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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Dancing While Brown
Is there selective policing going on along West 7th Street? Static witnessed an incident last weekend that lends credence to the allegation. In the wee hours of Sunday, Aug. 23, as fans were filtering out of the Wreck Room after a show by Austin rockabilly cat Deke Dickerson, a fight broke out. A crowd of 15 or 20 people gathered in the street, as bar staff and others struggled to separate the combatants, who allegedly included a man just released from jail. In the melee, bartender Graham Richardson was hit in the back of the head and another Wreck Room employee was hit in the face. Fortunately, neither was seriously injured.
While all of this was going on, two patrol cars and three police officers were sitting just around the corner, not 50 feet away, outside Tequila’s. They couldn’t help but hear the commotion, but did they respond? Sure — after the situation was under control and the yahoos had left.
Seems the officers were too busy watching the crowd leaving Tequila’s to help break up the fight. During recent weeks, there have been complaints of rowdy (and primarily Hispanic) young crowds leaving the popular salsa dance club on Friday hip-hop nights. Let’s see: potentially loud Hispanics or actually violent white guys — who would you rather be protected from?
Shack Patter
Fort Worth Weekly’s story about the free-speech fight between RadioShack and a sucks.com web site named after the company (“RadioSmack,” Aug. 13, 2003) was a hit at least two places — on the web and on the streets outside the company’s downtown headquarters. Static noticed that several of the Weekly’s racks outside the Tandy Center, RadioShack’s current corporate home, were empty shortly after the newspapers were dropped off. And according to those who posted messages on the RadioShackSucks.com site, the story “was really flying around the towers.” RadioShack has sued over alleged defamation on the web site. The company says the suit has nothing to do with the fact that the site helped publicize a national class action lawsuit filed by managers who claim that RadioShack owes them millions in unpaid overtime. Bulletin board messages called the story “a must read” and said the company “is finally getting the kind of attention it deserves’’— but probably not the kind it wants.
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