Gangchester

how holy city
zoo survived
Move out of the city centre, which is under the jurisdiction of police division A, and you hear a different story. Holy City Zoo falls under the immediate control of Division C and Green Heys police station. When the club was the focus of violent Salford characters they went to the police for help. They say they could not be happier. In March 1996 the club was forced to close. A member of a well-known Salford family had "gone ballistic", randomly hitting people. There were eleven casualties and two clubbers had to go to hospital. The music was stopped, the lights switched on and the man finally cornered by security. Because of who he was they were reluctant to physically tackle him and tried instead to cajole him into leaving. He got his penis out and pissed on the bar in front of the brewery's area manager. Together with police help and advice, Holy City Zoo installed £55,000 worth of security equipment, including sophisticated CCTV. Today you can't even drive up to the door without being watched. More importantly the images are beamed live via computer ISDN link to the police station: an all-too-common tactic after trouble kicks off is for gangsters to storm behind the bar and destroy crucial evidence recorded on video tape. For their part, the Green Heys co-ordinated a series of high-profile uniformed visits and patrols, "to show we're taking an interest and prepared to do something about it if offences are seen to be committed," says Inspector Alan Chantler. "We still provide regular visits and we would do that for any other premises in the area." This applies to large brewery concerns and small independents alike. "If we let one club go in the area they're all going to go and that's not what we want," PC Jim Collins had explained earlier. "You've got to make a stand somewhere." Other club owners say they'd love to move their venues to Division C. Rightly or wrongly, they believe that city centre-based officers don't want to implement the measures they feel are needed to deal with the gangsters; that even if they find a sympathetic ear the officer is often promoted and they have to start again from scratch. Simply not true, say senior officers. Public safety is the priority. In the past year, 36 initiatives to deal specifically with violence and sexual offences, over and above routine patrols, have been launched. Yes, Manchester has problems, but so does every other large city. Inspector David Jones at Central Licensing adds that he'd be worried if licensees were singing his praises; it is after all his job to police them. He also has his own theories why owners are reluctant to confide in the police. He said: "Generally speaking the doors (and their security firms) are running the clubs and if the licensee isn't prepared to come to us and tell us what's going on we're left with very little alternative." And what's that alternative? No less than to close the venue down.

gangchester straw that broke hacienda's back
Inspector Jones defends the decision to oppose The Hacienda's licence last July. The closure was two years in the making, he says. He and senior officers believed Manchester would be, and is, a better place without the club. It was having a bad effect on the city's image. Two years of covert drugs surveillance and a catalogue of reported and unreported violent altercations and assaults were weighing heavy on its survival. The final straw, says Inspector Jones, came when he and seven magistrates and another senior police officer, sitting in a minibus after a routine visit into the venue, witnessed a near fatal assault in the early hours of June 28th 1997. 18-year-old Andrew Delahunty was hit over the head from behind with what looked like a metal bar before being pushed into the path of an on-coming car. Delahunty sustained a fractured skull and spinal damage and was rushed to hospital. He now suffers from a speech impediment. The Hacienda management were quick to point out that when trouble kicked off in the club their security ejected a group of trouble-makers. It raises this question: should the club be held responsible for what happens if they return later, they ask? In effect, that a club must essentially 'police the streets'? The Hacienda management also strenuously deny allegations that their door staff were out of control, or in any way running the club. They added that if the police had a problem with one of their doormen they should have dealt with it through Door Safe - a city council and GMP-sponsored registration scheme specifically launched to police them. Inspector Jones is adamant that now new owners for the venue have finally been found, they will not employ doormen from Manchester. "Otherwise they're going to come with the baggage of all the local villains and gangsters, whoever you pick. You can fly them in from Brussels for all I care, just as long as they're from outside Manchester." But as one ex-bouncer points out, clubs have no choice but to employ "colourful" local characters if the police do not directly get involved on their doors. "Who else is going to stand on the firing line?" he questions. "You've got all these lunatics going out, who's going to control them and stop them getting in? Not some goodie-two-shoes who's got a bit of reputation in some small mill town." fear of the future

gangchester MEANWHILE, the prognosis for Manchester is not good. Not only do licensees and the police wholly distrust each other, but local gang politics are in dangerous turmoil. Rumblings from Salford indicate that the younger firm is beginning to feel they've outgrown the control of their peers and want a larger slice of the action. Conversely, Cheetham Hill has been united by the recent release from prison of a major figure. No one is sure whether that is good news or bad news, only that change means trouble. Meanwhile, in Moss Side drug revenues are drying up and younger 'trigger happy' gang members are getting desperate. Recently one even robbed an older member of the same gang at gun point - something previously unheard of. Rightly or wrongly, members of Doddinton and Gooch also believe they have been cut out of the lucrative job of club security and want the city "carved up" evenly. If they are serious the ensuing door war would make the last one look like a cat fight. Added into this is a hitherto unknown Asian factor. Bradford has long had gangs of the type Manchester is sadly famous for. Slowly troops and influence have been absorbed. No one knows how seriously these new crews take themselves or whether they would go head-to-head with the city's established players, but at least one recent shooting has been attributed to them. Outside of London, Manchester was the city that broke acid house and many of its subsequent incarnations to the nation. The legendary Hacienda Nude nights, Konspiracy, Most Excellent's pioneering Balearica, Madchester and the Happy Mondays, even Manumission, they all originated here. But with a gang problem as out of control as this, and despite the success against all odds of nights like Bugged Out, it's going to prove very difficult for Manchester to pioneer anything again.

Gangchester continue