So, I was browsing Punknews as I often do when I'm bored and I came across this article from Dave Wedge of the Boston Herald. If you don't feel like reading it then I'm happy to summarize: according to the Boston police moshing is now illegal. Apparently at a Flogging Molly show back in February police observed some people dancing or in the words and quotes of Wedge:
60 concertgoers engaged in an “aggressive mosh pit dance,” during which people were running and “colliding into each other,” including some who were “knocked to the ground.” No injuries were reported.
Yes, no injuries were reported. The police ended up just fining the venue and informing them that notices must be posted that this sort of negative, non-clean cut, rapscallion-esque activity will not take place in the proud city of Boston. Never mind that no one was hurt and it isn't likely people were coerced into moshing or the mosh pit was really a Viking murder party disguised as a bunch of skinny kids that lost their shirts.
What I think is really ridiculous about this is that moshing is not on the policy and city watch list in Boston, but if you wanted to you could go down into a nearby mixed martial arts gym with some buddies and happily punch one another in the face until you're all bleeding. I get that there is a difference here. You may got to a punk or metal show and be shocked by the presence of moshing and somehow it'll catch you off guard. Someone could get hurt, its true. But it is difficult to believe that many people enter such an environment without understanding to some degree what is going to to happen in the course of the show.
Finally, you'd think that with people having moshed to their hearts content for what... thirty years, I don't know, that if it caused enough of problem that it needed to be addressed by the police and local government then it would've come up years ago. With this happening now it makes the government and police look like reactionaries totally out of touch with a whole segment of their constituents.