Via Google Maps.An advisory neighborhood commission wants a club on H Street NE temporarily shut down by D.C.’s police chief after a stabbing closed for good.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier ordered Twelve Restaurant & Lounge closed on Saturday after two men were stabbed. “I find that continued operation of this establishment presents an imminent danger to the health and safety of the public, that there would be an additional imminent danger to the health and welfare of the public if the establishment is not closed, and that there is no other immediately available measure that would ameliorate the threat to the public safety,” Lanier wrote in a letter to the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration.
ABRA is currently investigating this incident, a spokesperson said, so the investigative report is not available. The ABC Board has until 6 p.m. today “to decide what additional enforcement action, if any, is appropriate.” Actions could include the liquor license being suspended or revoked.
Since May 2008, ABRA has investigated the club 25 times for incidents ranging from noise to the assault of a police officer. In March of this year, the club was shut down for 96 hours after a stabbing. It was allowed to reopen after the Board approved a revised security plan.
In an open letter, Jay Williams, commissioner of ANC 6A05, called the stabbing “the latest entry in the extremely long and frustrating history with this establishment.”
“One would think that with such a track record, the community could expect swift (and permanent) action against an establishment that regularly flouts the rules and laws and is also host to multiple violent incidents,” he wrote. “However, throughout the ANC and community’s long history of problems with XII, the ABC Board has been frustratingly ineffective in taking any action to rein in such a bad actor. In fact, this weekend’s stabbing was able to take place only because the ABC Board issued an order allowing XII to operate under an expired liquor license while it files a third application for renewal, after the first two were dismissed for XII’s failure to attend required hearings.”
Both current Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells and his successor Charles Allen are in favor of the license being revoked.
Agreed. RT @TommyWells: Just spoke with Commander Brown regarding Club XII and he agrees it’s time the license be revoked.
— Charles Allen (@CharlesAllenW6) May 24, 2014
