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Saturday, Mar 20, 2010
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Seattle Gay bars band together to counter ricin poison threat |
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| Seattle Gay bars band together to counter ricin poison threat | ||
| Seattle Gay bars band together to counter ricin poison threat
by Mike Andrew -
SGN Contributing Writer This evening, January 9, the 11 Capitol Hill bars which received anonymous threats of attack with the highly toxic ricin poison will jointly host a pub crawl "to combat hate and fear." CC's, the Crescent, the Cuff Complex, the Elite, the Madison Pub, Neighbours, Purr, R Place, the Re-bar, the Seattle Eagle, and the Wildrose received letters Tuesday threatening that random customers would be poisoned with ricin. Seattle police and the FBI are investigating the threats. All 11 bars will participate in the pub crawl. The idea is to start at one bar and visit the rest during the evening. No bar is designated as the official starting point because many bars lack the capacity to handle an overflow crowd. The idea for the joint pub crawl came about as bar owners and mangers called one another to talk about the letters. "All the clubs called each other," said R Place's Steve Timmons. "Or e-mailed. Or texted. I really appreciated that. That's never happened before. Some of us have gotten to know each other over the years, but this really brought us all close together." "Our letter was actually addressed to the wrong address," said the Elite's Dan Giroux. "We're at 1520, and the letter was addressed 1522 or something. The postal worker left, and had to come back when he realized the letter was supposed to go to us. Then I got a call from Roland at Madison Pub. So I never opened the letter. The police had told him to just put it in a plastic bag, so that's what we did. Within an hour we'd all called each other." "Here's how it went down," the Eagle's Keith Christensen told SGN. "I got a call from one of our DJs who happened to be at Re-bar when Carla opened the letter. She called the police and they came and picked it up. They said don't open it, so I never did. I just left it in a bag and they came and got it." "I've heard that the FBI was brought in," Christensen continued. "At first, we thought it's a hate crime. Now it's terrorism. People need to pay attention, to be highly aware of what you're doing." It was a sentiment echoed by all the bars contacted by SGN. Many have posted signs warning customers not to leave their drinks unattended. "I'd never leave my drink," Christensen said. "It's not safe. It's always been our policy [at the Eagle] to pick up unattended drinks. We'll be even more aware of that now. People may get pissed off, but it's not safe." "It's just a little scary," Giroux told SGN. "We're telling people to be cautious, we're going to pick up unattended drinks, but most of our business is every-day business. We know most of the people who drink here." "It concerns me a lot," Timmons said. "It was devastating. After I realized what was going on I was like, 'Oh my God!' Everybody going out should be aware. Don't be scared, but be aware." "To stop doing normal things is just giving in to them," Giroux said. It was advice seconded by SPD Capt. Paul McDonagh, East Precinct Commander. "You can't stop living your life," McDonagh said. "Go and do normal things, but be aware of things that may not be normal to you. Hovering behavior, for example. And don't be afraid to report them. Call 911, that's how we're set up to respond to these incidents." |
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