***  HN PHOTOS ***  BATTERED REVELER TRANSPORTED TO ER FOLLOWING BOOZY SMACKDOWN OUTSIDE HYANNIS SINGLES BAR

Above HN photo: A multilingual Barnstable Policewoman, proficient in Spanish, tries to explain to one of the combatants that he has to go to the emergency room… and that it’s not open for debate because he’s pretty banged up.         Earlier, when officers first arrived…    HYANNIS, MASSACHUSETTS – [HN PHOTO NOTES] – Right around bar closing, around 1:00 a.m., Barnstable Police squad cars scrambled to break up an ongoing fight on Main Street near the intersection with Winter Street. The dispatcher relayed that “there’s a man in the gravel area beating up another man… one man’s on the ground, being hit at this time.” When officers arrived, they found both combatants still there — one nursing battered knuckles, the other barely able to stand with a face that looked like it had met the wrong end of a fist. Both men, who spoke only Spanish, were clearly intoxicated. A multilingual Barnstable Policewoman used her proficiency in Spanish to communicate with the more injured of the two, firmly explaining that a trip to the ER wasn’t up for debate. The man on the ground was banged up pretty good and in no condition to walk away on his own. Both men were separated as officers attempted to figure out what had happened and why. One officer resorted to a cellphone translation service to get answers from a third man who showed up on scene after receiving a phone call from one of the combatants. The information gathered through translation ultimately did little to help solve the chaotic puzzle… While the exact spark for the slugfest remains a mystery, sources close to the scene could only speculate. One source wondered whether the fight could have been over a girl back inside the singles bar. Others simply summed it up to “drunks being drunks.” Whatever the cause, the two men had clearly been knocking back drinks prior to knocking each other around. The man with the pulverized face was whisked away to Cape Cod Hospital for treatment, while his opponent, sporting tender knuckles, got a quick once-over from paramedics but waved off further care. Cops watched as he walked off in the direction of his home near the Barnstable-Yarmouth town line. Barnstable Police are still piecing together details, after collecting IDs and documenting the late-night singles bar fallout. No arrests were reported. P.S. – Today’s Hytown Vignette is a brought to you by George Benson…  [CLICK IT/CRANK IT! HEADPHONES ABSOLUTELY OBLIGATORY!]