Hippie Justice

INSPIRED perhaps by Roberto DeVicenzo's treatment in Augusta, the Somerville police hauled a Harvard undergraduate into court this week for sheltering a 14-year-old runaway girl. For allowing the girl to stay in a Somerville apartment, set up by a group of Divinity School students for runaway teenagers, instead of turning her over to police, Peter B. Brigham '70 faced charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The technical merits of the charges were only marginally relevant--even to the judge at Brigham's hearing Thursday, who agreed not to issue a complaint if the Divinity School students and their runaways cleared out of Somerville by midnight. This enforcement of the letter of the law echoes the campaign Cambridge has waged against Avatar, and the Somerville officials' pristine distaste for those they label undesirables is particularly loathesome. Once off Somerville's streets, the runaways do cease to be Somerville's problem, but the effect of the city's action is to obstruct the efforts of those trying to help the youths.