Brawl could bring changes to downtown bar scene

The latest violence at a downtown Colorado Springs nightclub — a brawl early Sunday that took more than 20 officers to control — has police and business owners discussing changes in bars’ hours and music, the head of the Downtown Partnership said Monday.

“We can either create such a bad reputation that nobody comes downtown or we can come up with fair ways to cooperate and address the issues and make downtown a fun place to be,” said Ron Butlin, executive director of the nonprofit business group.

Among the changes being talked about, he said, are:

• Staggered closing hours so that all the bars don’t shut down at 2 a.m. resulting in large crowds milling around in the streets.

• A code of conduct, with club owners encouraged to call police before disturbances have a chance to get out of hand.

• Dress codes

• Changing the music being played in clubs, especially during the last hour before closing.

“I am not familiar enough with hip-hop to say all hip-hop creates problems, but there is certainly an element to the music that can lead to that,” Butlin said. “Face it, the symphony isn’t having these problems.”

Sgt. Steve Noblitt said officers from all over the city were called in to break up the fight that had started around closing time inside Syn Nightclub, formally known as 13 Pure, at 217 E. Pikes Peak Ave.

According to police, the fight broke out about 1:45 a.m, spilling outside the club and involving 75 to 100 people. Police officers used pepper spray to control the crowd. Six employees and a patron were treated for injuries at a hospital. No one had been arrested as of Monday and the DJ at the club Sunday said the police report describing the altercation as a near riot was overblown.

Jay Vines, known as DJ Lemonhead, was on stage when the fight broke out and said the fight wasn’t as serious as police have made it out to be.

He said he was winding down for the night and the music had just been turned off when a small fight broke out. Security quickly got involved, but had some trouble controlling the situation. Vines said police may have seen 75 to 100 people leaving the club, but just a few had been in the fight.

“It was a regular bar fight that got a little bit out of hand. It wasn’t that much more extreme than you’d see at any other place,” he said. “It wasn’t a riot by any means. Not including security there were eight to nine people fighting, but there were so many people there it was hard to tell who was or wasn’t involved.”

He said the club doesn’t deserve its reputation as a hot spot for violence.

“It gets a bad rap, worse than any other club and I’m not sure the reason why,” he said. “It’s not their fault. Fights break out everywhere even at Denny’s and McDonald’s. You can’t control what people are going to do.”

The club’s reputation for violence is due mostly to incidents that occurred outside. There have been shootings and stabbings on the block and in an adjacent alley, one involving a police officer who fired at an armed man. Another time, two 17-year-old boys and a 20-year-old were spotted outside the club taking a weapon out of the trunk of a car and then starting to head back inside. 

The club’s liquor license was suspended last year for 10 days when women bared and fondled their breasts during a filming of “Girls Gone Wild” at the club. The club is facing another suspension or loss of its license for allegedly serving alcohol to underage customers.

Syn Nightclub has changed its name twice in the past two years and has been listed for sale for several months. The latest Craigslist ad to try to sell the club was posted Saturday morning. It lists the specifics of the club and encourages investors to buy, calling it a “Fantastic business opportunity!”

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