Now, let me get this straight.
Someone calls police on Friday night and complains about the noise level of the music at a local club that is well-known for featuring live bands. The club’s crowd is comprised mostly of college kids.
An officer responds and, when the band doesn’t reduce its noise level to the officer’s satisfaction, the officer climbs onstage, shines a flashlight in the lead singer’s face and yells “Stop!”
What happened next is subject to conflicting accounts. However, it appears to be undisputed that the lead singer said something and then the officer grabbed him by the neck and forced him to the ground. A melee involving the officer and several members of the audience broke out, prompting the officer to Taser the lead singer, a 14-year-old audience member and a University of Houston sociology student doing a “field paper on the music scene.” At least four people were arrested, the bass player’s guitar got smashed and six HPD squad cars ended up at the scene.
The lead singer, who was not one of those arrested, commented afterward to a Houston Chronicle reporter that the officer was “out of control.” “He was extremely violent form the start,” said the lead singer. “It was frightening.”
On the other hand, a police spokesman told the Chronicle that the officer’s approach “was commendable” and that it was “fortunate that he used a Taser instead of a weapon.”
“Fortunate that he used a Taser instead of a weapon?” To tone down the music level at a club that is in the business of playing loud music?
Irresponsible use of force by local police is an offshoot of the growing problem that Cato Insitute fellow Radley Balko has chronicled with regard to overuse of local police SWAT units. I guess we’re fortunate that HPD didn’t send in its SWAT team to deal with this situation, but doesn’t HPD have better things to be doing on a Friday night than Tasering a bunch of college kids who enjoy listening to loud music at a club?
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I don’t think we’re ever going to get a clear report of what happened.
Yes, of course an understaffed HPD has better things to be doing right now, but they have to respond to the calls they get.
The officer may have overreacted, but clubs know they have to behave as volume goes. If neighbors complain, they have to turn it down. That’s just how it works in Houston.
Where was the club management? They could have headed all of this off by simply complying with neighborhood noise ordinances. Usually, a cop stops by, says there’s been a complaint, and that’s how it works.
If a cop has to go on a stage and a punk kid STILL refuses to comply with the law, what is he supposed to do exactly?
Sorry, but the owners and the band could have headed this off and didn’t. The cop may have overreacted, but it needn’t have come to that in the first place if the club/band simply abided by the request to turn down the volume.
My buds at the West Alabama have lots of bands. To my knowledge, a cop has never had to taser a band there because the management and musicians were so stupid as to disregard a cop trying to a job he rarely wants to do (because my experience is cops don’t especially like these sorts of calls). But, when neighbors complain, the volume has to go down. If they complain too much, the establishment’s liquor license could be in play (which is why Walter’s really ought to be a little more responsible — it’s in their financial interest to do so).
Kevin, HPD “has to respond to the calls that they get?” Come on, what percentage of excess loudness calls do you think HPD responds to? I would wager that it’s not many.
And even assuming that the band ignored the cop’s directive to tone it down, what on earth is he doing getting up on the stage and making a show of force? And while alone? That’s asking for trouble and needlessly increased the chance that somebody would be injured.
If the policeman thought that the club was not complying with his directive, he should have called for backup and shut the club down for the night. Grandstanding on stage by trying to handcuff the lead singer is about the last thing the policeman should have done.
I am generally supportive of the police (including being a Life Member of the 100 Club), but this incident — even assuming the officer’s version of the events was true — reflects very poor judgment by the officer involved.
We have now entered stage four of the decline of the Houston Police department.
Stage one was the exodus of officers that left the force horribly understaffed. Stage two was criminals noticing the lack of police presence and the delayed response times meant Houston was now a fertile land for those intent on making a living by criminal activities. Stage three was resorting to spiffy acronymns by the Chief and the Mayor in a futile attempt to convince the populace that hte situation was under control. The net effect of this was to make to make the law abiding citizens cynical and to lead the people to believe the police brass was out of touch with the reality of the problem.
Now we have the police acting against the common citizenery, alienating the law abiding citizens and creating animosity between the police and the people.
This spiral downward will continue until we have someone at the top of the HPD that is intent on addressing the problems of the department. How we can have a city budget surplus and not use it to address our rising crime rate is beyond belief.
Someone needs to head to Phoenix this weekend and have a long talk with Chief Hurtt. Possibly, Chief Hurtt should shorten his weekly commute by finding a new job in his beloved state of Arizona and allow us to again have a Chief of Police who cares about the City of Houston, who lives in the City of Houston and who understands the problems of the City of Houston.