Terrorist Attack in Wichita: The Truth Behind the Tear Gas

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Wichita is becoming a regularpolice state. They want young people to come to Old Townand party, yet they are becoming less and less tolerant for those who decidethey want to spend a little time out of the clubs after they close. Lately theyused tear gas to disperse a crowd, because according to police officials theywere short of help, so they used tear gas. That is the kind of weapon that isused for riot control, not to disperse young people who simply want to go outand have some fun. I wonder how long they can expect Old Townto continue to draw crowds when they are harassed by police. This town hasnever shown any tolerance for young people to have any fun.

This latest incident shows that Wichita is still as much a police state as ithas ever been. -សáž�ិážœ áž¢áž�ុ

 December 2, 
The Following is from the Occupy Wichitaweb site, Occupy316;
The recent tear gas incident in Wichita’s bar districtwas, quite literally, a terrorist attack. According to Merriam-Webster,terrorism is defined as “the systematic use of terror, especially as a means ofcoercion”.To understand why the Wichita Police Department chose to deploy tear gas onover 1,000 people outside and inside of a popular dance club on Thanksgivingnight, and why this was an act of terrorism, one must first examine thesocioeconomic and political factors surrounding OldTown, Wichita’s entertainment district.
According to the Old Town Association, a committee of business owners in thedistrict, Old Town businesses generate over $50million, annually. The club that was tear gassed, Doc Howard’s, is locateddirectly in-between two very posh hotels, the Hotel at Old Town and theCourtyard Marriott.
Doc Howard’s is one of, if not the largest of the clubs in the district, andcaters to the most racially diverse customer base. Despite the club’sinvestment of over $100,000 in video surveillance equipment, strict prohibitionof gang or drug related activity, and a unit of privately hired Wichita police officers,there are occasional disturbances outside the club, particularly when the barsclose at 2 am, as is customary when large numbers of people are drinking.
Rather than effectively police the situation, officers have repeatedlyresorted to unjustifiable violence to resolve incidents, rarely making arrests,even when they witness violations of the law, firsthand. The police use horsesto force the crowd down the road, when the clubs close.
In that time frame, it is normal for as many as 2,000 people to fill thestreet. Most people move slowly in the direction of their cars, often stoppingto talk with friends, or determine who is driving whom, since most of theclub-goers are inebriated by the end of the night.
People have been trampled, and one young man was even tied to a horse, by apolice officer, and then dragged through the street. This does not happenoutside any of the other clubs in the area, or anywhere else in town, for thatmatter.
Fights that happen outside other clubs in the area are generally ignored bypolice, who may break up the fight, but make no arrests. Loiterers are notharassed outside the other clubs in the area. But the people who leave DocHoward’s just before 2 am are herded like cattle, down the road, and forcedinto their cars, in the name of clearing the area to maintain public safety.Again, this does not happen outside any of the other clubs.
In September, the Wichita City Council passed a series of ordinances after aspate of incidents in Old Town. The ordinances gavepolice more power to cite people not leaving the area fast enough, added morecameras and reworded an ordinance determining which clubs can cater tocustomers who are adults, but not yet at the legal drinking age, which, in Kansas, is 21.
These ordinances were lobbied for by the Old Town Association, and opposedby the owners of Doc Howard’s. The problem with these ordinances is that theydo little to address the actual problem. The ordinances require club owners toprovide security outside their clubs, and particularly in adjacent parkinglots.
These parking lots are actually where the majority of the problems occur.They are not well-lit, and are not patrolled by the police. Unfortunately, theclub owners’ insurance policies do not cover their employees when they are inthese adjacent parking lots, so no one is securing these areas.
When these ordinances passed, the owners at Doc Howard’s made the decisionto stop paying four Wichita police officers to provide private security outsidethe club. These officers were each being paid $37.50 per hour, by Doc Howard’s.However, the Wichita Police Department determines who can actually hire theseoff-duty but uniformed officers, and who cannot.
Doc Howard’s cannot hire these officers directly, so they are required tocontract them through the Old Town Association. The Old Town Association hasdetermined that Doc Howard’s is bad for their businesses, and many of thoseowners want Doc Howard’s shut down. The high class hotels in the area feel thathaving large numbers of drunk minorities walking by is detrimental to theirsales revenue.
Many of the business owners that comprise the Old Town Association also havevery close ties to members of the Wichita City Council, which passed theseordinances, that were clearly designed to harm Doc Howard’s business. In fact,one member of the City Council actually held their victory celebration in theHotel at Old Town, after the election.
So essentially, Doc Howard’s was paying these police officers who were, inall actuality, working against the club for the Old Town Association. So, a fewweeks ago, Doc Howard’s stopped paying the private police unit. And that iswhen the real problems started.
Now we come back to Thanksgiving and the tear gas incident outside the club.According to Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams, onecanister of tear gas was deployed in response to multiple small disturbancesoutside the club, although video evidence and eye witness reports do not support these claims.
What is known, is that tear gas was deployed, just as the club-goers hadstarted filing out of the door. Approximately 1,000 people were either in thestreet outside the club, or still exiting the building when the tear gas wasdeployed. The chaos that ensued was captured on multiple security cameras andthe videos are embedded below.
The security cameras that were installed after the ordinances passed were,according to Chief Williams, not functioning. The police department failed toinform the media of the incident for several days. In fact, if certain membersof the media had not been tipped off (by me), the police never would have madeany statement regarding this incident.
When the Chief did finally release a statement, he downplayed the situationand repeatedly claimed that the tear gas was the safest way to disperse thecrowd, which is absolutely ridiculous when one views the video footage. Thereality is that the crowd was dispersing, and the tear gas caused an extremelydangerous situation in which people were trampled.
When Chief Williams released his statement, he had not seen the videofootage, and did not expect it to be released. Chief Williams says the tear gaswas justified and reasonable, although local civil rights attorney Jim Thompson disagrees. Thompsonsays that the officer’s actions put far more people in danger and that thosepeople have a cause for action in civil court. Thompson represents Doc Howard’sand also spoke out against the ordinances when they were first proposed by theCity Council.
Now, just over a week after the tear gas attack, Doc Howard’s has rehiredthe private police officers. However, the officers demanded a pay increase, andare now paid $60 per hour, each. Just to clarify and reiterate:
This private police unit was making $37.50 per hour, apiece. Then DocHoward’s stopped paying the officers, because the officers seemed to cause moreharm than good, primarily because they were actually employed by enemies of theclub. So then the department tear gassed 1,000 club goers, including the entirestaff of Doc Howard’s. Now, the private police unit has been rehired, butdemanded an unreasonable pay increase, with assurances that there will be nomore trouble.
The tear gas attack in Old Town was a terroristattack, and it was extortion, in its purest form.
The videos below show that the crowd was clearly dispersing in a safe mannerprior to the tear gas. Then, chaos erupts as gas fills the street and theinside of the club. The first two videos are raw, uncut footage from DocHoward’s surveillance cameras. The third video is an edited cut, in which thepolice chief’s false statements are dubbed over footage of the carnage. Belowthat is a link to the video of Chief Williams’ uncut statement. I urge you toview them all, in their entirety.
Lt. Doug Nolte denied that there was a fog of gas, that theamount used was very small. Nolte also says the use of tear gas, outside, israre, due to wind factors. 
“We put out a small canister of it – it’s not like the Old Townarea was blanketed in a fog of tear gas,” Nolte sai