Woo, Gates in Tiff Over Incident at Silver Lake Bar

If the firefighters and police summoned to handle an overcrowding complaint at the One Way bar early Sunday morning thought it would be a routine assignment, they picked the wrong bar.

Among the 286 people--triple the permitted capacity--who were in the Silver Lake club at 1:15 a.m. were some of the most politically influential members of the local gay community. They complained to City Councilman Michael Woo, who demanded an investigation of the incident. That set off a row between Woo and Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who said he was “incensed and offended” by the councilman.

Cmdr. William Booth, a police spokesman, said Woo had called Gates on Monday afternoon, told him of the complaints and asked for an investigation. When Woo said he was going to make a statement about the incident, Booth quoted Gates as saying, “‘make a statement that you asked, or if you want, demanded, that I find out (what happened) and that I would get back to you immediately.’ That was the understanding the chief thought he had with the councilman.”

Holds Press Conference

But when Woo--whose district includes Hollywood and Silver Lake, both with large gay populations--held a press conference Tuesday, without mentioning his conversation with the chief, Gates felt he had been attacked without warning by the councilman, Booth said.

Police and fire officials defended the conduct of their forces. But West Hollywood City Councilman Steve Schulte, a gay political leader who was at the One Way at the time, said the incident brought back memories of what he considered anti-gay raids on bars in the 1970s.

“It looks like the old pattern,” he said.

Among the other gay community leaders who were at the bar at the time were Eric Rofes, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center, and Steve Weltman, former chair of the Stonewall Democratic Club, an influential gay political organization.

Although the incident now threatens to explode into a major feud between the Los Angeles Police Department and the gay community, it began in a routine manner.

Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Dean Cathey said someone--there is no record of a name--phoned the department to complain of overcrowding in the bar.

Following procedure, he said, a crew from the nearest fire station was sent to the bar, which is located in one of the lower-rent sections of Silver Lake, a neighborhood that stretches from poor housing just northwest of downtown to affluent sections in the hills. He said there were six firefighters in a ladder truck and another vehicle. An investigator from the Fire Prevention Bureau was also sent there, he said.

Three firefighters walked in and found 286 people in an area in which 90 were permitted, Cathey said. “We counted them,” he said.

Police were called. “There was a large crowd, some resistance on the part of the patrons and the management and there was concern for injury to Fire Department personnel and the patrons,” he said.

Chief Cathey said the club owner was cited for overcrowding and obstruction of exits.

Schulte saw the incident differently. “Four fire officers with asbestos coats walked in, which was pretty intrusive,” he said. “The word was there were lots of police outside. . . . “ Schulte said he counted between 15 to 20 officers at one point.

The bar management asked the patrons to leave. Outside, Schulte said, “things were pretty orderly. . . . Then someone higher up in the Fire Department said the bar was closed. . . . A couple of police officers got pretty aggressive, gave people ‘till a count of three to leave. I thought people would be arrested. It was a tense scene for a moment or more.”

At his press conference, Woo charged that “10 police cars were deployed” to the One Way bar, and that two other bars, the Detour and the Gauntlet, “were subject to raids this weekend.”

“It raises serious questions as to whether our police officers are best being utilized,” he said.

Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon gave a different account in an interview. Vernon said that when the Fire Department called for help, two police cars, each with two officers, responded. He said those officers asked for a supervisor to come to the bar. A sergeant arrived, as did two other police cars, each with two officers. That made a total of nine officers in five cars, he said.

Booth said the supervisor, Sgt. R. J. Freet, wrote in his log after the incident that he saw “lots of unhappy customers and allegations of harassment.”

Vernon said the Police Department usually does not help the Fire Department with calls concerning overcrowding. He said, for example, that the police did not accompany the Fire Department to an investigation of overcrowding at the Detour bar over the weekend.”