The Charlotte nightlife scene seemed to have quite the shake-up last weekend with multiple fights breaking out at area bars, including two shootings.
But Capt. Jeff Estes, commander of CMPD’s central division, assured me that the violence isn’t part of an increasing trend uptown.
For those of you who missed the coverage: A fight broke out among patrons at Grand Central in the early morning hours of May 29. As the fight was being dispersed, someone fired a gun into the air. No one was injured. More fights broke out early last Friday at Alley Cat, reportedly between patrons and bouncers. Then on Sunday, a man fired a gun outside NV Lounge in Cornelius, injuring one person.
Estes said TV coverage is to blame for the increased attention on normal crime activity in the nightlife industry.
“Actually, aggravated assaults are down 23 percent in the center city (year to date). Considering we have more alcohol-serving establishments operating than last year and we are trending downwards for the year, it is actually ironic that we are receiving coverage about the number of them,” he wrote in an e-mail this week.
Estes said fisticuffs are to be expected any time you mix alcohol and a certain sense of bravado. In other words, boys will be boys.
A note to the troublemakers: We all go out to have a good time. Don’t ruin it for the rest of us. And why would anyone feel the need to carry a loaded gun into a bar or club?
Estes said CMPD is “very proactive in our enforcement efforts and (we) are plugged into the management of the bars and clubs in the center city. … We attribute our decline in aggravated assaults to those efforts.”
6 comments:
Close them all down..Its a proven fact that all the "two-beer Timmys" can't behave themselves, and they make it miserable for everyone else. The more you promote it, the more trouble you'll have.
Hey I'm surprised there isn't that much trouble. I got uptown frequently and its rare that I see any fights. I think alot of the problems probably occur on "college nights". Drunk 21yr olds are nuts anyway, male or female.
"Close them all down.."
Yeah thats the perfect solution.
Moron.
To the "Moron" respondent...Guess the shoe fits
As someone who has been enjoying Charlotte's latenite scene for five years now I can honestly say that I feel safe when I choose to party downtown. I think I've seen one fight break out in person the entire time I've been frequenting the downtown scene. I think this has been blown out of proportion in the past few weeks due to a limited number of events. Hopefully we won't see any trouble this weekend.
Most of the time when there`s a bar fight,it`s two guys fighting over a woman,which is the most moronic reason of all! On top of that,the woman in question is often a skank anyway!
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