Paul Bass Photo
“They’re unfairly targeting the clubs,” said Static manager Andy Behm (pictured).
Saying that “collaboration” didn’t work, the mayor and police chief vowed a crackdown on Crown Street clubs and clubgoers in the wake of last weekend’s shoot-out with the cops.
Police Chief Frank Limon (at center in top photo) and Mayor John DeStefano announced the crackdown Tuesday afternoon at a press conference at the entrance to the Crown Street Garage.
They stood at the spot where a fight may have started between two groups of young men shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday and escalated into a shoot-out that involved the cops.
Limon and DeStefano responded to intense public concern and calls for action in town following the incident, in which dozens of shots appear to have been fired once the fight moved around the corner to College Street. The cops fired some of those bullets. Two men allegedly involved in the fight were injured in the incident; the details remain largely unclear as the police continue investigating. (Read about what officials have disclosed so far, and the public reaction, in this story.)
DeStefano said he takes “some ownership” of how “misbehavior” has raged out of control in the Crown Street club district. “I wasn’t aggressive enough” in trying to work out a plan for greater enforcement with district club owners. “We’re not going to proceed in a collaborative and voluntary fashion anymore,” he declared.
“We won’t tolerate the misbehavior we saw this weekend,” Limon said. “As the mayor said, this nonsense must stop.”
In the next few weeks, the public can expect to see the following happen, according to DeStefano and Limon:
• Stepped-up police enforcement. Extra duty cops will saturate the district with traffic enforcement stops and enforcement of loitering and public drinking laws and spend increased time in “corridors” between parking lots and around clubs, where much of the recent violence has gravitated from inside the clubs.
• Health officials will crack down on noise levels and sanitary conditions at clubs.
• Investigators will check for underage patrons in bars.
• Clubs holding events that draw especially rowdy or young crowds, such as “foam night” or “dollar pitcher” promotions, will draw special scrutiny.
• The fire marshal will hunt for clubs exceeding legal occupancy.
That’s the short-term strategy — to “reset the quality of life downtown just as we have in other neighborhoods,” DeStefano said. He made a point Tuesday of noting that the city has taken similar steps in Newhallville and Wooster Square, cracking down on clubs like Taurus Cafe and Joker’s Wild.
Longer-term, DeStefano vowed to push the state legislature for permission to create a downtown club zone where the city can levy special fees to pay for overtime police protection and a regular district manager and other top cops who’ll work closely with clubowners and neighbors.
The mayor recently met with club owners to try to convince them to participate in such a system voluntarily. The meeting dissolved into arguments, and DeStefano left without a resolution.
“In our desire to be collaborative and bring people in, that strategy was not as effective as what people are going to see in coming weeks,” he said. He called on state legislators to give the city the needed legal permission to proceed with the district in next year’s upcoming session.
New Haven State Reps. Juan Candelaria and Gary Holder-Winfield (pictured at the press conference) said afterward that they support the concept and expect to push to pass the proposal. Holder-Winfield said he wants to see the fine print of DeStefano’s proposal before committing, and said he hopes to get it soon so he can get to work on it.
An estimated 14,000 people filled the Crown Street district last Saturday night and early Sunday morning, including 2,000 bused in from Quinnipiac University, according to top downtown cop Lt. Rebecca Sweeney. DeStefano said it costs the city $500,000 a year to police the district.
Mixed Reaction
After hearing the mayor’s presentation, Downtown management team Chairman Doug Hausladen, who lives in Crown Towers, called instead for a beefed-up permanent regular-duty police detail in the district working Wednesday through Saturday nights.
“Why is the answer from City Hall that we should pay overtime hours?” he said.
DeStefano responded that he has a set number of cops and he can’t take away from other parts of the city to police downtown more. He wants the clubs that draw the crowds that cause trouble to pony up to pay the extra-duty costs; he said fees would be based on occupancy and type of activity that takes place in clubs. He emphasized that many club owners downtown operate responsibly.
H. Richter Elser (at left in photo with Yale/downtown Alderman Mike Jones), the former owner of Richter’s and the Republican town chairman, applauded DeStefano’s announcement of stepped-up enforcement.
So did Andy Behm, manager of Static, the club across the street from the press conference. Initial reports were that Sunday morning’s brawl might have started in the street outside the club; Behm said the participants (some of whom were under 21) never entered the club.
“They should crack down on the street,“said Behm (pictured at the top of the story in Static’s basement office, where he was checking security footage). “They need to. We do our part to ensure everyone’s safe inside.”
His security guards also clear the area right in front of the club, he said.
But they can’t control people who cause trouble up and down the street, he said. He said police should take particular aim at people who “are rejected from a few clubs” but remain in the district. “You see the same person moseying around for two hours.”
DeStefano said that if a fight happens outside a club like Static, rather than inside, officials still plan to turn up the heat, enforcing the noise ordinance, for instance.
“You’ve created an atmosphere where [troublemakers] can hang out and create a disturbance,” DeStefano said of the clubs, without naming names.
“They’re unfairly targeting the clubs. They’re trying to finger somebody,” Static’s Behm responded.
“They want to make it look like New Haven’s a safe city in the public eye. New Haven is a safe city. There have been multiple isolated incidents” that create a different impression, he said.
Behm said Static aims to attract males “over 21.” It has a college night on Thursdays — as does most of the district, he noted. It stopped holding under-age events after a coat-drive fundraiser last December attracted a crowd that allegedly participated in a brawl outside afterward; that incident led Alderwoman Jackie James to call for an end to such events.
DeStefano was also asked Tuesday about suggestions from some Independent readers that the city create a nightclub district away from downtown, perhaps on Long Wharf.
“I don’t think it’s an issue of location … It’s the behavior,” he responded.
“We’ve confronted this before successfully. We will again.”