Are Hookah Lounges Hotbeds For Crime
Charlotte NC Sept 8 2017
Violent crimes at Hookah Lounges nationwide continue to rise and have become very concerning to local officials and law enforcement.
Typically, a Hookah Lounge is somewhat like a Cigar Lounge or Bar where smokers gather to enjoy a smoke, share stories and laughs and to meet new friends.
Hookah itself is a smoking implement used for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco but it has also been used widely to smoke marijuana.
As Hookah Lounges continue to spring up around the county, police say that crime has followed.
Recently, Security guard Daron Whiting was standing guard outside Kazi’s Hookah Lounge in Renton Washington when several men started firing in their parking lot late Sunday night.
“It was pretty frightening. I mean it kind of felt like a war zone,” said Whiting.
Surveillance photos show about two dozen patrons inside the lounge at 10:41pm Sunday. Three minutes later most of those patrons had fled, a few others were shown ducking for cover.
“There were gunshots coming toward our way, like I could see the light flashes coming at us,” said Whiting.
Renton Police arrived they found a man in his mid 20s shot at least three times — he was transported to Harborview Medical Center
Police in Charlotte North Carolina also say that they have responded to several violent incidents at Hookah lounges recently.
Five people were stabbed on a recent Sunday during a fight that began inside a hookah bar in the University City area, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said.
Officers said they responded around 2 a.m. to Red@28th, where the fight spilled into the parking lot of the bar at 9539 Pinnacle Drive. Two of the victims had life-threatening injuries and had to be taken to the hospital, police said.
It’s the second incident at Red@28th within the past month, according to Observer news partner WBTV. On March 3, a person was shot outside the bar following a confrontation, the station reported.
Red@28th owner Darren Vincent told the Observer he was not at the bar Sunday and doesn’t know what prompted the incident. But he said he’s grown concerned in recent weeks about suspicious activity taking place late at night in the parking lot, which he said he doesn’t own.
“We’ve seen cars exchanging stuff,” said Vincent, who also owns Red@28th in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood. “My employees are worried about that parking lot a lot.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police also investigated after two people were shot outside another hookah bar in east Charlotte in March.
According to CMPD, officers responded to Carolinas Medical Center a little after 3:30 a.m. when emergency staff called to report two victims with apparent gunshot wounds. Police say the victims, identified as only a man and woman, suffered injuries that are not considered life-threatening.
Investigators say the victims told them the shooting happened in the parking lot of the Babylon Hookah Lounge in the 3000 block of North Sharon Amity Road. The victims said they had just left the lounge and were walking to their car when they were hit by gunfire.
“The city of Seattle has no place and will no longer tolerate hookah lounges that have been a source of violence,” said Mayor Murray in August 2015. “There have been more than 100 fights and disturbances. And of the hookah establishments that we know exist in the city limits, there have been shootings outside of four of them.”
Some say there is a certain culture that comes with Hookah and those who smoke it.
But lounge owners argue the rash of shootings have nothing to do with hookah business.
Hookah does not attract violence,” said a lounge owner. It doesn’t do anything to attract violence. The people are the problem. It all depends on what kind of people, clients you actually try to get in your business he said.
On Yelp, a search for hookah bars reveals 30 results in Portland, 71 in San Francisco, 336 in LA, and 553 in New York City. All of these locations have similar indoor smoking laws to Seattle.
Other cities also have experienced an increase of crime in the areas where Hookah Lounges have opened as well as at the business itself.
But lounge owners continue to point out that nightclubs, strip joints and gambling businesses attract a higher rate of crime and yet there are seldom any attempts to shut those typse of businesses down.
