Cops crack down on clubs
'Walk through' finds drugs, bad behaviour
By BRETT CLARKSON, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 27th October 2008, 2:32pm
By the time 15 cops strolled into the Comfort Zone at 9 a.m. yesterday, the sun had long risen above a mostly quiet Spadina Ave.
Service pistols holstered to their jeans, flashlights in hand, the officers descended the brief flight of stairs past the seemingly unfazed security guards working the door.
It had been daylight for hours but inside the all-night, all-day house music club at Spadina Ave. and College St., at least 150 people were still up from the night before, dancing, hanging out, and some of them apparently getting rid of their drugs.
In one corner, a woman in a short skirt was enthusiastically straddling a man seated in a chair as if they were at a strip club.
Three shirtless guys, their arms around each other, were dancing wildly. The full dance floor was a like a gyrating beast unto itself, with all kinds of people -- Goths, gay men, gangster types, ravers, the business crowd, you name it -- all moving to the blasting house music.
But as the cops paraded through with their flashlights beamed to the floor, nobody seemed to bat an eyelid.
"They're in the zone, buddy," said Const. Robert Tajti, referring to both the physical location of the patrons and what appeared to be their chemically induced state of mind.
WANT CLUB CLOSED
Both police and the city want the Comfort Zone shut down. Since Toronto Police's Operation White Rabbit raid on the club in March, when cops seized $30,000 in drugs and $35,000 in cash, it has witnessed three more visits from police crews, including yesterday's stop-by.
The high-profile raid, dubbed White Rabbit by Tajti because the place seems to evoke the rabbit hole from Alice In Wonderland, was sparked by the death of Hamilton man Andrew Fazio, 26, who overdosed on GHB after cops alleged he bought and did the drug at the Zone.
Yesterday's action continues the ongoing battle being waged by cops and politicians to rid the downtown core of what they contend are havens for drugs, violence, or both.
It wasn't long yesterday before the half dozen or so cops from Det. Izzy Bernardo's crew, plainclothes officers from the 14 Division Major Crime, started finding empty and half-empty glass vials on the floor.
The smaller vials were characterized by a dusting of white powder along their glass insides and the larger vials were distinctively clear.
"What we've noticed is that there continues to be a number of signs of ongoing drug use here," Tajti would say about an hour later outside the club.
"A number of different empty vials on the floor, small vials that would've contained cocaine or ketamine, and larger vials that would've contained GHB."
Near the back of the club, on a table by a couch, a pile of white, chunky powder emerged under the flashlights as a 30-something woman and man quickly got up to leave, panic written all over their faces.
On the floor, the flashlights found a skid mark of the same white powder.
"It's either cocaine or ketamine," Tajti alleged.
'WALK-THROUGH'
But the cops weren't in the CZ, as it's affectionately called by its regulars, to arrest anybody yesterday.
According to Tajti, the 15 officers were there to conduct a "walk-through" while accompanying two officials from the Electrical Safety Authority and one inspector from the city's municipal licensing and standards department.
However, one unlucky patron, a 35-year-old man, was arrested and charged with possession after cops allegedly found him with two Ecstasy pills and a small vial of a still-undetermined substance.
Efforts to speak to the man after he was let go -- on a promise to appear in court -- were unsuccessful. He quickly pulled up the collar of his leather jacket to cover his face and turned to run down the street.
"He's a delivery guy who lives in the area who came here after work at 5 a.m.," Sgt. Jeff Zammit said. "He says he comes here to chill out." Outside afterwards, licensing inspector Joe Magalhaes said the Comfort Zone's licence to operate expired in August and that the city declined to renew it.
However, because the owners have mounted an appeal, they can continue to run the business until a decision is rendered by the city's licensing tribunal.
'SEEKING REVOCATION'
Magalhaes makes no secret that the city wants the club shuttered.
"The business licence will be reviewed by the licensing tribunal," Magalhaes said. "We'll be seeking revocation of the business licence."
"A lot" of the violations that inspectors found at their last visit have still not been dealt with, he said.
"Everything from minimum standards, poor lighting," Magalhaes said. "The whole place is in disrepair."
The tribunal hearing is expected to take place in several weeks, he said. If Comfort Zone loses, it will be forced to close.
Tom Cain, an inspector with the Electrical Safety Authority, also did a run-through of the club's electrical system. And while he expected worse, he said "serious electrical hazards" were found, including an exposed panel in an open corridor in the club.
The Comfort Zone will be required in a matter of days to bring the electrical system up to standard, Cain said.
A man who identified himself as the manager of the club asked a reporter to leave and wouldn't comment.
Outside, a young employee who would only identify himself as Jonathan defended the club as a venue where the majority of patrons go for the well-known house DJs who provide the music.
He disputed the perception of the club as a haven for drug use.
"That's not true," said Jonathan, 19, a newly hired cleaner at the club. "It's like, everybody else wants to have fun, and there's not a lot of places to do it."
Despite the police presence the majority of patrons were calm because they didn't have drugs, he claimed.
"The atmosphere in there right now is pretty chill," Jonathan said.
"Nobody really cares. The cops are there -- so what? We're still going to have a good time. It's not like we have anything to hide."
DRUGS SEIZED
In the end, officers seized a relatively small amount of narcotics -- but they didn't anticipate much else. Among the drugs picked up, mostly after they were apparently discarded on the floor or on tables, were a bag of ketamine about the size of a cigarette pack, a vial of Ecstasy, two Ecstasy pills and less than a dozen vials that held either GHB, cocaine or ketamine, police said.
The drugs were destroyed by police because they had no value as evidence, Tajti said.
"I don't understand, I must admit," he said, when asked what he thought about finding drugs in Comfort Zone on the fourth such police raid since March.
"Call me ignorant if you will and liken me to a turn-of-the-century preacher standing on a soapbox selling snake oil, but I don't get it. I don't get drug use. I don't get the scene."
The drugs were destroyed by police because they had no value as evidence
LIES! :disbelief
Silky Johnson
"Call me ignorant if you will and liken me to a turn-of-the-century preacher standing on a soapbox selling snake oil, but I don't get it. I don't get drug use. I don't get the scene."
jon jon
lol @ the Sun, what a ing trash newspaper...
quote:
In one corner, a woman in a short skirt was enthusiastically straddling a man seated in a chair as if they were at a strip club.
lol sounds like fun
quote:
Three shirtless guys, their arms around each other, were dancing wildly.
anyone else find this writing disturbing?
quote:
The full dance floor was a like a gyrating beast unto itself, with all kinds of people -- Goths, gay men, gangster types, ravers, the business crowd, you name it -- all moving to the blasting house music.
CZ
geroin
LOL they wanted to sound negative but it didnt really work
WOW 3 shirtless men dancing WILDLY?
HOLLY
kotsy
I laughed my way through the article starting with "bad behavior" in the sub-headline
Jayx1
i love how no one knew about the walk through except the reporter that just happened to be there at the time. If i were the club owner id send the paper a bill for the cover he didnt pay while escorted by the cops just for principle
DJ Mach X
quote:
Originally posted by jennypie
"Call me ignorant if you will and liken me to a turn-of-the-century preacher standing on a soapbox selling snake oil, but I don't get it. I don't get drug use. I don't get the scene."
How your mind works and reacts is beautiful...
And a bag of K the size of a cig pack? I don't buy a lot of K, but that's a fair bit innit?
Geoffb3
WOW ... that was just trash ... and very sad ... i really dont want to see it go ... but really ? WTF
samhouse
easily one of the funniest reads i've had this week.
the shirtless guys line was the best.
"LOSING CONTROL!!!"
SasH21
I actually find his writing very refreshing. As a journalist myself, I find that he tried to get a bit more creative and don't sound like those anal news reporters...Also, I think this article written with a very unbiased tone. He simply wrote what he observed and quoted cops and witnesses, no BS.
CZ