Monday, January 3, 2011

Fight night

New Years Eve was quite a wild ride.  We responded to a total of 40 assaults on December 31st and January 1st.  That’s an unusually large number.  Of particular note were bar fights. 

The first was at the Main Street Café, where a drunken 24 year old patron was being ejected by the staff after being denied service.  He allegedly engaged in some fisticuffs with the staff, earning a night in jail. 

Next was Red 9, where a fight broke out between two customers.  During the fracas, the primary assailant allegedly pulled a knife and stabbed the victim, along with his buddy who tried to break things up.  A second interventionist was allegedly slugged and kicked, and a staff member was bit.  But it wasn’t over.  With two stabbings, a portion of the bar quickly became a crime scene, and the revelers had to be removed.  During the attempt to clear the area out, a 66 year old patron, angry that he couldn’t cross through the area to retrieve his coat,   allegedly grabbed a police officer’s gun, lost the scuffle, and spent the night in jail charged with assaulting a police officer.

While a bunch of officers were dealing with the investigation of the Red 9 stabbings, another assault occurred at the Fat Toad, where a greeting to a girlfriend by a stranger was not well received by a boyfriend, and a punch in the face followed.  Differing accounts of the events led to the officers declining to make any arrests, however. 

Still investigating the Red 9 affair, we were dispatched to the Keg, on a report of a fight involving 10-15 people.  Sorting who-did-what-to-whom was rather difficult, but one assailant went to jail, and we are looking for a second who had the good sense to leave before we arrived.  The last victim walked into police headquarters at 10:40 AM to report that she had been assaulted during the fight at the Keg.  She apparently caught a little shut-eye before reporting her victimization. 

All of these bar fights occurred within a 45-minute period.  Mind you, this is only the bar fights.  During the same stretch, we ran on three other assaults at residences, in addition to two traffic crashes, one drunk, a burglary, seven disturbances, a traffic hazard, a telephone offense, a check welfare, and two drunk drivers. 

Interestingly, all of the bar fights occurred after 1:00 AM.  Last year, the bars would have been closed.  Hard to say that they are related to the later closing time, though.  It is possible that the same fights would have occurred an hour earlier last year.  

12 comments:

Steve said...

Chief:

Just be glad it's no longer the way it was depicted in the old westerns. Seems like a good bar fight, with dozens of people involved, was a daily occurance back then for most any saloon.

Anonymous said...

Only you Tom, would try and link the bar fights to the bars closing time.

Tom Casady said...

4:14-

Did you miss the last two sentence in the post, or what?

I have no idea if the later closer time made any difference in these particular bar fights. We didn't have any reported last year, but we had about the same number the year before on New Years Eve.

I think it's more a function of amateur night than the time the bar closes.

mike said...

chief,

wonering if the bars got any tavern violation for these events or where they handled properly?

thanks
Mike

Anonymous said...

Chief-As you know,in the 70's, foot patrol and motor officers made use of an old Chevy van that looked like a bread truck for transportation to either their beats or the motors.

One day when I was driving the van crammed full of police officers at shift change, a bar fight was called in downtown. So I pulled up the van and about 8 cops piled out the back door and went in the bar. The shocked patrons just quit fighting in mid-swing.

Priceless.

256

Police Chaplain Misty King said...

Hi
Iam Police Chaplain Misty, I thank you and your Men and Women for jobs well done, I pray every day for their saftey to always make it home to their family's. i know it is not always an easy task of your to make our streets saafe for us to be on.
I want you to know how much I respect for their Job's that our men and women in lawforcment do.
Lord I pray that these and every Leo is kept safe from harms way.
Amen
Police Chaplain
Misty King
St Johns OREGON

172 said...

256

Ah, the LPD bread truck, the "black mariah". But if you did that now, wouldn't that be an overeaction by a bunch of jack-booted, militarized thugs in black uniforms and bulletproof vests?

Anonymous said...

172

As I recall, the van was full of motor officers in helmets. Some of them (no names mentioned) were big and scary. It had to look like the riot police. But it was a different time then, as you well know. Thanks for the photo.

256

Steve said...

I remember seeing pictures of that "bread truck" on the news. Weren't those guys the ones who staked out a house in northwest Lincoln for several hours only to find there was no one inside (or the person inside was already dead...can't remember which...damn this old age)? :)

Anonymous said...

I'm still amazed that Lincoln hasn't adopted a "disorderly conduct" charge to help when knuckleheads who decide to grab at your gun, cuffs, asp baton etc.. while walking through a crowded bar. Which could also be used in many other scenarios. It would be another good tool in the arsenal.

Grundle King said...

This is why I stay home on New Year's Eve....amateur's night indeed.

Anonymous said...

Aside from the Red 9 bit, which was a function of the crowd that the band brought in ... It didnt seem that bad.

I doubt the standard deviation of total calls was not that far off the average when compared to other years past. What do you think chief?