A Delicate Dance Nightclub Bill Seeks to Protect Underage Guests, and D.C. Music Scene
By Keith L. Alexander and Robert Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, April 2, 2007; B01
D.C. Council member Jim Graham cringes each time he talks about teens in nightclubs, partying until the wee hours alongside 30- and 40-ye ar-olds guzzling beer or sipping trendy cocktails.
Mixing teens with adults and booze , Graham believes, is a recipe for serious trouble.
"What are these kids doing in these places?" he says. "It's just dangerous. Pedophiles, violence, anything could happen to them in there."
To lessen that danger, Graham (D-Ward 1) authored the Youth Protection Bill, which would place greater restrictions on nightclubs that serve alcohol and allow patrons under 18. Those clubs would have to ensure that youths are accompanied by a parent or guardian after 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends, or have a $300 annual license that would require an approved security plan. At present, clubs that sell liquor may admit all ages, but only those 21 and older may drink.
Under the bill, if a nightclub owner rented space to an outside promoter, the owner would remain responsible for security. A nightclub could lose its underage privileges if it has two violations, such as selling drinks to minors or selling alcohol after hours, within a two-year period or a pattern of violent incidents.
Concern about violence and nightclubs is a suburban issue, too. On Thursday, Prince George's County officials ordered nine nightclubs shut down, saying they were magnets for violent crime. After a judge allowed five to reopen, at least temporarily, officials said last night that they were planning to cease their efforts to close those clubs as part of an agreement that would include increased security. Three of the remaining four clubs remain closed, and the fourth remains open under a previous court order. Graham worries that troublemakers who frequented the closed clubs might move to D.C. spots.
"If Prince George's County is removing a problem," he said, "the problem isn't going to just vanish. These people will head to the District of Columbia."
Under his legislation, D.C. nightclubs could hire off-duty police officers for inside security. That practice was discontinued in 1999 when some officers were accused of lascivious behavior with customers. The bill also would allow police to charge underage patrons with a misdemeanor if found drinking in a nightclub.
Graham plans to begin distributing the bill to council members and others Wednesday and has scheduled a hearing on it April 18. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said District laws regarding teens in nightclubs "are much more lenient" than laws in many other cities, and he promised to work with Graham as the legislation moves through the council. The proposal is a result of weeks of negotiations with owners and managers of the District's nightclubs, restaurants and taverns who opposed Graham's original plan to prohibit anyone under 21 from patronizing a club that serves alcohol.
"The music scene of D.C. was built around teens being able to go to clubs and listen to music. If that changed, I'd have to change my entire business plan, and I'm not willing to do that. I'd just shut it down," said Dante Ferrando, owner of the Black Cat, a popular live music club in the District that allows people of any age.
To fight Graham's initial proposal, Ferrando teamed with several other nightclub owners and managers, including Marc Barnes of Love, Jean Homza of the 9:30 Club and Daryle M. Vaughn of the Market Lounge. They, Graham and Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration officials gathered for five two-hour meetings around a conference table in an office two doors from Graham's in the John A. Wilson Building.
By the time the meetings concluded last week, both Graham and the club owners got most of what they wanted.
The club owners pushed Graham to include the provision allowing underage drinkers to be charged with a misdemeanor. Owners argued that a nightclub faces fines and temporary or permanent closure if a minor is discovered drinking, while the minor would face only civil penalties.
"The real issue is trying to make sure that these teens aren't going from club to club getting drinks," Barnes said. "A club shuts down because a kid sneaks a drink, and we end up losing millions of dollars, and that kid goes to another club and gets another drink."
"I'm not the criminal," Homza added, "but I'm the one hauled away or fined or shut down. We need these tools in place. Our livelihoods are at stake."
But Graham feared a criminal clause would cause fellow council members to vote against the legislation. Frustrated after much arguing, Graham asked one of the attendees to pull out a quarter: Heads meant the legislation would include criminalizing teens caught drinking in clubs; tails, it wouldn't. Graham flipped the quarter in the air, it landed on the table heads up. Barnes raised his fist in victory: "It's heads. It's heads."
Graham's interest in club security was spurred by the Jan. 20 shooting death of Taleshia Ford, 17, at the now closed Smarta/Broadway, also known as Club 1919, on Ninth Street NW.
Ford's sister Michalyn Smith, 20, said she started going to nightclubs when she was 16. She said it was "so easy" for girls her age to get a drink. "All it takes is a male," she explained. "A guy that is over 21 and wants to talk to you or one of your friends. . . . Or just tipping the bartender an extra $10," Smith said. "It doesn't make sense at all, some of these guys who just want to get a teenage girl drunk and take advantage of them."
In February, bartenders at the Cada Vez nightclub on U Street served a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old alcohol, according to the city's liquor control board. The teens were part of a weekly undercover sting operation. The club manager, Wei Zhou, said it will no longer host all-ages events. A board hearing is pending. Since Jan. 1, 47 establishments have been cited for serving underage patrons alcohol. Last year, 117 businesses were cited.
Although Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier praised Graham for trying to make nightclubs safer, she does not fully support charging underage drinkers or placing armed police officers in nightclubs. Lanier said she worried about having armed officers in nightclubs because of the dangers associated with having firearms in a closed environment. "But I don't have a problem with officers outside the club," she said.
There is no standard set of security procedures that clubs are required to follow.
"You have to protect these kids like they're your own," said Abdul Khanu, owner of Platinum, one of the city's most popular under-21 venues for hip-hop lovers, at Ninth and F streets NW.
Watching Out for Trouble
On a recent Saturday night inside Platinum, which has marble floors and chandelier-studded ceilings, the disc jockey spun the latest hip-hop tune by Kelis as Melanie Dudley stood along the wall holding a small glass of cranberry juice with a splash of ginger ale. "Maybe they'll think there's something in it," she said, laughing.
"Yeah, cranberries," snapped Dudley's cousin Tanisha Hawkins. "That big ol' X on the back of your hand busts your game wide open, so stop frontin'."
A black X stretched from Dudley's knuckles to her wrist -- on each hand. It's Platinum's mark of "underage." She just turned 18. The X was her ticket to mingle -- but not drink -- with the legal-age partiers sipping Hpnotiq and cosmopolitans.
Inside, at least six linebacker-size security guards dressed in black mixed with partiers, shining mini-flashlights into faces on the dance floor and from the balcony.
Outside the popular club, whose customers have included such celebrities as Sean "Diddy" Combs and LeBron James, security is tight. Patrons go through lines, segregated by sex, in which they are patted down by security guards who check their identification. If customers are at least 21, they get a green plastic bracelet around their wrist. If they're under 21, the guard makes the X with a black magic marker. They walk a few feet, and another security guard outlines their body with a metal detection wand. Depending on the night, up to 30 percent of Platinum's crowd is between 18 and 20.
A group of five young men who walked up to the line wearing jeans, baseball caps and Timberlands were turned away. One of the security guards later said that when groups of young men dressed casually arrive together like that, they often stir up trouble.
While Platinum's DJs draw hip-hop lovers, the Black Cat is one of the more popular spots for teens to listen to live bands and other performers.
On a recent night on bustling 14th Street NW near Logan Circle, the alt-rock band Telograph was on the Black Cat's main stage, jamming at ear-spitting levels. The club is an underground-music magnet. Radiohead, Rancid, the Strokes and other big-time bands have played here.
Depending on the night and the band playing, about 30 percent of the Black Cat's audience is under 21. Everyone must show identification and pay $5 to $20 depending on the band. The underage and those over 21 without identification get their hands marked with a large black X. Unlike at Platinum, there is no frisking of Black Cat club-goers. Instead, a security guard checks identification. Inside, plainclothes security officers patrol the dance floors and bars looking for underage drinkers.
'We Need the City Involved'
Graham's call for adults to accompany club patrons younger than 18 is nothing new for Patrice Alsobrooks. Whenever her nieces head off to a club to hear local go-go bands, she accompanies the 12-, 13- and 16-year-olds to hear the heavy drum, cowbell and conga-laced music.
Alsobrooks, 22, a youth counselor who lives in Northeast Washington, said her nieces learn about where such popular teen go-go bands as Third Dimension and Trinidad Bomb Squad play from fliers that promoters distribute at high schools in Northeast and Southeast. The bands have performed at such places as the D.C. Tunnel, Market Lounge and Sparta/Broadway -- where Ford was shot.
"They want to hear the music, and I'm there to make sure that nothing happens. It's just music. But instead of relying on the clubs to keep them safe, I go with them," Alsobrooks said.
But since Ford's fatal shooting, many clubs in the District have stopped having all-ages go-gos.
Daryle Vaughn holds Saturday early-evening go-gos at the Market Lounge on Fifth Street NE, above the D.C. Farmers Market. To reduce the threat of violence, Vaughn instituted a policy: No one under 17 is allowed inside after 10 p.m., and no alcohol is served before then.
Yet even such strict policies don't always work. Last year, during a summer go-go concert that began at 2 p.m., violence broke out at the Market Lounge. A 14-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were shot in the legs, and a 17-year-old youth was pistol-whipped.
Vaughn believes the new legislation would support clubs that are trying to create a safe environment for teens.
"Some of us out here are trying to do the right thing. We need the police involved. We need the city involved," he said. "I'm just glad we're doing something to deal with this, the right way."
Staff writers Sandhya Somashekhar and Megan Greenwell contributed to this report.
