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New York Shitty Day Starter: A Simple Assault
Filed under: 11222, Criminal Activity, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic
Remember the melee in front of Club Exit I made mention of last November?
If not, no worries. This should bring you up to speed:
This was first brought to my attention by someone whose son is a friend of a someone involved, e.g.; via the Greenpoint grapevine. By that I mean the friend (of the son of my tipster) in question was allegedly beaten up by the police and went to the hospital. Per my tipster the fight started over a woman being harassed. Her son’s friend tried to intervene and police officers were knocking cameras out of the hands of bystanders. And busting heads.
This was brought to the attention of D. I. Fulton at the 94th Precinct Community Council Meeting on November 21. A Greenpoint citizen called it a brawl.
Mr. Fulton begged to differ.
It took awhile but a video documenting this incident has finally surfaced. Here it is.
And here is a description of what you have just seen per my tipster:
This video isn’t clear, but I’m familiar with some of the voices, since they are friends of my son. The video starts with my son’s friend K—- laying on the ground, handcuffed & unconscious. His friend A——, who is handcuffed, is yelling in the background to tell the police that his friend isn’t moving and in need of an ambulance. One of their friends D—– begins to video the scene. An officer pushes D—– with the video phone but the girl quickly regains control of the video phone and keeps running the video. Another girl M——, is screaming in the background and trying to get to K—- to see if he’s ok. (K—- is the kid that had his teeth knocked out by guys at Club Exit who were bothering one of the girls.) As you can see, the officers grab the unconscious K—- by the arms and drag him to a police car, not an ambulance. You can hear his friends calling out to the officers about getting an ambulance… None of the white Club Exit patrons were arrested, even though one of them knocked out K—–‘s teeth.
Kind of makes you happy Club Exit’s (ostensible) swan song was last night, yes?
Miss Heather
UPDATE: February 17, 2010; Here’s another video.
From The New York Shitty Inbox: Curtain Call For Club Exit?
N (who sent the above image) writes:
Dear miss heather,
I live next door to club exit, last week there was a huge fight that left at least one bleeding in the middle of greenpoint ave. Today I noticed this sign on the doors as I was walking home. They finally lost their liquor license?
I have detected a lot of buzz about this online. I have been meaning to do some poking around to learn what happened but simply have not had time. Although I certainly would not rule out N’s liquor license theory (this club has long been a public nuisance and the location of many a violent altercation) fact of the matter is I honestly do not know. If anyone out there is “in the know”, please share via comments.* Inquiring minds want to know!
Miss Heather
UPDATE, January 9, 2010: B writes;
Miss Heather,
I would not pop the champagne corks regarding “Club Exit Bites The Dust†because they are applying for a liquor license renewal (Alteration) at Community Board 1 on January 12 6:30 p.m. They are listed at number 13 on the Liquor License Renewals List. See CB1 Agenda attachment…
Anyone wishing to comment for or against this renewal should attend the meeting and arrive early—at least by 6 p.m.—to sign up and speak your mind. I would also suggest you call or email CB1 with your opinions or questions.
After all, it is your Community Board.
UPDATE, January 9, 6:19 p.m.: I have heard via the Greenpoint grapevine that Club Exit was shut down for drug activity. They are going to remodel and reopen (hence the license hearing) as a “new club”. I write “new” because this establishment will be under the same ownership.
*Or you can send me an email at missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com. Your identity will be kept confidential.
New York Shitty Day Starter: What Happened November 7?
Filed under: 11222, Criminal Activity, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic
This was first brought to my attention by someone whose son is a friend of a someone involved, e.g.; via the Greenpoint grapevine. By that I mean the friend (of the son of my tipster) in question was allegedly beaten up by the police and went to the hospital. Per my tipster the fight started over a woman being harassed. Her son’s friend tried to intervene and police officers were knocking cameras out of the hands of bystanders. And busting heads.
I cannot profess to know the truth for the simple reason I was not there. But something very ugly came to pass that evening. Accounts vary, but it boils down to this: two men went to the hospital that night. And the NYPD had something to do with it.
This is interesting given the NYPD’s apparent blind eye to Club Exit, which has no less than two incidences of gun play in the last 18 months— and yet is still open for business. It should also be noted Blackout has been cited for not having a Cabaret License (and a personal visit from D. I. Fulton) because they (purportedly) had D.J.s spinning records.*
Hmm…
Miss Heather
*Per the NYC.gov website:
Any room, place or space in the city in which patron dancing is permitted in connection with the restaurant business or a business that sells food and/or beverages to the public requires a Cabaret license. This description is only a general explanation of which businesses need to have a Cabaret license…
You can read the rest here. Being somewhat of an expert on such stuff D.J.s do not a dance hall and subsequent debauchery make. By all appearances Club Exit does not have a Cabaret license, yet no one is citing them.
New York Shitty PSA: Tomorrow
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
Those of you who have grown weary of the above two establishments and the nuisance they have posed to our community mark your calendars. Tomorrow is the day you have been waiting for! The following screencap is an excerpt of the eating and drinking establishments whose liquor licenses are up for renewal.
As you will notice two of Greenpoint’s more, how should I say, NOTORIOUS venues are on this list. This means at tomorrow night’s Community Board One meeting you will, at long last, have an opportunity to let your feelings be known about the manifold contributions these establishments have made to our community’s quality of life:
- noise
- litter
- traffic congestion and lest we forget…
- bullets
Community Board 1 Meeting
May 12, 2009; 6:30 p.m.
211 Ainslie Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
Be advised that in order to speak you MUST sign in by or before 6:15 p.m.
Miss Heather
Notes From The 94th Precinct Community Council Meeting
Filed under: Greenpoint Magic
It was packed at last night’s Community Council meeting. If I had to guesstimate I’d say there were at least 100 people present. Many of whom were residents and/or business owners from Franklin Street, along with a camera woman from Channel 12, a community liaison from Joseph Lentol’s office and a “representative” from the Production Lounge.
Although a cake congratulating Officer Fulton for his promotion to Deputy Inspector was in the offering, all eyes, ears, minds and most importantly mouths were intent on discussing last weekend’s incident at the Production Lounge And I’ll tell you: all the people present (save perhaps two) be they old timers, newbies, 30-somethings with children or simply concerned citizens were very, very angry. What I found most interesting was that although the gun play at the Production Lounge (and how the police handled it) was the subject of the entire meeting, it was in reality a proxy for a number of quality of life issues which have been festering in Greenpoint for some time. These included but were not limited to:
- The proliferation of bars on Franklin Street.
- The increase in noise and disorderly activity which has come as a result of the previous.
- Dissatisfaction with the 94th Precinct’s response to complaints.
- Club Exit.
- Allegations that 311 is fudging the number of complaints being called in.
Disturbing allegations that the ownership of The Production Lounge did not care about the nuisance it was posing to its neighbors (and in fact encouraged it) also arose. As did some incidences which would be best described as harassment or outright intimidation. But enough preliminaries. Follows is my footage from the meeting. Draw your own conclusions.
Part I
Part II
Part III
I’ll be adding more footage from this meeting as YouTube (and my sheer will power) sees fit.* In the meantime those of you who have been affected negatively by The Production Lounge (or any other watering hole in Greenpoint or north Brooklyn in general) can and should contact the following:
State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol
619 Lorimer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 383 – 7474
lentolj (at) assembly (dot) state (dot) ny (dot) ny (dot) us
Councilman David Yassky (When this was suggested at the meeting a number of people shouted in unison “He’s useless!” But who knows?)
114 Court Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
(718) 875 – 5200
yassky (at) council (dot) nyc (dot) ny (dot) us
My good friend over at Neighborhood Threat has already pointed that out all noise complaints should be tendered to 311. Take down the complaint number(s) and hand them over to our local Community Board via email…
Community Board 1
435 Graham Avenue
Brooklyn , New York, 11211
(718) 389 – 0009
Fax: (718) 389 – 0098
Email: bk01 (at) cb (dot) nyc (dot) gov
And last, but hardly least, you can also file a complaint to the New York State Liquor Authority. Here’s a snippet of their online complaint form.
Given what I heard from last night’s meeting I suspect complaint boxes two and six will be very useful. It might also strike some as interesting that The Production Lounge has neither a Place of Assembly permit nor Certificate of Occupancy. In other words, they have no right to have people (much less those brandishing firearms) in 113 Franklin Street in the first place. Don’t believe me? Go to the Department of Buildings web site and see for yourself.**
Miss Heather
*You can watch the final two installments by clicking here.
**Oh yeah: it should come as no surprise to my fellow Greenpointers that the Production Lounges has no cabaret license either. Sound familiar, anyone?
P.S.: There’s much more piquant commentary about last night’s proceedings to be found on Yelp.
NYS Flickr Pool
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