Bar where cop busted complains about police
My new colleague over at the Midnight Sun blog, Erik Maza, reports that the owners of a bar where a city cop was busted early Sunday during a fight in the parking lot has been complaining about what they call police harassment.
Kind of ironic in a way that the owners of Club Reality on Washington Boulevard think the cops are singling them out for scrutiny and the one time police wade in to break up a fight it involves one of their own. It's the police who ended up more shamed than the bar.
In this case, police were directing traffic outside the venue when they heard a commotion and then saw a woman hit a man. That man, it turns out, was a city police officer who had been suspended last year after getting arrested for allegedly driving drunk off a police station parking lot.
Anyway, here is some of what Maza found while researching the bar-end of this bar fight:
Owners of Club Reality, which has been open since January of last year, say the club has a "friendly and cozy atmosphere" for the "best homemade food this side of town." But they've also had brush-ins with city police, who they accused of "harassment" on their MySpace page.
In April, club owners wrote the venue was charged with disorderly conduct, and took to their Web site to complain about what they called "bogus complaints" that resulted in "police loitering on the premises and many unscheduled visits from the fire chief and liquor board."
"We do not understand the harassment and disrespectful behavior by several police officers to the staff and patrons," promotions manager Melissa Carter wrote then. "It is intimidating and embarrassing."
But police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said there are no pending padlock hearings scheduled for Club Reality, and that he didn't see the point of the club's contention. Club owners couldn't be reached for comment - will update when they do - but the Baltimore City Liquor License Board also doesn't show any pending action against the venue.
Guglielmi said that they don't monitor Club Reality any more than they do other nightclubs. "The bottom line on any business is that we're not going to tolerate any violence," he said.
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, West Baltimore
