Thread: Hazleton Pa-Mayor wants to close bar

Mayor wants to close bar
By KELLY MONITZ
Published: October 13, 2009





La Cantina, located at the corner of North Wyoming and Green streets, Hazleton, is being targeted by Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta to be closed down after another fight outside the bar early Saturday morning.


Lightbox link Lightbox link Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta wants to shut down La Cantina, the North Wyoming Street bar near the scene of a shootout early Saturday morning.

"I've had enough of it," Barletta said of the downtown Hazleton bar. "A nuisance bar is too nice of a term for it. It's only a matter of time before someone is killed.

"This place needs to be closed down," he said.

But the owners say the bar isn't the problem.

The shootings have happened outside the bar on Wyoming Street, a street with a reputation for violent incidents long before La Cantina opened a year ago.

"Everything that happens on Wyoming Street now, they blame on the Cantina. It's not fair," Ramon Penn said, adding that his bar is being blamed for incidents two and three blocks away.

"Why do they want to blame us?" Maria Penn said, leaning on the bar. "I can't control what happens outside my bar. We got security. We search everyone who comes in. We put everyone out at 2 o'clock or 2:20, and we close.

Barletta, however, said he believes the bar is the problem and the city must protect its citizens.

"This place is dangerous," he said. "How many people come out of there and they're carrying guns? Alcohol and guns are a bad mixture."

Early Saturday, city police responded to multiple reports of gunshots around the bar. A Hispanic man fired a handgun into the crowd. Patrons of La Cantina also produced handguns and began firing, police said.

Several men brawled in front of the bar, and one man was stabbed, police said. Several of the men also used their weapons to strike each other, police said.

Vehicles fled the area, going the wrong way on one-way streets. Other patrons shot at the vehicles as they fled, police said. One of the vehicles struck a man, police said.

Officers identified only one of the men involved in the fight, Bernardo Campusano-Abreau, who had been arrested on felony drug charges in 2006 and deported to the Dominican Republic. He returned illegally three months ago, police said.

Campusano-Abreau was lodged in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Wilkes-Barre. U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement also placed a detainer on him, and he faces deportation once again.

No other names, victims or suspects were released. None of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries, Hazleton police Chief Robert Ferdinand said. Police do not believe the shooting was gang-related or related to a drug bust on Friday, he said.

Closure

Work to close La Cantina began before Saturday's melee.

Ferdinand contacted the state Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, Ferdinand said. City police and LCE agents will take information about the bar and forward it to the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office, which will ask a judge to shut down the "nuisance" bar, Ferdinand said.

"I will be in contact with them to see if this process can be expedited," he said. "The existence of this bar is a danger to the community and mars the reputation of the many fine businesses on Wyoming Street."

The process won't be easy, Barletta said, but he hopes something can be done before someone is murdered or caught in the crossfire.

A bystander has already been shot outside the bar, police have said. On July 4, two people were struck in a gang-related shooting, one a member of the Trinitario street gang.

A single shot was also fired outside the bar a little more than a week ago.

Owners said no fights have occurred inside La Cantina. Before they closed early Saturday, liquor control agents had been inside the bar carding patrons, they said. Owners said they know of no violations.

"I ask myself why doesn't the city send some police in front of the Cantina around 1:30 every weekend when we have a party here?" Ramon Penn said. "They control the people outside."

The Penns feel a little help from the city would go a long way to curb the activities outside the bar, and would appreciate the city working with them.

Barletta would not comment on the Penns' feelings or desire for a visible police presence on Wyoming Street. Ferdinand, however, said city police routinely patrol the area at night with occasional assistance from state police.

Members of the Hazleton Police Aggressive Targeted Anti-Crime Unit conduct "intensive foot patrols" of the area, Ferdinand said.

"However, police should not have to be babysitters for any nuisance bar," he said.

"If any bar continually caters to clientele who are prone to carrying firearms and engaging in such violent behavior as has already been exhibited," he said, "I do not believe it should be permitted to remain open."

Violence

La Cantina isn't the only bar where shootings have occurred in recent months.

Two men were shot and one died in a shooting outside Club 570 on Club 40 Road on Aug. 1. Johan M. Pujols, 22, was charged with murder in the early morning shooting in the club's parking lot after closing.

In May, a Mahanoy City man almost died when an alleged drug dealer shot him repeatedly in the legs outside Station 33 on Diamond Avenue. At least two others were injured in the shooting, which escalated from an argument over a woman.

In April, a man pulled a gun on another at Prestigio Restaurant on North Wyoming Street, next to La Cantina, and the man pulled his own gun. The incident then continued on East Juniper Street, where shots were fired and a vehicle struck. Police also said a shot was fired inside Prestigio Restaurant. In a separate incident at the restaurant in April, a man was assaulted and a woman was threatened with a gun.

The restaurant was also named in court papers as a place where drug dealers transacted business in the past year.

kmonitz@standardspeaker.com


http://www.standardspeaker.com/news/may ... _close_bar

Barletta is a good man.

Hazelton has been fighting illegals for awhile now. Time to take the gloves off and do battle with these illegals. Send them packing back to their own countries! Enough of the PC, BS!

GO MAYOR LOU BARLETTA! Kick them out of town!

You GO Lou!!!!

close it, im sure you have the support, mayor Lou of the people of your town