THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503300368
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The long-simmering feud between the owners of Mr. Magic's nightclub and city police got a bit warmer Wednesday when a club representative accused officers of racism. The accusations stemmed from the routine searches of bar patrons by police.
E. George Minns, an administrator for Just Inns Inc., the company that owns the nightclub, said that frequent searches of cars and patrons outside, including direct questioning of them, also suggests a police conspiracy to harass patrons.
``We have cause to believe there is some form of conspiracy where we are being singled out for a different form of treatment from the police,'' said Minns. ``I hate to take this up, but it's racially discriminatory.''
His allegations are the latest in a troubled relationship between the police and the owners of the predominately black nightclub at 549 Newtown Road.
Police deny that race is a motive in their nightly presence at the club and point to statistics that bear out the problems associated with Mr. Magic's.
Last year, the department investigated 251 complaints about activities in and outside the club. From January to last Friday, police received 132 calls for service at the club. This year alone, police have confiscated 16 guns from patrons or their cars. None of the guns was found in the club.
``We have had two murders in and around the business of Mr. Magic's,'' said police spokesman Mike Carey. ``We've had a number of shootings. We've had a police officer shot at, and we routinely have fights and other types of disturbances in the parking lot and at the business.
``We are not singling out this club,'' he added. ``We are there because there are very serious problems there. There are a number of clubs in the city and they're not experiencing anywhere near the same number of problems.''
Minns, who is also president of the Virginia Beach chapter of the NAACP, said he filed a complaint with the department's internal affairs division.
The police presence also has annoyed the president of a security firm hired by Mr. Magic's to patrol the parking lot.
In a letter to Minns dated March 26, Dan Houston, president of American Guard, complained that police were shining flashlights into every car that pulled into the front and back parking lots in an apparent search for contraband.
When police find something illegal, they follow bar patrons when they leave Mr. Magic's parking lot and then pull them over for questioning, he wrote.
``In addition, my officers have witnessed several instances where police officers, or their sergeants, have actually drawn their guns on people who were mildly disorderly. Such extreme actions, in my opinion, were not justified,'' he wrote.
At the city's request, Mr. Magic's has made improvements, such as adding lights to the property, to curtail criminal activity.
``But what they are doing has not worked,'' saidCarey. ``That officers go on the property and look into a vehicle is constitutionally correct. It speaks for itself that we have taken 16 handguns off the city streets by doing that.'' by CNB