Viewing posts tagged ‘police’

August 9

Glass attack at The Court

First, my apologies for sparatic updates (life has been very busy recently), but I’ve been pulled back to the blog to talk about what happened at The Court last night.

The venue hasn’t been receiving any of my money in a while now, so I don’t have a first hand account to go on - if anyone else was there please shoot me an email. Apparently a girl was stabbed with a broken bottle at around midnight, and the scene was serious enough to pull in an army of police officers, firemen and security guards. Subsequently half of the venue was closed down to the public.

(Photos by LM)

An SMS from a friend:

It was as Bree called it; a crime scene. I spoke to her she seemed really worried about the bad publicity and the loss of money!

… yeah who cares if the girl survives anyway. Luckily for Bree though, the attack at The Court has been completely overshadowed in today’s news by a different glass attack just down the road at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow, which happened the night before.

In fact, this other stabbing is getting so much of the attention the State government is considering a glass ban for problem venues. More good luck as The Court gets no mention in the news article. Is Bree’s relationship with the police working to her advantage or has word simply not filtered through to the media yet?

Either way, it’s another reminder that all pub venues experience violence issues and The Court is no exception. Lets end this post with a Facebook status update that appeared on my feed this morning. Stay safe on the weekends everyone.

Stabbing at the Court, venue closed by police at around midnight…now we know why I dont go there, on another note, awesome night at Connies. Yay! Bedtime now

Witness comment via facebook:

some girls were fighting in the female toilets and one got hella bashed up. came staggering out at me bleeding all over the place. poor girl, her head was covered in blood, just dripping everywhere

The gay agenda Tags: bars, gay community, nightlife, northbridge, police, the court, violence

July 13

Bree Maddox watch - Part 17

On Sunday morning I wasn’t even out of bed yet and received a text from my best buddy and omnipotent media being David to let me know of a photo that was printed in STM Magazine. Many other people emailed in about it as well. Looks like Bree Maddox was out on the weekend at the Tarvydas King Street store launch, and… oh. my. god.

“Shit. The maid forgot to take my haute couture dress to the drycleaners. Oh, that’s alright, I’ll just wear this piece of cloth I found on the ground after Amateur Drag Night at The Court.”

… and pictured with the Mayor of Perth too! Great work. I actually needed a tie-in to legitimise posting that photo, and here it is: Police cars clog restricted gay bar zones.

Perth City Council concedes its parking inspectors have no power to ticket police cars that clog no-standing and one-hour zones outside socialite Bree Maddox’s inner-city gay bar.

The article brings up a few points I agree with, particularly because I’ve personally seen police cars scream dangerously past the alfresco area outside The Court. Not to mention police motorcycles I have also seen mount the curb and then drive along the footpath. There only needs to be one tipsy person who takes a mistimed step and it could all go wrong.

Bree doesn’t comment in the article on account of The Court’s good relationship with the police, and I can appreciate why she didn’t. With police cars all around it gives The Court a sense of security. Although, I could be totally wrong and Bree was actually doing a bit of persuasion work at the Tarvydas store launch:

Bree Maddox: Oi, Lisa… get those police cars away from my bar or you’ll be sorry. There could be an unfortunate accidental gust of wind and my top will fly right off! It’s only secured by a rubber band and some scotch tape you know!

Lisa Scaffidi: Please, don’t do it Bree, I don’t want to see that! There’s nothing I can do… it’s out of the jurisdiction of our parking inspectors… pleeeease spare me!

Photographer: Ladies can I take your photo for STM magazine?

Bree Maddox: SMILE AND DON’T SAY A WORD LISA!

Of course that’s all a joke and never happened, or maybe…

The gay agenda Tags: fashion, nudity, police, the court, the scene

June 9

Media bits

The verdict is in: Gerardus Heijne has been found guilty of murdering his long term boyfriend early last year in their East Perth penthouse. For those who haven’t been following this local story, it could easily be woven into a made for TV movie: Gay lovers, rich entrepreneurs and founders of the Leonards chicken empire in WA hit rocky relationship waters, introduce money troubles into the picture, extravagant spending, a ‘bisexual’ teenage lover and a murderous climax ensures….

… well that’s the way The West Australian have painted it. In today’s paper they’ve included a sensationalised account of what went down, going right back to when the pair met at Connections in the 1980s. Have a read through, and just like I did, you can cringe every time they put quotation marks around the words “husband” and “marriage”.

Despite our murderous gay men it turns out Perth ain’t that bad - we’ve been ranked the fifth most liveable city on the planet. Glad to know our city is at least ‘liveable’. If you read further into the story it does feel like this survey was designed for middle class British families looking for the best place to emigrate to - no wonder Perth is so high up on the list.

In a recent ‘quality of life‘ survey Perth was ranked 21st. Will our liveability decrease as our desirability to poms increases? Omg, did I just go there?

Media darlings Tags: media, perth, police, violence

May 6

amateur drag is dead

Don’t bother going to amateur drag at The Court tonight. If you’ve seen a couple of amateur drag performances you’ve seen them all. Nowadays in Perth it’s all about the amateur drag service station hold ups! Finally things are getting fierce!

POLICE are hunting a cross-dressing bandit who robbed a Merriwa service station at gunpoint. A man wearing a blue dress and a pink wig entered the BP service station in Hester Ave at 9.30pm and threatened staff and customers with two silver handguns while making demands for cash.

The wanted man is described as Caucasian, about 175cm tall and aged between 40 and 50. He had dark facial hair and was wearing jeans and a white shirt with a blue or grey dress over the top as well as a pink wig…

… and answers to the name Feminem Hygiene. This is the first time I’ve heard of a drag hold up in our innocent little city. Frankly I got a little excited. I mean… yes it’s terrible for the people who have been traumatised blah blah blah, but an amateur drag robber… now that’s something. The bar has been set, ladies… you’ll have to do something really outrageous to top that. Personally I would like to see one of Perth’s established drag queens bungy jump from the top of the Perth ferris wheel.

Detective Vanderwiel said “Whether or not it is a costume or perhaps it’s his regular attire, I don’t know”.

Oh you policemen just CRACK ME UP.

The image above is from one of my all time favourite movies, Pink Flamingos.

Perthtainment Tags: drag, perth, police, violence

April 21

Safety in Northbridge

Saturday’s West Magazine had a curious article about the safety of patrons in Northbridge once the sun goes down. Not that anyone is surprised but Police presence in the area is increasing on weekends and again, not surprisingly, it’s drunk straight blokey dickheads who are causing most of the problems (according to the cops, anyway). I hadn’t actually noticed Geisha put up an additional sign on their front door about homophobes, but I like it.

It seems Geisha’s owner (Peter Palmer, above) also shares my hatred of drunk “lads” - to clarify, they are only a portion of the hetero population, but very annoying. As for some of the other problems in Northbridge Peter tells it like it is:

“It’s politically incorrect to say so but it’s the absolute truth and saying the truth shouldn’t make you racist.” Young Aboriginal gangs cause trouble around the poorly lit cultural centre and Perth railway station, he says. “We need to start being honest about this and do something about it.

As for the rest of the article take it with a grain of salt - the Police are pulling out lots of scary arrest and abuse figures at the same time they’re trying to lobby to be granted the power to search anyone in Northbridge on the spot for suspicion of carrying drugs. They also want to roll back liquor licensing laws, sending Perth back to the 1980s. Naturally the Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi hates the idea.

I was out and about in Northbridge last Saturday night and after The Court closed I some how found myself with friends at the most un-gay place in town - Metro City. For a venue that used to be the dodgiest club in Northbridge it was actually just like any other club. I was metal detected and padded down at the door, but nothing seemed very suspicious inside. In fact, they were playing an almost identical track list as The Court. I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn’t drunken deja vu. Although, there is a good chance the DJ from The Court moved on to play at Metro City.

So, who’s taking bets Metro City will become Perth’s new gay hotspot? The place is so big I think you could actually fit all the gays of Perth inside and still have room left over for the hags.

Out and about Tags: bars, nightlife, northbridge, police, straight scene, the court, the scene, violence

More articles:

|