Comments on: Geoffrey’s Inner Circle: Press Conf tonight

By: monica

monica — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:59:18 +0000

If you really think that Geoffrey’s was a victim of police harassment, then you never attended one of his first Saturday party’s. You cannot continue to drain the police resources because it is mayhem when your club lets out. People come into Oakland and behave like this is the wild wild west, they think they can set up business and do whatever they want. As it is, stuff happens in this city that no other city would put up with. There are rules to follow and permits to be obtained. I really wish people would stop with this whole “harassment because of the crowd” and take some accountability.

By: abel

abel — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:45:24 +0000

Interesting piece. I am wondering how entertainment will look in Oakland in the future. Uptown is looking different but we can’t lose sight of the authentic soul of our city.

By: dto510

dto510 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:28:14 +0000

Angela, you should ask the owners of bars near Geoffrey’s what they think of his club. Let me tell you, quite a few bartenders were pleased when they heard he was closing. As for “police harassment” of the Inner Circle, it seemed to me to be quite the opposite: the OPD would close surrounding streets to accommodate his large events, at public expense and to the detriment of all the bars and clubs in the area. Geoffrey was not a good neighbor, though it’s true that his parties were not marked by much violence, just general chaos.

BTW, Geoffrey leads a political group affiliated with the city employees’ union; don’t assume that all 100 people who showed up at City Hall yesterday evening were up on the nightlife scene.

By: awoodall

awoodall — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:24:19 +0000

Well, about 100 or so supporters showed up yesterday to hear Geoffrey Pete say he plans to file a complaint against the city over the trouble. The tipping point was a March 7 birthday party planned at Sweet’s Ballroom to celebrate his birthday, which OPD shut down. I don’t know the details, though, about their reasons. At any rate, Pete threatened a lawsuit if the complaint didn’t do the trick.

By: Ruse

Ruse — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:05:00 +0000

There are instances of police harassing and targeting clubs and venues that tend to draw crowds of color and hip-hop oriented crowds. Its one thing to actually have a series of bad events happen at a venue, thats reason to shut down a venue. But as a promoter, I’ve experienced instances where police would show up for no reason and start citing people. I’ve also booked venues where the owners would say “if too many black people show up, i’ll shut down the party before it starts”. Their’s many politics involved behind the nightlife scene that is closely tied with the issues of gentrification. there needs to be an effort to end cultural assassination.

At the same time, party goers need to behave in an orderly fashion and not cause trouble, and have respect for the surrounding neighborhoods and patrons! EVERYONE is responsible for making sure culture lives or dies.

By: Monica

Monica — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:09:18 +0000

Sadly, Geoffrey’s was not forced to shut down. What OPD was asking of him is to have more security to control the mayhem that happened when the mass of people were released on his first Saturday events. His security did not have control of the situation and they ended up draining all police that were on duty. Multiple fights would break out and his own security would have to use co2. It was a matter of time before somebody diied.

By: biggamejames

biggamejames — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:45:40 +0000

it is a shame. Geoffrey always has had a good club, low violence and a good time. don’t kill the black night club scene, its not all bad great dancing and a good time laughing is what the foundation of the black night clubs scene is based on. For Black professionals there are no venue where you can relax with like minded people, sad, that D.C, ATL, Charlotte, Orlando, Pittsburgh, North Jersey, phila, and Chicago all have a better black club secne then we do out west, even Baltimore parties harder than Oakland, its a shame