| |
| Launch Photo Gallery |
Five police officers wait for patrons as they exit Chester's Nightclub at 5:30 a.m.
A 911 call for a noise complaint summoned the officers to the area just minutes before, though they weren't very far away. A squad car is usually parked 100 feet down the road from the club's parking lot entrance. A task force keeps officers near the club during its busiest hours of operation, midnight through 6 a.m.
Located at 3121 E. 12th Street, Chester's, which caters to young blacks, has come under fire since the fatal shooting of Kevin Brown on June 3. Since then, police officers as well as employees of the club have noticed a significant drop-off in the club's business.
Manager Darren Wydermyer describes the club as a "juke joint." No alcohol is sold on the premises. The city denied it a liquor license. Instead its patrons buy Gatorade, orange juice, bottled water and energy drinks among other refreshments.
Ironically, by denying Chester's a liquor license, the city allows the club to stay open deep into the hours of the morning. Complaints from the McKinley Heights Neighborhood Association prompted the city to form a task force of police officers to patrol the area, though the McKinley Heights neighborhood is on the opposite side of 12th Street.
The neighborhood association has suggested the city buy out the property in order to shut down the club for good. Wydermyer said that for most of the property's 40-year history it has been used as a space for blacks to get together.
If the city does not buy out the property, the association suggested the property be rezoned in order to shut down the business. Michael White, president of the neighborhood association, would not comment on what the next course of action is for the association, but did confirm that rezoning the property was a possibility they had suggested.
"We've already voiced and archived our concerns, and so it's now up to a higher leadership," White said. "We don't need to give up another life. We don't want to go down the road and say 'I told you so' again."
Chester's opened in January of 2007. Prior to the Wydermyer family taking control of the property in the past year, Chester's was another after-hours nightclub called Mr. Q's. Since changing hands, police have monitored a marked increase in the volume of 911 calls in the area. In a four-month period prior to it opening, police were dispatched to the property 16 times. Police came to the property 120 times in the following four months after it opened - a 650 percent increase.
The majority of calls are for noise complaints. On any given Saturday night - the club's busiest night - police have sometimes logged up to four noise complaints. Wydermyer has attempted to mitigate this by sound-proofing the entire club. Multiple signs tell patrons to turn down their booming car stereos.
Still the calls come. Wydermyer received a noise citation as recently as July 1. On-site police said music from the club must be inaudible 30 feet away from the club, but if the music can be heard at the curb of 12th Street - about 15 feet from the building - the club is in violation.
When the police come to issue these citations, they come in force. Multiple officers stand right in front of the exit, inspecting individuals as they leave. One writes a ticket to a man for having a beer outside, though it is legal to drink inside. Another lectures Wydermyer for being in violation for noise again. A third examines cars as they leave, looking for sticker violations.
"When police come here, they're mad," Wydermyer said. "They're looking to take a guy to jail."
Wydermyer said his club is a non-violent place. Security guards search everyone for weapons two to three times before being allowed entry inside. Since December, seven of the 204 calls to 911 concerning the property appear violent in nature. The most recent was a call for "shots fired" on June 3, likely the shots that killed Kevin Brown.
"The only violence that's ever been here was from APD," Wydermyer said.
Wydermyer and some of his employees look at the task force as an attempt to shut down the club by deterring its clientele through fear of a likely arrest or citation, should one choose to come to the club.
"We dead," said the doorwoman and bartender who goes by T, referring to what she says is a dismal future for the club.
When T is the doorwoman, she has the authority to refuse service to anyone whom she deems undesirable. A sign on the entrance door makes it perfectly clear, reading "We reserve the right to refuse service" in large red letters. This reporter was denied entry upon first attempt at 4:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning.
"I thought you was with the neighborhood association trying to give us a bad name," T said later.
It's no doubt the reporter sticks out in this all-black club. It's uncommon, and maybe even unwelcome, for a white college student to be interested in Chester's. The club is one of the few places in town that caters to blacks. Wydermyer said that there were maybe four or five clubs in town left for blacks. Resistance by the area's neighborhood association as well as the police presence heightens distrust of outsiders, Wydermeyer said.
Inside, rap and hip-hop music is spun by DJ K-9 and DJ Harvey D at a blaring volume. On the dance floor, the men sing along to the music and pose to a large mirror, while the women dance with each other. Two men play a $100-game of chess, despite the loud music and their apparent inebriation.
Outside, people congregate on their cars, much like what Kevin Brown was doing the night he was shot. Signs on the club advise patrons how to properly file complaints against police officers. Two officers stand at the exit around 5 a.m. on the morning of June 8. It's apparently been a slow night.
"We're on overtime right now," said one officer who wished not to be named. "It's ridiculous."
The task force assigned to the club has five officers and one commander. They patrol the area from midnight to 6 a.m. every Saturday night. They issued 21 citations on June 16, 28 citations on June 23 and 16 on July 1.
"It was the same with Midtown. All the calls come from here," the officer said.
Midtown Live was a nightclub near Cameron Road and Research Boulevard that burned down in February 2005. The fire prompted a complaint by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after racially charged language was monitored by police officers who responded to the call. Remarks saying "Burn, baby burn" were seen on computer messages. That complaint led to an ongoing investigation of the Austin Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Officers were in place again last Sunday morning. Around 3:30 a.m. they entered the property to cite Wydermyer again. Officers wrote him a ticket for patrons parking on the grass inside the business' unpaved parking lot, and for the traffic backup caused by security guards collecting the $10 fee at the parking lot's entrance. Wydermeyer said he had resorted to collecting fees there in order to combat loitering on the property by non-paying customers, which sometimes leads to noise complaints.
"I think it's profiling," he said. "They're not doing it anywhere else."
Be the first to comment on this article!