OFF-DUTY COPS, ON-DUTY DRUNK: Depending upon the size, clubs in Ybor City are required to keep a few off-duty police officers on hand just in case things escalate beyond the control of bouncers. Two off-duty Tampa police officers were working just outside the door at Club Prana when they witnessed a drunken guy, who had been thrown out of the club, yelling at the bouncers. The man grabbed at the bouncers' arms and kept trying to regain entry to the club, all the while the bouncers kept yelling at the man to leave. The off-duty cops finally decided to intervene, and one of them grabbed the man by the shoulder in an effort to stop him from trying to burst back through the doors. Per the report: "The [defendant] turned and looked at me. After looking at me, the [defendant] balled up his fist and attempted to strike me in the face." Instead, the cop dodged the punch, dropped the guy to the ground and slapped on the cuffs.
NICE BUMPING INTO YOU: A man was stopped in traffic in the northbound lane on 40th Street just south of Yukon Street in Tampa when his car was hit from behind by a red pickup truck. Both vehicles pulled off the road and the drivers got out, ostensibly to exchange information. The driver of the pickup asked the victim if he was going to call police, to which the victim replied that he was. This didn't sit too well with the driver of the pickup, who "told him that he was going to leave, because his license was suspended." The man then did just that, getting back in his truck and driving off. Somehow, the victim never got a tag number (all he remembered were the letters "UK"), and the offending driver was not caught.
GETTING PINCHED: Earlier in the morning of Feb. 15 (before the punch at Prana), another pair of off-duty officers, this time working outside the Amphitheater, witnessed a patron escorted out of the club. The bartender advised the cops that the man had ordered a Coors Light but could not pay for it (his wallet was similarly light). Police placed the man in handcuffs and started to escort him to a nearby police cruiser. Not content to be the only one pinched that night, the arrested man "repeatedly pinched" the wrist of the officer walking him to the car. Despite repeated warnings by the officers to stop, the man continued his two-fingered assault and the officers were forced to take the man to the ground to gain control.
From the files of the T.P.D.
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2006.