Nightlife Insecurity
posted by September 9 at 16:23 PM
onIt’s in the PI…
Police have issued arrest warrants for employees at 14 Seattle nightclubs after an investigation showed they admitted minors and served them alcohol and at least twice allowed an undercover police officer carry a pistol into a club.The operation, which spanned 10 days, ended Saturday when police served the warrants and made arrests at all but three of the nightclubs. It also comes as the City Council is taking up Mayor Greg Nickels’ proposal to more tightly regulate nightclubs.
Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said at Tabella Restaurant and Lounge—a Belltown nightclub that Nickels wants to be stripped of its liquor license—security staff felt a pistol during a pat down, but still allowed the undercover officer to enter….
Police said the 15 nightclubs, in the University District, Pioneer Square, Belltown and one in Capitol Hill, were selected because of previous alcohol violations, but did not elaborate on specifics of previous violations or how they were chosen.
Comments
It's great when the City proves what the nightlife industry has been saying for years. We need better enforcement of current laws, not a nightclub license.
None of the violations cited would have resulted in a nightclub license being pulled under the current license proposal passed out of Sally Clark's committee. All the violations are already illegal.
Either it is just a coincidence that these violations were happening at these clubs on the nights when the City decided to go out and finally enforce these laws, or these laws have been being violated consistently for some time and the departments charges with enforcing them have not been doing their jobs. The latter seems to be true, and if so, no new license or laws will help.
We need better law enforcement, not more laws. Now let's see if the City Attorney will start prosecuting other violations of current laws, including public nuisance laws, etc.
It's also nice to note that not one live music venue was cited.
PS - read the KIROTV report on this - one of the best sentences ever -- "In the five-day operation, which spanned ten calendar days and commenced on August 16th [26 days ago]..." - http://www.kirotv.com/news/14077535/detail.html
they also list the clubs - LIST OF CLUBS INCLUDED IN VIOLATION SUMMARY:
UNIVERSITY DISTRICT:
Tommy's
Finn MacCool's
PIONEER SQUARE:
Cowgirls
Last Supper Club
Wild Palms
Ibiza
J&M
Tiki Bob's
Trinity
BELLTOWN:
Belltown Billiards
Tabella
Tia-Lou's
Twilight
CAPITOL HILL:
Sugar
that seems vageuly like entrapment to me.
Clearly, there are already enough regulations for (perhaps over)enforcement.
why arent the clubs listed a shock at all?
It's great to read the comments on the PI story. The Mayor's PR stunt isn't playing well with the mainstream readers over there or over here. Truth is Nickels could have had this problem solved two years ago, but his 'my way or the highway' style of politics has made him ignore the people in the nightlife industry that want to help craft sensible laws that would take care of the bad operators while not punish the majority of club owners who operate legally. Seems like the general public has noticed his obsession with a license.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=330974
There's not a single club on that list I'd go to *anyway*. They're trouble, and everyone knows they're trouble. I walked past Tommy's every night around 11:30pm for eight months, and even to my unpracticed eye it was obvious underaged girls were getting in with no problem whatsoever. Trouble! Who is surprised at this list? No one. /crotchety grandma rant
Crack down on these clubs! Now that it's absurdly obvious which clubs are making trouble, I hope the SPD will focus on actually holding these fuckers accountable to code and to the law. No need for a new, exciting license. Enforce the old, boring, but very already-in-effect laws.
This sounds like horseshit- like really tricky dicky police harassment, scapegoating unpopular Seattle businesses just to get a positive sentence in the next election handbook's Nickels blurb. But God damn it warms my heart to see Tommy's on that list. Those "anything-for-a-buck" fuckers willfully fostered a dangerous environment to draw in irresponsible college kids with fat wallets and toxic appetites.
On the other hand, isn't one of their bouncers taking two in the chest punishment enough?
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Let's see if the Council, lead by Nick Licata, has the brains and the spines to stand up to the Mayor's obsession with passing his nightclub license. It's sounding more and more like the council will once again buckle to Mayoral pressure. Time to vote out the incumbents in the next couple of elections if so.
I don't live in Seattle and I am not a club person, so I probably shouldn't comment, but didn't Capitol Hill recently have a hate crime go down? Shouldn't the police be trying to police those kinds of things instead? Like do a sting for hate crimes stuff. I guess having underage drinkers is a problem??? heh. Something new??? err...not really. Anyway, if I had to choose where my resources went, I'd certainly prefer the police crack down on haters rather than on drunken teeney boppers who will just get drunk somewhere anyway. It is what teenagers do. They were doing it when I was a teenager and they are still doing it. They want to get into clubs to drink. I don't understand the attraction, but some kids live for that. Spending A LOT of police resources on that type of thing is like swatting at flies!
Clearly Nickels will stop at nothing to make life miserable for nightclubs and anyone who doesn't go to bed before 10 PM. That said, most of those particular clubs are sleazy shitholes and probably had it coming for one reason or another.
I live and work in Seattle nightlife and wh9ile I'm no fan of Nickel's approach to things I would like someone to enlighten me on how it's a bad thing that security got hacked?
Simple math, don't let fucking guns in the club. I am perfectly OK with that.
As for admitting and serving minors, not so much. But it;s all fun and games until some drunk 19 year old who can't hold his liquor sticks you in the neck. My boy Nick is a millionaire off suing a club where a minor was admitted, not just served but overserved and later stuck my friend.
Anyway, I'm open to talk. Can someone tell me why it's bad that the cops are proving that security at some of these spots is inadequate? I have my doubts that a gun would find it's way into the places I frequent.
But the kid who smuggled boxcutters into the airport to demonstrate the problems with NTSA is somehow cool?
OK. so who wants to reference Dan Savage smuggling a bbgun and pot into City Hall first?
And in the real world people are still being maimed and killed everyday in a war that the pro-life asshole George W.Bush started with the support of America\'s favorite cocksucker Dan Savage. Here is an excerpt from Dan\'s article \"Say Yes To War\" October 2002
In the meantime, invading and rebuilding Iraq will not only free the Iraqi people, it will also make the Saudis aware of the consequences they face if they continue to oppress their own people while exporting terrorism and terrorists. The War on Iraq will make it clear to our friends and enemies in the Middle East (and elsewhere) that we mean business: Free your people, reform your societies, liberalize, and democratize... or we\'re going to come over there, remove you from power, free your people, and reform your societies for ourselves.
And in the real world people are still being maimed and killed everyday in a war that the pro-life asshole George W.Bush started with the support of America\'s favorite cocksucker Dan Savage. Here is an excerpt from Dan\'s article \"Say Yes To War\" October 2002
In the meantime, invading and rebuilding Iraq will not only free the Iraqi people, it will also make the Saudis aware of the consequences they face if they continue to oppress their own people while exporting terrorism and terrorists. The War on Iraq will make it clear to our friends and enemies in the Middle East (and elsewhere) that we mean business: Free your people, reform your societies, liberalize, and democratize... or we\'re going to come over there, remove you from power, free your people, and reform your societies for ourselves.
Ellipsis is one of those kids with bullhorns telling people to wear orange to send a message about impeaching Bush or something. A true genius. Savage was being a dipshit, but everyone is a dipshit part of the time. But posting irrelevant spam in internet forums makes Ellipsis a dipshit all the fucking time. Congrats!
@11, I once worked in the nightlife scene as well, and I pretty much agree with everything you are saying - but what do you mean by "stuck"? In my day, that would have meant being stuck with the bill, but I sense a more sinister meaning in your usage.
Speaking of back in my day: Back in MY day (which started sometime after the Bronze Age and ended sometime before W's installation) the drinking age was 19 (18 in Wisconsin!) That was much more sensible than today's nonsense. If you can vote, get married and serve in the military, you should be allowed to drink. Let the kids get it out of their system, and move on.
From the PI comments:
"...was arrested for supposedly letting someone with a very good fake ID into the club. The manager was told that the doorman had accepted a fake ID the week before and they had to arrest him. Even the officer making the arrest said he was sorry, there was nothing he could do but the order was coming from someone high up in the police force."
I am hearing elsewhere that the SPD went out last night and arrested doorpeople and others around the city for minor infractions committed over the prior weeks. Aside from proving how Gestapo like the SPD can be, this is just hilarious. It's similar to when Margaret Pageler chased some kids around a hearing after they started playing music to protest the Teen Dance Ordinance. The Mayor and Kerlikowske have just "jumped the shark". Their obsession with getting a nightclub license has made them act out in crazy ways.
Before this is over, Kerlikowske will be booted from office and the Mayor will lose the next election ending his politcal career. All over a buseinss license they refused to compromise on. It's amazing to watch people implode when they don't get their way over something so small. This is actually getting fun to watch. Sort of unbelievable, I thought The Mayor was smarter than this.
I've always loved the fact that it's the employees who get busted in a situation like this. If hospitality service employees would unionize, this shit would take on a whole different character.
One thing I'll say for Gil Kerlikowske is that he's hot, in a daddy sort of way - and his uniform pants are tailored nicely - if you know what I mean.
Mrs. K is one lucky lady.
@17 - I know someone involved in 'organizing' local unions with employees. They were at the protest when Safeway had issues. I could email you info, or I prefer to chisel it out with old fashioned vox.
@13: In the meantime, the same silly little troll gets the same silly little hardon whenever he posts something about silly little Dan Savage and his silly little position on this silly little war. He feels like he's making a difference by spamming this silly little slog that the same 50 people read every day.
Good work, silly little troll - much easier and more convenient than actually doing something to protest, especially if you store your little tirade on your clipboard.
@19 [Redirected] Or you might prefer to talk with someone else so they can take photos at a next protest so people can be made fun of ...online.
Nothing is so funny as a bunch of whining over priviliged hipsters and twenty something unemplyed halo junkies, fighting for their "right to party".
I had no idea that so many of you are retarded enough to think, that making sure there is adequate measures in place to ensure the prevention of firearms possession in a drinking establishment, is "Facism" or "entrapment". Goofs...I weep for our future.
The cops might actually be trying to keep your dumb ungrateful white asses safe from dirtbags who want to fuck you up and take your shit.
Yeah, the cops are the bad guys...jeeeeesh
ecce homo, they'll come for you after they're done purging all of the "perverts."
in fact, i have reliable sources that know your ip address & etc., so go ahead and get your potshots in while you can; you may be next. i will mourn for you, but nobody else will. go, you!
LOL!!! They were all the breeder clubs that got busted!!! HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!! Too Funny.
This goes to show you more regulation is not needed; it is a case of enforcing the laws that already exist.
ecce, welcome back! Where have you been? jesuscamp? A romantic getaway with "Hutch" in Latvia? Or just relaxing in the trough at the Powerhouse again? We all need to just unplug and unwind sometimes, don't we?
I've missed your moralizing and browbeating. I figure that the more you dump on us, the less your poor children have to put up with. It's the least we can to for the youth of today.
Again, welcome back. And remember - Rid is fine, but you HAVE to use the comb!
It's not that the cops shouldn't enforce the law at clubs .... it's that they should enforce the laws all the time.
Instead of being political puppets in the mayor's media manipulation.
The mayor seems to take lessons from GWB. (The big report on Iraq comes today, on 9-11; the arrest of folks at clubs comes right when the mayor's license laws are up for a vote).
Lemme get this straight:
--Tabella has a shooting in it's parking lot;
--The LCB tells the city of seattle to fuck itself and says Tabella is in teh clear;
--The city decides to show the LCB otherwise
How is this a bad thing?
Seems to me the issue is not one of encforcement or needing new laws but of penaltie for existing laws. If each of these clubs had to shut down for a week for each of these violations, I would imagine thigns would get better in a hurry.
Of course all the fitty-cent wannabes would just keep their guns in their cars instead of bringing them inside...
@26: Honey, today is 9/10. But good effort!
So... they mayor wants to sign in more laws to stop things that are already illegal? Are they going to be as effective as the ones that were broken in the sting?
How about focusing on the clubs that are consistently displaying problems, and leave the clubs that actually enforce and look at IDs alone? Not that I'd go to Tommy's anyway, but the fact that their bouncers (after one of them got shot) were willing to take money to let a FUCKING GUN into their bar is pretty ridiculous. If someone were to get shot after bouncers allowed the gun in, doesn't that leave them (the bar) wide open for a lawsuit? Way to go, geniuses.
@Catalina- Sweet slam on the itchy one! sooo funny! @Jessica- They took money to let in a gun?! Maybe I should have read the article more closely. How retarded can those fuckers be?
When I read about them "letting in officers after they felt a gun on patdown," I assumed they had just let themselves get patted down and inferred from the fact the hand passed over where the gun was that the guy felt something. They actually did notice the gun and let someone in? Holy shit!
In other news, last night I heard drunkies on the street by Tommy's. Aren't they supposed to be closed already?
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I don't think Tommy's is closed YET but it's definitely doomed. I'm amazed it's stayed open this long.
The clubs were caught red-handed, and they're reacting exactly like children. When you're caught - get mad - to deflect from the fact that you're wrong! And blame someone else - like the mayor.
Also, isn't this really just part of the long-needed anti-crime crackdown downtown? I for one am glad they're finally doing something.
If the mayor and police chief can be blamed for anything, it's for waiting too long.
Not until the owner takes two in the chest.
I think the big issue is not that these clubs are problems and that the city and SPD need to go after them... which they are and they do, respectively... but that there are existing laws that allow the city and police to do this.
Instead of enforcing those laws, the mayor, through the city and SPD, is using these clubs as a scapegoat in his efforts to basically wipe vibrant nightlife from the city, per the wishes of the developers that want to swoop into their spaces and make money with developments in their place.
For those of us here in JesusLand (Colorado), carrying a gun into a club or bar is perfectly legal, so long as you plop down your $100 and survive a background check to get a concealed weapon permit. And it's funny - the folks who bother to go through such a simple process aren't the ones shooting up the clubs. As for overserved underagers, well, let the person who never did it cast the first stone.
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