Yeah, but ...
So, the owner of Insomnia goes on and on about his club is unfairly targeted because of race and not because his establishment has a long history of violence and general unruliness erupting either in or directly outside his club.
This happens on Friday.
And then, this happens early Sunday morning.
Listen, this commununity hasn't been entirely fair when it comes to fairly enforcing the rules with regard to hip-hop after-hours spots and bars/clubs which generally attract white, fraternity/soriority type folks (the furor over the Fifth Quarter a few years back is one clear example of this). But when you almost routinely have fights breaking out - not to mention an unsolved murder at your doorstep - it's hard to really be sympathetic to your argument.
This happens on Friday.
And then, this happens early Sunday morning.
Listen, this commununity hasn't been entirely fair when it comes to fairly enforcing the rules with regard to hip-hop after-hours spots and bars/clubs which generally attract white, fraternity/soriority type folks (the furor over the Fifth Quarter a few years back is one clear example of this). But when you almost routinely have fights breaking out - not to mention an unsolved murder at your doorstep - it's hard to really be sympathetic to your argument.
posted by Jmac at 6:02 PM
7 Comments:
Amen. I live in intown Athens, in District three, which is within walking distance for the thugly ones who inhabit the streetcorners, parking lots, bus stops, convenient lights at night for evaluating the size of those rocks, etc.
And I think it is naive of the community NOT to be patrolling those clubs, esp. Insomnia, that are catering to the drug dealing thugs who prey on the mentally ill and drug addicted.
I mean, if you want to shoot a quail hunter, you go to a Texas ranch... if you want to arrest a drug dealer, you go to Insomnia.
Sorry, that's just the truth.
These creeps think they are entitled to reign over our poor neighborhoods with intimidation...
I wish I had a nickle for every time I had to walk with cell phone in hand from car to door just becuase there are 3 or 4 angry folks who refuse to move off of the sidewalk... make you walk into puddles... just becuase they can.
They don't like white women.
Once they peg you as 1: a non-smoker, who doesn't HAVE any cigarettes for them and 2: a non-druggie, who also doesn't HAVE a dollar for bus fare to the doctor for anyone and 3: yes, a disabled person, but not one who is willing to sell you her medicine for re-sale and 4: an attractive woman who is not attracted to young thugs with their pants falling down... then you're targeted for intimidation.
It is stupid not to go after these punks where they party, namely INSOMNIA.
I am just not all that concerned about the civil liberties of these creeps. Not even. They impose on mine daily.
Maybe if clubs weren't forced to close by 2:30 and maybe if you could have a smoke inside, you wouldn't have large groups of people congregating on the street corners, which tends to lead to trouble. I kinda think even proven criminals' civil rights should be respected, but that's just me, believing in the rule of law...
Well, yeah, but I kinda agree more with Hillary. The overwhelming majority of folks who go to Insomnia are good people who are looking to have a good time and are no different than the fraternity boys who go to Classic City Saloon or the in-town crowd going to The Globe. You've got a few bad apples - really bad apples - who bring this type of unnecessary atmosphere, but to imply anyway at Insomnia is a thug kinda misses the point of my criticism.
Anytime you compel a large crowd of people to go to the street, particularly after many of them have drank a large quantity of alcohol and been jostling in close quarters for a few hours, you're bound to foster an environment which can lead to, well, trouble.
My criticism was that Insomnia has tried to say it really doesn't have too many problems, right after making said statement there's an incident outside, and that to argue all the attention is because there is a massive racist conspiracy at work in the Athens-Clarke County Police Department is quite silly.
Cops pay attention because there have been instances of trouble there, and the responsible thing to do is to give it a close eye.
Though I would be interested to see if other venues get the same type of scrutiny as Insomnia. I know that the strip of land populated by Flannigan's, The Firehouse and Classic City Saloon is crawling with police around 2:30 p.m., but I don't know if they face the same permit problems.
There are usually some good fights along Broad St on Saturday nights after Insomnia has let out.
Why, I was in one just last weekend. Many of the people who get into these fights are coming in from the metro Atlanta area. Some of the fights I've seen have been pretty good ones. This says nothing about the fights that go on inside Insomnia that are kept quiet and go unreported.
Whenever, though, it was that we had the large Central Asian convention (I can't remember if they were Pakistani or Indian or Persian...), there was also a pretty good fight, then, that started at Broad and Lumpkin and kept on going all the way down to Pulaski.
And, you know, I've seen plenty of good fights in front of Chi Phi.
Fighting doesn't really seem to be associated with race, so much as it is large, drunken crowds thrown into the streets at 200AM.
Do you patrol up that far Charles? Though, I guess it is just past the university. Still, stay safe with that. Drunk people can be quite irrational, as I'm quite sure you know.
But your final point is mine exactly - people who drink all night long and are forced into the streets all at once can be quite unruly.
You know I'm all for everyone's civil liberties, but I tend to agree more with Anonymous on this one. Why does it sometimes seem people are so quick to bend to the poor, persecuted criminals? I don't care what their race is, people who intimidate me on the sidewalk (because I have experienced exactly what Anon did) are violating MY civil liberties and should be dealth with accordingly. I should not have to be scared to walk down the street. And I agree that not everyone should be punished for the misdeeds of a few, but god, whose 'rights' are we more concerned about here?
Um, everyone's, Amber. Criminals (especially criminals who haven't even been charged with anything, let alone convicted) do not lose their civil rights.
Their harrassing you isn't their violating your civil rights because that's more of a thing between government and people than between people and people.
I don't support their harrassing anyone. But it's kind of a separate issue.
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