'Whole different population.' Burned Pride flag, arrests for Fourth of July week in Dennis

Denise Coffey, Cape Cod Times
·3 min read
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DENNIS PORT — New Fourth of July beach restrictions in Dennis appear to have resulted in calmer shorelines than years past, but holiday problems persisted off the sand.

The night of July 4 was busy in Dennis Port, according to Dennis Police Lieutenant Peter Benson. Sailing Cow restaurant owner Robyn Thibodeau called police to Glendon Road Beach around midnight because she heard glass breaking. Elsewhere police arrested two people —one for an alleged domestic incident and the other for an alleged driving under the influence. Another person faces a charge of assault and battery. None were beach-related actions, Benson said.

"A lot of people we were dealing with yesterday and have found for the last three years aren’t local,” Benson said. “We ask where they’re coming from. They're from all over Massachusetts.”

Mayflower Beach in Dennis fills up on a hot weekday morning, June 20, 2024, as beachgoers seek relief from the heat.
Mayflower Beach in Dennis fills up on a hot weekday morning, June 20, 2024, as beachgoers seek relief from the heat.

Dennis has experienced an uptick in unsavory beach behavior the last few years, so much so that the town instituted new restrictions this year.

“A whole different population comes in in the summer," Thibodeau said. "We’ve always had kids. They just weren’t destructive. I don’t get it.”

Police are investigating a burned Pride flag taken Tuesday from the restaurant, which is across the street from Glendon Road Beach.

Dennis beach restrictions for the Fourth of July

Only beach pass residents could park at Mayflower, Chapin and Bayview beaches on the Fourth of July. No one-day passes were sold at those beaches. Passenger drop-offs were limited.

Benson manned a traffic control point near Route 6A on the way to the northside, or Cape Cod Bay, beaches. He estimates he turned away about 250 cars full of people in four hours. Benson and other officers on duty were in place to make ride-hailing service drivers drop passengers off at a point 1.5 miles from the beaches.

The restrictions were put in place after drinking, littering and unruly behavior the last few years, primarily at the northside beaches.

West Dennis Beach saw additional police presence when groups of young people holding "Oklahoma drills" caused some concern to families and children. Benson likened the drills to football drills without the pads. The young men were loud, rowdy and hitting each other, he said.

“If you’ve got a family-friendly beach, to put that in the middle of it is just not appropriate,” Benson said.

Police eventually closed West Dennis Beach when the parking lot was full. Benson said he’d never seen so many beachgoers in 35 years. All beaches in Dennis were at capacity, according to Benson.

Sailing Cow restaurant owner Robyn Thibodeau with burned Pride flag on Friday in Dennis Port.
Sailing Cow restaurant owner Robyn Thibodeau with burned Pride flag on Friday in Dennis Port.

Burned Pride flag in Dennis

The Sailing Cow restaurant was packed on Friday morning with a line of people waiting at the door. Thibodeau said she and her crew were very busy with the onslaught of July 4 visitors and tourists. But when someone took a Pride flag from the restaurant and burned it across the street at Glendon Road Beach, Thibodeau said it added to the holiday stress.

“It was tough,” she said, watching over the 86-seat restaurant on Friday. “We open our doors to everyone. It’s unfortunate there’s so much racism and hate.”

An employee noticed the flag missing after 10 p.m. Tuesday. Whoever stole it set it aflame in the parking lot across the street. Thibodeau showed where fire had burned holes in the flag and melted a sock to the fabric. Dennis police are investigating the incident.

“If someone thought this was funny, it wasn’t funny,” she said. “It wasn’t funny at all."

Murphy's General Store in Harwich Port donated a Pride flag to the Sailing Cow after they heard of the burning. It was waving in the ocean breeze Friday across from Glendon Road Beach, keeping company with all the other flags hanging from the posts.

Denise Coffey writes about business, tourism and issues impacting the Cape’s residents and visitors. Contact her at dcoffey@capecodonline.com . 

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: No Dennis beach arrests July 4, but problems popped up off the sand