What all the police presence was about, early Saturday
Via Facebook, Michelle asked us about a major law-enforcement presence on both sides of 16th/Roxbury very early Saturday morning. Haven’t nailed down all the details yet but did get a bit of info courtesy of Seattle Police – the call went out as “shots fired.” No indication thus far that anyone was actually shot, but we’ll be checking with King County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.
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June 20th, 2010 at 10:53 am
There was a huge fight and riot at club Evo. Probably 300 involved. They have started doing a Friday hip-hop night with no security or off duty sheriffs. Happened about 12:15 and the Sheriff did not get the streets clear until well after 1:00
June 20th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
That place needs to be shut down now!!!! Along with Papas and that other craphole bar next door. That area is becoming even worse. I’ve seen open drug dealing out in front of Papas. I won’t even go over there anymore. The good businesses like White Ctr Pho and Proletariat, and Full Tilt are all gonna suffer.
June 21st, 2010 at 7:47 am
Actually, club e is open Thursday, Friday, and Sunday night without any off duty Deputies offering hip hop mixes nights.
Every night there are fights and after 1:30 a.m. it becomes a mini LA riot scene. Many Deputies rush the scene block 16th & Roxbury intersection, 98th & 16th, and line themselves up and down inbetween.They linger around and wait for the mobs to disburse. They should start wearing riot gear.
You are right about the drug dealing at papas, it happens inside and out, they even smoke their dope right out front now, the prostitutes are back too. It’s too bad that papas resorted back to it’s old ways of brewsky’s, the name change didn’t do them a damn thing.
June 21st, 2010 at 8:40 am
Boy, I thought that place got shut down already!?! How’d it open again? Nothing but bad news.
June 21st, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Actually what happened was a couple of gang members were fighting in the entrance way and also in the club and Security accidently pepper sprayed them and it emptied out the club…get the facts correct
There was no big riot or shots fired…Security took care of the problem with the help of KCSOs…
A bunch of armchair reporters trying to state things that aren’t facts
June 21st, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Oh and we are open Friday and Saturday and the occaisional sunday now…
June 21st, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Regarding “armchair reporters,” not sure who that is aimed at. If it is aimed at my original report above this, it is a ***fact***, that Seattle Police told me (a veteran journalist if you aren’t familiar with our work) that the call went out as “shots fired.” Doesn’t mean shots were, or were not, fired – what we reported is that the CALL WENT OUT AS “shots fired.” The call itself – as in, the actual dispatching – is a fact. We did not purport to report the RESULT of the call, as that has to come from the Sheriff’s Office, with whom I’m checking today – KCSO does not have media spokespeople available on the weekend except in case of huge emergency, but I was able to at least find out the nature of the call from a SW Precinct SPD lt., as they were contacted for potential mutual aid, and we had inquiries about what area residents saw – a sizable law enforcement presence on the city and county sides of the intersection.
June 21st, 2010 at 1:13 pm
There were over 200 people in the streets. Fights up and down 16th, over a dozen sheriffs involved. This was not a small fight that security handled. This was a riot. We are lucky that no one was killed.
June 21st, 2010 at 2:00 pm
LT, multiple eye witnesses say it took at least an hour to clear the streets, so don’t be so quick to cover up. When you have the off duty officers the place seems fine, but so far your nights with just club security are a train wreck. It is irresponsible and dangerous for Evo to continue holding these events without proper security and crowd control.
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:55 am
No Tracy…not pointed at you sorry…The reason people were in the streets was because the club had to be cleared out because pepper spray was dispersed…people were choking because the pepper spray was dispersed and couldn’t leave…there was no riot people may have been arguing but there were no fights in the street…
As far as Security I have proper security…the team that I have has the experience…not enough would have been a better choice…I had only 4 working because I assumed it would be a small event of 150 not of almost 250…I assure you now that I have hired 4 more to be working along side the others to promote public safety and will be working with KCSO to start enforcing a better dress code…
I agree I would rather have some off duty officers…that would definantly make my job much easier…but the money isn’t there with the other expenses we have at this time…any advise on grants that we could possibly get to hasten the process I would quickly look into but until then I will have to run with 9 security people…and as far as crowd control we are upping the price of re-entry to $10 so hopefully people won’t be hanging out and loitering outside the buildings
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
That goes against what many of us saw, and what the sheriffs are saying. There were fights in the streets. Now there is a whole bunch of new graffiti in the area. This club has become very dangerous in the past few weeks, and there is no way this community is going to stand for it.
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Grants, are you serious?
If you want to promote public safety, stop the word games and start telling the truth. By your own admission, “a couple of gang members were fighting in the entrance way and also in the club….” Since you’ve admitted that the pepper spray was disbursed because gang members were fighting in the club, why should we believe that didn’t lead to fighting in the street?
How many gang members were in the club? How many innocent people are put at risk every time you throw a “small event” that draws gang members to our community? How many police officers from how many jurisdictions were called to help clear the street?
PLEASE start behaving like a responsible member of our community.
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
You are a private business. If you don’t have the funds to conduct business properly, then you need to revise your business plan.
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:26 pm
“If you want to promote public safety”
Okay…here it is since you all want to attack…We’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars to PROMOTE PUBLIC SAFETY…Since 2004 we’ve employed 3 off duty sherrifs officers to assist us on Saturday nights…before that happened and we had opened the White Center area was a war zone…Not only did they help us out but also the other businesses in the area like the locker room, brewskys, the wall, and the Triangle…they would help in any area on that street to assist on any call in that area on saturday nights…before that what was happening…Prostitution, drug dealings, gang violence, graffiti all the time in the whole area…shootings where WAY MORE common than before we employed the cops in that area…those are FACTS…
Where were the fights in the streets? There were no fights in the streets. I was there and so were a couple of officers that I was talking with after the whole things cleared out. You may have seen arguing but if fists were not flinging it was not a fight. There were also people pissed off because they were pepper sprayed.
Liz you say this like there are no gang members that live in White Center. Sorry but most of these people live in and around White Center. One poster pointed out that there are drug dealers here in White Center doing business right in front of Papas aka Brewsky. Does that mean they bring in drug dealers to the area? No that doesn’t because gang members and drug dealers have been here way before Us, before brewskys before the locker room and before the other businesses here. To blame something like that on a business is not only wrong but it is absolutely insane.
You tell me to behave like a responsible community member. I have been to community meetings. I have complied with what KCSO and others have asked of me. How is my compliance repayed? By being called out by those same people…how about I call out the fact that the streets are not our problem. Our liability ends at the entrance door. What happens in the streets is the cops business. They say they don’t have the staff to make sure there are no problems around yet they had enough people to post 2 officers outside on the corners of 16th ave sw on roxbury and 98th to make sure we didn’t open Friday and Saturday last Memorial Day weekend. The cops were doing what they are getting paid to do. Keep the streets safe.
NO OTHER BUSINESSES have done that…No one has stepped up to help clean up white center as much as we have…in the last 2 years we’ve spent well over $100,000 in employing off duty officers…During that time no other business have spent one penny for any other off duty police officers to make the community safe. Its great that you talk about make white center safer but why don’t you spend a little bit to make it safer.
I challenge you to put your pocket where your mouth is.
June 22nd, 2010 at 10:48 pm
What other business put over 200 pissed off kids out on the street Friday night? What other business attracted those same kids that tagged up the neighborhood Friday night? You spent the money because that is your responsibility. You run a business that requires security. Instead of paying for that security, you opted to save the money and put the lives of those kids in danger. Instead of taking any responsibility for it, you tell us that your care ends at your front door. Way to be a part of the community.
I know what this area used to be like, and I do not want to see it go back to that just so you can make money. I don’t care if the paid cops in front of your place were the reason it is cleaned up, that does not give you license to run an unsafe club like this.
You want to put your money where your mouth is, why don’t you pay for the dozen or so sheriffs that had to clean up YOUR mess Friday?
June 23rd, 2010 at 11:34 am
The tagging was not done friday night…it was done during the week…I know because we were tagged up too…it was done sometime between Wednesday night and thursday morning…and as far as having security…I HAVE SECURITY…And I didn’t put those kids lives in danger I opted to burn the crap out of those people that were fighting by pepper spraying them and making it impossible for them to grab a gun and shoot people…And yes MY RESPONSIBILITY ENDS AT THE ENTRANCE…THE COPS ARE PAID TO KEEP THE STREETS SAFE NOT TO GO SIT IN A PARKING LOT DOING NOTHING BUT WASTE MY TAX DOLLARS…
What were the cops doing on that early saturday morning? They were DOING WHAT THEY ARE PAYED TO DO
We have not had a problem lately on any day other than friday…No problems saturday or sunday…in fact Sunday is also hip hop…no problems…You all make this out as if we have a problem every single week and that is just not true…Now obviously if this continues then I am not going to allow Fridays to continue because we don’t want these problems…but now I have added security and that is how we are dealing with this
I should pay the cops for doing what they are supposed to do?
ABSOLUTELY NOT
June 23rd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I don’t care if it just Fridays that you are causing riots in the streets. It needs to stop.
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
LT, where are you advertising your events?
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Riot-a noisy, VIOLENT public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a crowd protesting against another group, a government policy, etc., in the streets.
That is the definition of a riot. What you are describing was different…I could go on and on over this…but really I am tired of it…I will have a handle on it thank you…Lets make sure the cops do their jobs that they are payed to do which is to make sure the streets are safe.
You also make the assumtion that most of the clientelle are gang members which is funny because 3/4 of our clientelle on Friday nights are college kids and the other 1/4 are just getting out of high school…really makes your arguments quite moot
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:10 pm
We have several promoters for the club that promote everywhere from the internet to the radio to word of mouth to email
June 23rd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
You know what makes it even more easier…I think people forget that My boss is a lawyer…and a pretty good one at that…I’m pretty sure he knows a thing or two about the laws…or maybe I must be dumb…I don’t know
June 23rd, 2010 at 5:03 pm
once again. Way to endear yourself to the community.
June 24th, 2010 at 8:13 am
A lawyer? Who cares what your boss does for a living, really. The point is: Being a responsible business owner and good neighbor to the community and residents here in white center.
June 24th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
We are a business just like the Locker Room, Triangle, Papa’s, and others that are in the area. We are here to make money just like everyone else is. We don’t need to endear to anyone.
We don’t serve alcohol and you won’t find it in the club so go ahead and send the liquor control board. We aren’t in any violation of anything so send whoever you want. You can Picket and protest and petition as much as you want. I’m tired of having to conform to what the community wants when even in good times they have nothing nice to say and decide to dedicate a whole meeting to us.
All you can come up with is shut down. That won’t happen. Sorry thats the way it is. You want to talk about being a responsible business owner then give praise that we hired 5 big samoan security officers. I’m really tired of hearing this stuff really.
So honestly do whatever you wish. It won’t change a thing. We’ve upped security and made changes to the way we handle things. If you don’t like that unfortunately thats just too bad.
June 25th, 2010 at 7:46 am
The issue is this, you stated that there were no fights. KCSO rep says there were, and WOW 30 police responses from all over. That says it all righ there.
I don’t really think anyone wants you to shut down, I think they just want you to rethink your policies and security measures to prevent another incident like last Saturday. That’s all.
June 25th, 2010 at 11:50 am
And thats what I plan on doing. But unfortunately heidi thats exactly what people want to happen. I’ve been doing this with Evo for five years. Gone to community meetings for 2. That is the only solution to the problem that people keep bringing up. And Vary is incorrect. There were 12 police cars at the scene and “Fights” do not mean fist fights. Just another example of exaggeration by KCSO.
Like I’ve said before, we are upping security and making sure people pay a steep price for re-entry so this doesn’t happen again.
June 26th, 2010 at 3:27 am
And so that all of you know…There were no problems this time…and it was a friday…and it was a hip hop night…and we had added security…and everything went smoothly
June 26th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
And now its silent
June 27th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Silent? Thanks for having security there! I’m glad there were no problems. Great job LT!
June 27th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Thanks. It does help having added security.