Here’s a novel idea: Do your job.
Every once in a while, the Reno Gazette-Journal still takes the lead
in community dialogue. The front page story on Nov. 7, “Downtown
bars could be fined for police calls,” was just such a time.
From the RG-J story: “Given that seven bars are responsible
for 45 percent of the 1,401 police calls to bars or nearby areas as of
Oct. 27, City Councilmen Pierre Hascheff and Dave Aiazzi said they
favor fining bars with excessive police calls as the solution. The
approach would be similar to a current policy of fining people who have
excessive false fire alarm calls, Hascheff said.
“‘After so many calls, you get billed for a certain
number,’ Aiazzi said. ‘That’s how we should punish
these people.’”
That’s it in a nutshell. Members of the Reno City Council
believe citizens should be punished for taking advantage of their
rights as citizens.
First off, nobody appears to be claiming that the calls made from
bars are “false calls.” That implies that the calls are for
legitimate purposes, like the protection of people. To punish the bars
would suggest that it’s the bars who are being served by
responding police. It’s not. It’s the citizens the police
come to either arrest or protect—and those citizens presumably
pay their taxes and have a right to safety. They certainly have a right
to be in public places regardless of the purpose of those
businesses.
And besides, there are already laws in place to address the issues
of serving already intoxicated patrons, public intoxication, disorderly
conduct and assault. Bar owners who pad profits by understaffing
private security are lawsuits waiting to happen—particularly when
the bar owners, bouncers and bartenders are as intoxicated as their
patrons.
For more than 20 years, the Reno City Council has worked tirelessly
to redevelop downtown Reno as the casinos one by one closed their
doors. “Bring more locals downtown,” has been the rallying
cry for as long as most of us can remember. During the real estate
boom, when the “real” value of those closed casinos
skyrocketed based on the numbers of people who could be installed, the
battle call trumpeted by the Reno City Council was “move more
locals downtown.” And now, the downtown area is vibrant at all
hours of the day. That’s what we wanted, right?
That’s what we thought until we saw how city officials treated
places like the Green Room when, in conducting its legitimate business,
it came up against the wishes of the newly imported and installed
residents of the old Comstock Casino. And now we hear that Police Chief
Michael Poehlman wants some drinking establishments to close
voluntarily from 4 to 6 a.m.? Welcome to Nevada. Many of us moved here
specifically because of the 24-hour lifestyle.
Downtown Reno has much greater problems than a few drunks wandering
between bars in the latest hours of the night. People who have not
taken a recent nighttime walk on Virginia Street would be aghast at the
illegal drug activity from in-town-for-the-weekend freelance
pharmacists.
The Reno City Council must lie in the bed it helped to make and come
up with a plan that addresses the safety of Reno’s citizens, the
needs of downtown businesses and the needs of police. And fining people
for using the services for which they already pay taxes is not it.