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11/5/2009 3:35 AM

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Observer-Reporter

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It was just a matter of time before trouble cropped up again at the former Cabaret West tavern on Chestnut Street in Washington, and that time was last weekend.

The bar had been targeted for permanent shutdown earlier this year by Washington County District Attorney Steve Toprani after two people were shot to death there, but county Judge Paul Pozonsky instead allowed it to reopen with some restrictions, particularly on hours and days of operation. The owner of the business talked of transforming it into an Italian restaurant.

But now, just a few months after the judge's decision, there's been more gunplay at the location. Police are searching for a man suspected of firing shots both inside and outside the bar following an argument Friday night.

The first reaction of Catherine Bayus, the owner of the bar and restaurant now known as Isabella's, was to blame police and probation officers, and to cast herself as the aggrieved party who is being singled out for negative attention.

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Bayus told a reporter, "This guy just got out of jail, and the city of Washington is letting him walk around the city with guns in his pocket. I'm the victim, and they're not doing the job of getting the guns off the street."

Bayus is clearly misguided. The reputation of the bar as a place that attracted a criminal element occurred on her watch, and her implication that police and probation officers are looking the other way while miscreants walk about the city packing guns is ludicrous. Also, Bayus said in the past that she installed a metal detector at the bar. How is it that Friday's gunman circumvented that supposed extra level of security?

It appears to us that Toprani had the correct idea in the first place regarding this nuisance bar, and that Pozonsky must bear part of the responsibility for any future violence that occurs there.

There are bars in Washington that create few problems for police, but there are some, like the former Cabaret West, that are frequent sources of problems for authorities and the people who live near them. Changing the name and the menu doesn't necessarily alter the character of the establishment.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, a stinkweed by any other name smells just as offensive to the community.

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1 comments

cabaret west : 11/6/2009
if the justice system can't keep the criminal element off the street how can we keep them out of our business?

slickbit

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