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BY DUNCAN OSBORNE http://www.gaycitynews.com/
The commanding officer of Chelsea’s 10th Precinct is expressing regret that she scheduled a West 28th Street gay bar for an inspection on the last weekend in June, when New York City’s Gay Pride festivities were reaching a crescendo.
“Due to the sensitivity, in hindsight, I probably would not have put that on the list,” Deputy Inspector Elisa Cokkinos, commander of the 10th Precinct, told Gay City News regarding an inspection that turned clientele of the Eagle out into the streets two evenings before the LGBT Pride March.
In April, police headquarters told her that a multi-agency response to club hazards (MARCH) team would inspect clubs and bars in her precinct on June 24. Cokkinos had to select the establishments to be inspected.
MARCH teams typically include inspectors from the city’s police, fire, health, buildings, and consumer affairs departments, and sometimes the State Liquor Authority, as well. The teams effectively take control of the premises, and the inspections are often done when the businesses are busy.
Some owners see the inspections as excessive and as a kind of extra-judicial penalty, in that the businesses lose revenues during the inspections but may not be guilty of any violations.
Cokkinos said she put the Eagle on her list for that date after receiving reports of lost property at the Eagle on June 3 and 4, a robbery at gunpoint outside the bar on June 10, and two reports of grand larceny, one on June 12 and the other on June 13, inside the bar.
“We were scheduled on that date to do the operation back in April because that’s the way it’s done,” Cokkinos said. “In June, June 15, I actually submitted my list of locations... Just because that trend was there, I said let’s put the Eagle as one of the locations that we visit.”
As it happened, New York’s State Senate voted to enact same-sex marriage that night as well, something Cokkinos could not have known would happen. The apparent bar crackdown during an evening of exuberant celebration fueled the anger some in the lesbian and gay community felt over the inspection.
Cokkinos said she was aware of the Gay Pride festivities, but had overlooked the specific dates.
“I had not put the two together at that point,” she said. “I was not thinking Gay Pride and MARCH operation... I absolutely wish I had. Unfortunately, it was an oversight on my part that it was Gay Pride weekend.”
The Fire Department reported transporting a man who was apparently having a heart attack from the Eagle to Bellevue Hospital on November 4 of last year, and a man who appeared to be having a drug overdose to Bellevue from the Eagle on October 15 of last year. Cokkinos said those incidents played no role in her decision.
The city’s Department of Buildings cited the Eagle for no running water last October, and for no certificate of occupancy during the June 24 inspection.
In 2009, the city cited drug sales and closed two Manhattan nightclubs on Pride weekend that were scheduled to hold gay parties. Separately, a MARCH team inspected 11 bars or clubs that last weekend of June 2009, including Splash on West 17th Street, the only business among the 11 known to serve a gay clientele. Those actions drew condemnation from the community.
Cokkinos did not participate in those 2009 actions.
The Eagle did not respond to an email and a phone message seeking comment.
