Hampton Beach and its boardwalk draw huge crowds every summer, enticed by a potent mix of nostalgia, natural beauty, and unparalleled people watching.
With those crowds — surging to more than 100,000 people in a few block radius some evenings — come the inevitable: occasional rowdiness, overindulgence, and loose teenagers. Earlier this summer, the energy spiraled out of control on several evenings, leading to a July 4th brawl and two separate shootings on the strip.
Both regular beach-goers and law enforcement, though, say despite the headlines, Hampton remains a safe, family-friendly destination.
(Editor’s note: we highly recommend listening to this story. Click on the link above.)
“That is very random for that to happen: for it to happen twice is uncharacteristic,” said Hampton police chief Alex Reno.
On a recent warm, weekday evening, Reno took me on a ride-along on Ocean Boulevard.
“In both those situations, we had the manning and the protocol to be able to handle both of those in a very quick and efficient manner,” he said of the shootings.
Reno has been on the Hampton police force for 24 years, and said crime statistics bear out the relative safety of the beach on summer nights. In the past five years, there is no observable upward trend in calls, arrests or alleged felonies.
But the June shootings — even if there were no fatalities, and the people involved knew each other previously — still generated negative headlines for Hampton Beach. Reno pushed back against some of the more salacious coverage, though.
“I think that sometimes context is missing,” he said from the wheel of his cruiser. “I feel so strong about the safety of this community, and what we have down here, that in both of those instances that we had, I was down here with my family the next night. We were down here, enjoying some ice cream and playing at the arcades.”
‘I’ve never felt unsafe here’
Hampton Beach is lined with boozy bars, arcades that seem frozen in the past, and stalls selling gaudy T-shirts, sausages, and oversized pizza slices. The time-warp of it all is part of the appeal.
“This is the third time I've been here in the past two weeks. I love it here because it feels like it's like 1975,” said Eric Suratt, who was up from Boston for an evening of fireworks with his family.
He hadn’t heard about the shootings, and didn’t seem concerned.
“I’ve never felt unsafe here,” he said.
Hanging out a block further south on the boardwalk, Ken Azarkiewicz from Montreal noted that no place is free from the threat of violence at this point: “You could go to the mall and something will happen, right?”
People who are scared about safety at Hampton wouldn’t be here, of course, so their voices are missing. But everyone else at Hampton Beach seemed comfortable this evening.
Not all were having fun, however: I saw parents disciplining overtired kids. A drunk woman was resisting arrest. And Jack, a young man from Keene roving the strip with friends, seemed confused about the entire Hampton experience.
“I don't even know why people come here, to be honest. I'm still trying to figure that out. I don't even know why I'm here,” he said. “I went in the same store four times and I bought something every time.”
Jack may be overthinking things a bit. For most people, having fun at Hampton is more straightforward.
“We swim, we get some food, we go to the arcades, hang out, listen to the live music,” said Janna, who along with her partner Miguel and their three kids were up from Haverhill, Mass. for the day.
They were all here, actually, a few weeks ago, on the day of one of the shootings.
“Sometimes things happen,” said Miguel. “We've been coming for years, and we're not going to stop coming, dude. As long as you have this beautiful strip and everything, you get to watch the sunset. Nice water. I mean, what else can you ask for?”
For people drawn to Hampton Beach, they know what this place is.
And that won’t be changing anytime soon.
