Neighbors Complain About Fights Associated With San Francisco Nightclub
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Armed with surveillance videos capturing several fights, neighbors of a San Francisco nightclub in the city's North Beach neighborhood asked city officials Tuesday night to do something to curb the violence.
Francesca Valdez runs the Broadway Studios right next door to Club Hue SF. She says her cameras have captured violent confrontations between patrons of the late night hotspot.
"A lot of the fights are between women which is strange actually," she told KPIX 5. "They are overly drunk. They yell at each other. They hit each other. They even fight and spit at the cops."
San Francisco police say Club Hue has a history of fights and aggravated assaults and complaints about loud music. They say many of the problems stem from the club's bottle service that is getting some people so drunk, they cause a scene when they leave the club.
Valdez and others took their complaints to the city's entertainment commission Tuesday night. They asked the commission to do something about the drunken violence.
"You can certainly police your own location better than you're doing," said local business owner Jerry Cimino. "We have to take responsibility for our businesses and I think they cater to people who don't care about North Beach."
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin agrees with the business owners.
"This club has been a perennial source of trouble," Peskin said. "The police know it. They have been out there weekend after weekend, month after month. And they're either going to shape up or ship out."
Valdez told the commissioners "safety is everyone's big issue."
However, club owner Bennett Montoya says he has looked at the police records and believed they were exaggerated.
"Some of them (the police reports) I have reviewed have absolutely nothing to do with (the club)," Montoya told the commission. "There are some when you go into details … They took place across the street."
The commission could have taken several courses of action. Officials could have made bar stop serving alcohol before closing time or even suspended the club's license.
Officials decided to allow the club to stay open until 2 a.m., but ordered the owner to stop playing music at midnight.
