Moreover, he argued, “As long as you sell alcohol, you’ll have problems, whether it’s Yankee Stadium or Sin City.” “But what they would do was cute,” he said, citing interviews with club staff and certain police records, “because the undercover cops looking to buy drugs would meet someone on the street or somewhere else and tell them, ‘Why don’t we meet at Sin City at 8 p.m.?’ or some other time, and try to engage them in a drug sale inside the club.” Growing more animated, he added, “If you look at the police documents, the overwhelming majority of times the police were inside that club, they were unable to make drug buys. “It really boils down to the old philosophy of government power and how it is used, and that gets back to the fact that Sin City is no more of a problem than any other on-premise alcohol license-holder,” Sanders said in an interview this week. He maintains that there is nothing fair and appropriate about how it was used against Sin City or how it’s been employed against other minority-run and -frequented businesses in the five boroughs. “Business owners who are following the law have nothing to worry about,” he said.īut, for Sanders, whether nuisance abatement is a critical tool for the police is beside the point. Walzak also called the nuisance-abatement law “a critical law enforcement tool,” and said “the NYPD will continue to use it fairly and appropriately to keep neighborhoods safe.” “These claims are without merit,” NYPD spokesman Phillip Walzak said in an email that addressed the Sin City action and other allegations made by Sanders. It's unclear, for now, whether the city's Law Department, which will represent New York City, will also defend seven 40th Precinct police officers named in the legal action, but in most similar instances it does. Responding to the Law Journal's questions about Sin City's lawsuit, the NYPD indicated that it will fight a case that it views as baseless. In 2017, the City Council passed a Nuisance Abatement Fairness Act that nearly eliminated the city's ability to shutter locations without warning and forbade the permanent eviction of any occupant. While the action against Sin City never closed it down, the club was forced to pay a six-figure penalty and, in Sanders' view, the action helped convince the Liquor Authority that the nightspot was a police "focal point" that needed its license revoked. No occupant would respond to or even know about the request. District Court for the Southern District of New York, further contends that 40th Precinct police officers working in Mott Haven used tactics such as making false arrests, issuing false business violations and abusing the city’s controversial nuisance-abatement law to harass and corner the business, ultimately causing it to forfeit its liquor license.Īt the time nuisance abatement was used against Sin City, it had allowed lawyers for the police to file a civil action claiming illegal activity and then privately ask a judge to temporarily order occupants out of a business or home. In a federal lawsuit filed in September via civi-rights attorney and retired police officer Eric Sanders, Sin City is claiming that it was the victim of a New York Police Department-driven “campaign of selective enforcement" that pushed it out of business and “enabled politically connected parties to purchase its devalued property for a lucrative development."Īt the heart of Sin City’s lawsuit are claims that the NYPD targeted the club because of the race or national origin of its patrons, stakeholders and on-premise alcohol license-holder. Now, the club, forced to shut down in 2017 after having its liquor license taken away, is alive and fighting once more-this time in court. And it was considered both a rare bright spot in a long-depleted economy and one of the community’s largest employers of black and Hispanic residents. Once, the local community board in Mott Haven, where the club spread across an industrial area, cited 61 reports of “dangerous activity” tied to the club and called it a “terror zone” in a letter sent to the state Liquor Authority.īut Sin City, at its peak, also hauled in nearly $12 million a year, according to its lawyer. The famed South Bronx strip club, Sin City, was maligned by many in its own community over the years for its problems with drug dealing, gun crime, gang fights, and wild parties sparkling with celebrities-from 50 Cent to Odell Beckham Jr. (Photo by David Handschuh/NYLJ)Įric Sanders, a retired New York City police officer, is a civil-rights attorney who is suing New York City in federal court alleging that the police unlawfully targeted a Bronx strip club. Eric Sanders, a retired New York City Police Officer, is a civil rights attorney who is suing New York City and the NYPD in state Supreme Court alleging the city unlawfully targeted and closed Sin City, a Bronx strip club.
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