to fight.
The young man had that look many of us partygoers have seen when someone has had too much to drink—his eyes were blank and he didn’t want to listen to the woman who was screaming and swearing at him not to fight in public.
The woman after seeing this reporter recording the incident decided to attack this reporter and tried to grab my video camera. I began running and she fell face and shoulder first into the pavement after tripping in her high-heel shoes.
A police officer asked me to stop recording because he believed my presence was adding “fuel to the fire.”
Once the young man was loaded into a car the potential fight fizzled and the area was cleared of patrons and most police by about 2:10 a.m.
At a Brockton License Commission hearing April 27, the board voted to roll-back Joe Angelo’s weekend closing time from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. after Brockton Police testified over the last two years the Main and Crescent Street bar has had problem after problem culminating in a brawl March 12 when a man was stabbed and a woman had a broken beer bottle gouge her face.
The hours roll-back has not taken effect yet.
Lt Paul Bonanca testified at the April 27 hearing that Joe Angelo’s is headed for a murder, noting the man who was stabbed March 12 had his spleen removed and only missed being killed by a matter of inches.
“Two inches higher and it would have been a homicide,” Bonanca told commissioners.
Police testified that on any given Thursday, Friday or Saturday night fights have broken out at the bar and it has become common practice for Brockton or State Police to send a car at 1:45 a.m. to prevent brawls like the March 12 fight.
We decided to see what we would find if we arrived at about 1:40 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night.
The above video is what we saw early Saturday morning May 7 as Friday night turned into early Saturday morning and revelers began to leave Joe Angelo’s.