nothing changes on new years day
permalink | categories: citizens, city, crime, holiday, law enforcement, tampa, yborby Dawn @ 3:55 pm
On New Year’s Eve, about 5 minutes to toasting & Auld Lang Syne-ing, a light went out in the courtyard of the Crowbar and the sound of glass shattering followed. Conversation stopped and the chattering crowd quieted and looked to the source. Eyes adjusted to the dim light, which saw a man - a Crowbar bouncer - ramming another man’s head into a brick wall. The victim fell to the ground where he sat hunched and shaking. His girlfriend jumped between the two men and pleaded for the assaulter to back away and let them leave. Several patrons left the comfort of their circle of friends to intervene as well. The aggressor escorted the victim out the front door.
A few minutes later the cops strolled in, exchanged a few words with said bouncer and left short of giving him a high five.
I don’t know what Jeremy, the victim, was doing and yes, he was highly intoxicated but absolutely nothing earns the violence that was bestowed upon him. And the flagrant disregard by the cops was as disgusting as the violence that ruined my New Year’s Eve.
That’s the last time I ever stray from the New World Brewery.
Tags: citizens, city, crime, holiday, law enforcement, tampa, ybor
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January 1st, 2007 at 6:34 pm
That’ll be one hell of a hangover.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:26 pm
here’s a little blurb from http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/BLABBERMOUTH.NET/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=38546 about the safe-as-mother’s-milk New World Brewery:
“In October, a man who tried to break up a fight at the New World Brewery in Ybor was stabbed in the heart and died.”
Some of the good folks from the Masquerade run Crowbar. If the bouncer did something inapropriate, he will be held accountable. The “victim” has options as well, if he is truly a victim.
January 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 am
Security is obviously a relative term. I’ve always felt safe at NW because I know enough folks there. But anything can happen anywhere at any time and it would be naive to think otherwise. I certainly would not patronize a place where the bouncer, who is supposed to keep a place safe and civil for all, enacts his own Marshall law.
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 am
It doesn’t really sound like you know enough about what happened that you should be trying to influence public opinion about a new venue.
Just the facts next time, hmm?
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:24 am
That would be TPD for ya.
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 am
I gave a first hand account of a man’s head going into a brick wall. That is the main fact here, ma’am. I do not know what caused it, but my opinion here is that one man does not have the right to do that to another, regardless of reason.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Except they totally do have the right to do that in a wide variety of circumstances. Rights to self-defense are pretty objective.
I’m not saying it was right in this instance, just that it doesn’t really sound like you know.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
obviously Dawn has never worked in a bar.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
There is a huge difference between self defense and excessive violence, which I deem inexcusable for any situation.
I have in fact worked at many bars over many years. But only at places where people are shown the door for rowdy behaviour, not the wall.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Oh, ok Dawn, sorry. Hey, too bad that murderer at New World wasn’t just “shown the door” too! Wonder why they didnt think of that?
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:41 pm
more: Masquerade was a responsibly run bar. Tom from Masquerade runs Crowbar. Therefore I have reason to believe that this (employee) was properly trained. It is possible that this (employee) disregarded policy and chose to handle the situation improperly. If this is the case, he likely will cost the bar a lot of $$$ (lawsuit!) and he will likely be fired. So Crowbar will have done everything they can to avoid this kind of thing, in the past, present and future. Still, they can be held accountable (lawsuit!) and can be severely penalized ($$$!). This is one of many reasons a small business like Crowbar should be given the benefit of the doubt, not unfairly compared to a place (NWB) that always is praised (justifiably so in this rare case) by the trendy liberal media.
However, Dawn, since you believe in holding businesses responsible for the conduct of all their employees, How do you feel about your employer, Creative Loafing, employing pedophiles? (see response to Jason’s Lee Chavis post)
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Crowbar has many delightful upcoming musical acts that will draw crowds regardless of my ramblings here. I did enjoy Masquerade and wish Crowbar a healthy, responsible run. I am all for local businesses, but more importantly, socially responsible businesses.
I hope that everyone in the trendy, liberal media (and beyond) will always speak up when they see wrong doing, regardless of toes stepped toes.
Businesses aren’t responsible for their employees behaviour; but an employees behaviour on the job, as a representative of the company, brings up issues.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
the problem with the trendy liberal media: in their zeal, they are often duped.
and since everybody wants to be trendy, any nonsense peddled by the trendy liberal media is widely parrotted by people seeking admission into the elite.
A good example locally would be Sami Al-Arian, who completely duped WMNF and the Weekly Planet (whatever they’re called this week)
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Let’s be honest here. A bouncer rammed a guy’s head into a brick wall. Maybe y’all have better imaginations than I do, but I happen to find somewhat out of the realm of self-defense. As far as being held accountable, it’s pretty hard to do that when there’s usually a wink-wink nudge-nudge from the police. The eventual case would come down to a he-said she-said between the “victim” and the bouncer/bar owner/cops. Guess who wins that one? I do agree that Crowbar shouldn’t be held responsible, but the bouncer certainly should. Our society grows increasingly aggressive and condoning violence at that level, however warm and fuzzy it makes you feel, is pretty disgusting and makes you an enabler. So what if Dawn is offended by disgusting violence? Why aren’t you? I’ve worked in plenty of bars, and witnessed some pretty hard to stomach incidences, but a well trained bouncer usually doesn’t need a brick wall to do the work for him. Maybe a new bouncer would do the trick.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
speaking for myself, i hate violence! But i also hate hypocracy (sp)! and Dawn turned her complaint into a plug for The New World, a very nice place, but occasionally demonstrably violent, too! I prefer the joints where Tommy plays, where violence is practically non-existent.
And we still havent heard anybody’s side of the story but Dawn’s.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Hey Dawn, how does it feel to have graduated from NPO to “trendy liberal media?”
(What the hell was THAT about?)
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I haven’t been trendy a day in my life so it actually feels kinda good. Thanks for asking, Sand!
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Dawn -
Clearly you haven’t seen Road House, or you’d realize that type of behavior in bouncers is completely legitimate.
Also acceptable is doing shirtless T’ai Chi in tight, white sweatpants.
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Joel, thanks for reminding me that everything worth knowing can be learned from the Patrick Swazye catalog. In my next post, I’ll examine the heavy Buddhist undertones in Point Break and the taoist principles of Donnie Darko.
January 3rd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Y’all need to stop trading insults and engaging in vague and largely unsupported speculations about the event at Crowbar - not to mention Life, the Universe, and Everything. As someone who has owned three businesses in Ybor City and worked there for the best part of 25 years, I can tell you: only a couple of you seem to have a handle on the exigencies of small business, especially bar/nightclub, ownership and management. As to the journalistic exercise that started this fracas: the most appropriate and professional response to criticism would have been, “Let me find out more details on this apparent outrage and fill you readers in.” We, the readers, don’t have to like everything we read in the press, but we do have a right to expect journalists to give us as much fact and as little conjecture as they can. Otherwise, anyone who felt like yodeling an opinion would be a journalist.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
dcdave says: “As far as being held accountable, it’s pretty hard to do that when there’s usually a wink-wink nudge-nudge from the police. The eventual case would come down to a he-said she-said between the “victim†and the bouncer/bar owner/cops. Guess who wins that one?”
i dont know about any winners, but Crowbar will be the big loser even if they did everything right. Their insurance company will bill them BIG BUCKS to “investigate” Jeremy’s claim, even if they deny it. Jeremy’s lawyer might even use Dawn’s post as evidence! Maureen’s post is excellent, as was Rachel’s. Dawn’s rush to post without getting Crowbar’s side of the story, while praising NWB by comparison, is questionable.
January 3rd, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Hold your horsies y’all. Journalists may blog, but I do not blog as a journalist. I am not and have never claimed to be a journalist here or in my life, apart from the minimal reporting I do as a volunteer for WMNF. At Sticks of Fire, like the other bloggers, I am a citizen/writer who gives my observations and commentary about what I experience in my life in Tampa. I simply shared with the community my account of what I saw on New Years Eve, knowing that Sticks would probably be the only place the incident got exposure. Which is, after all, the reason this blog exists.
That being said, if someone would like to hire me as a reporter to get all sides of the story, by all means give me a call and I will do some heavy investigating. But otherwise, I’ll just call ‘em like I see ‘em.
January 4th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Good for you Dawn!
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 am
Get yourself a beautiful bell-shape glass full of golden wine and yet thinking of a hangover makes the glass slip out of your hands :S