By Arthur Weinreb
Friday, January 12, 2007
Early Saturday morning, a fight erupted in the parking lot of the Static Ultra Lounge, a Calgary night spot. A brawl involving about 50 people broke out that included shots being fired and cars used as weapons. Four people were arrested and the injured included a Static Ultra employee who was rushed to hospital after being struck by a car.
Calgary alderman Andre Chabot has called for the Static Ultra Lounge to be closed down, saying that the only way to eliminate future violence is to ensure that the establishment no longer functions as a licenced premise.
Alderman Chabot's proposal was opposed by the city's police chief, Jack Beaton. Beaton was quoted as saying, "What you have to do is go through a process and engage the people involved. They'll go through the process and if they don't conform to what needs to be done to make the place a safe environment, then they will lose their licence". By "engage the people" the chief is referring to those who own and run bars, restaurants and nightclubs.
Meanwhile in Toronto, the city's Entertainment District is attracting a lot of negative attention. As reported by Thane Burnett in the Toronto Sun, a kilometre area of downtown is home to 90 nightclubs and at least 130 bars and restaurants. In the last little while there have been several reported shootings and other acts of violence in or just outside of these venues.
The powers that be, like their counterparts in Calgary, are suggesting that stricter enforcement action should be taken against the owners of these bars and clubs when it comes to rules and regulations regarding overcrowding and, of course over drinking.
Selling alcoholic beverages is a tough business to be in. Those who operate drinking establishments are highly regulated compared to others in our over regulated nanny state society and face competing and contradictory principles. It is illegal to serve drunks and impossible to avoid bankruptcy when serving only those who spend all night in a bar or nightclub while slowly sipping a couple of bottles of beer. Nonetheless, licenced premises do need to be regulated and those regulations need to be enforced. But this is not the be all and end all to the problem.
But what is missing in the reports that surfaced this week in Calgary and Toronto is the notion that those who patronize these establishments bear any responsibility for their actions which include going downtown carrying a loaded gun and playing dodge-'em cars in the parking lot after a night of boozing it up. Anyone who suggests more police are needed on the street or tougher penalties handed out for shoot-outs in nightclubs is met with the accusation of having a knee jerk reaction to the problem. It is simply not trendy to place responsibility on those who actually cause the violence. And it is more pleasant to speak about "engaging" those who run the establishments; it undoubtedly gives people like Chief Beaton a warm and fuzzy feeling to be able to talk about engaging, interfacing and all those other feel good terms.
What is happening in Calgary and Toronto is further proof that the notion of personal responsibility and accountability for one's own actions is no longer applicable or relevant in today's world. Those who go to bars with loaded guns and become involved in a shootout are merely bit players as society attempts to deal with bar owners. And anyone who suggests that those who engage in this type of behaviour should be dealt with more harshly is simply written off as being unable to grasp the complexity of modern society.
Personal responsibility--it doesn't seem to be matter anymore. It's all the bar's fault.
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