Police Protection Reduces Violence

No major crimes were reported in the Square this weekend after the Cambridge Police Department beefed up its patrol of the area in the wake of a stabbing and several other violent incidents this past week.

Six officers were assigned to Harvard Square on Friday and Saturday nights in addition to the four officers reqularly assigned, according to Police Sergeant Timmothy Hogan. The officers were positioned near the MBTA station, a hang-out for local youths and the site of the stabbing last weekend.

Police officials said the only reported criminal incident in the square this weekend was an assault on a taxi driver seated in his cab on Holyoke Street.

Hogan said that the Cambridge force had been "short on manpower for the conditions within the city on weekends." He said, however, that he anticipates a continuing decline in youth-related criminal incidents in Harvard Square with the onset of winter and colder temperatures.