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Officers made their way into the "nightclub" West Midlands Police
the covid arms
UK Police issue 70 fines after discovering revellers at illegal nightclub in Birmingham
Some officers were pelted with bottles and one was injured as a door was smashed open by people trying to break out.
7.21am, 16 Feb 2021
21.3k
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ABOUT 70 PEOPLE have been fined after police disrupted an illegal nightclub in Birmingham over the weekend.
West Midlands Police said they had received information that part of a building on Buckingham Street had been turned into a bar.
After witnessing a number of taxis drop people off at the venue on Saturday night, officers forced their way inside to find 150 people packed into the building across two floors.
As well as the bar, with neon signs and a dance room, officers came across a recording studio and gym.
Some officers were pelted with bottles and one suffered a minor injury as a door was smashed open by people trying to break out.
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Fifty people are believed to have fled when police arrived, but about 70 revellers were caught and issued with £200 fines. The DJ could also face a £10,000 fine.
Assistant chief constable Chris Todd said: “Our officers continue to work long and hard to protect the public and reduce the spread of this deadly virus by breaking up these gatherings, often in really difficult circumstances.
“It’s unacceptable that our officers came under attack, and that one suffered a minor injury, just for doing their job and enforcing laws that are in place to keep us all safe.
“While there’s much to be hopeful of in terms of the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, people must remember that we are still in lockdown and the virus is still a real threat to communities across the West Midlands.”
‘The Covid Arms’ was discovered in Dudley Port West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police
The same night, police discovered a garage workshop in Dudley Port had been turned into a bar, which had a sign on the wall reading The Covid Arms.
A dozen people in the makeshift bar were allowed to leave, however the owner was fined £1,000.
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@Barry Walsh: the problem is these injection centres are being put bang in the centre of Dublin. One is going in the ana liffey project on muddle abbey street. Literally 25 metres from oconnell street and directly opposite arnotts.
@Barry Walsh: Also, if drugs are addictive, how are they fueling there addiction? Or are people suggesting these people hold down regular jobs? Its through robbery that many pay for these and we are effectively telling them ‘ah sure shoot up over here!’ no bother.
@cholly appleseed: an outrageous decision as usual by the relevant powers – push the problem into the city centre. I can see it now, there’ll be lines of people outside the place from the four corners of the country, resulting in further stretched services at night in Dublin. Tourists asking people why are they queueing up, is it a sale, a show, an apartment for rent? No, just going to bang up…..
Will these addicts/users be allowed wander the streets once they’ve availed of the facility or are they kept there until the effects wear off? I just ask because otherwise we will have a revolving door zombie creation factory just off our cities main thoroughfare.
And what about the Gardai? Their hands will now be tied. People buying drugs on our streets only to tell Gardai they have immunity because they’re going to the centre? It’s a joke. Drugs are illegal for a reason. You know the risks when you start, a needle didn’t just fall into your groin, a rolled up piece of tinfoil with a bit of burning heroin fell in between your lips and you happened to inhale? Please drug use should not be embraced and acceptance of such a facility not deemed a victory.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: I don’t understand how it would be fair to let a smack head walk on in possession of a class A substance whilst charging the local stoner for possession of a class b drug.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: @Neal Ireland Hello.: I’m asking a genuine question as to what appears to be a gray area in the law. If you don’t know you can just say. You sound like you’re an overjoyed heroin addict.
@Mick Costello: nope!, a banging up room in the middle of town has taken priority, I can only imagine the walking dead queuing along the board walk now, as if the place wasn’t bad enough, this is the best they can come up with, beggars belief!……
I just came on here to read the comments. I thought it would be a welcome bit of news because the way things are/were was never gonna improve. This on the other hand has been proven to be effective in other countries.
@Pappy O’Daniel: Don’t read too much into journal comments. They certainly don’t represent the opinions of the majority. Great news. Well done all involved
@Soccer T’s: can’t support this half way house approach. As Russell Brand said in his documentary, only full rehab works to break the spiral. This is just more liberal nonsense and of course like anything here there’s no proper follow through.
@marcus. Why is heroin an illegal class A drug??
To save lives right..
but here is the kicker, these centres have a track record of saving lives whereas the illegality of heroin sadly costs lives.
So if lives will be saved by this initiative, which is the goal of our drug laws surely it is a good thing….
Unless of course you think drugs should be illegal just to punish those unfortunate enough to be addicted to them. In which case the status quo has been a massive success, by destroying thousands of lives.
@Jack Cassady: probably get state funding for them with discounted rates depending on prior convictions. Wonder what working class area’s they will be put in. Certainly not leafy suburbs cos there’s no drug problems there
@Damo Doyle:
They’ll still be robbin and muggin and duckin and divin to get the cash.
Injection Centres are no more than state sponsored drop-in points for processing the proceeds of crime.
An economic boost for those at the upper echelons of importation.
@Damo Doyle: I’ve a good suggestion seeing as Aodhain O’Riordain fouht tooth an nail for this project, I’m sure he would’nt mind it being located in his own constituency of Clontarf. Though probably not, afterall he want’s to be reelected.
@Jack Cassady: have you an my new ideas to help the drug problem? Honestly like, you’ve pointed out how it’ll all fail, any ideas to make anything work?
@Ian Moloney: this will encourage people to continue injecting instead of moving back to smoking it. It will also encourage more people start injecting for the first time. It’s a great place to try it for the first time. Clean needles are provided. Staff who know what to do when someone has overdosed are available. It’s ideal. I can see these injection centres quickly growing in popularity.
@Soccer T’s: A bit naive there to assume that addicts are going to have access to clean supervised injection sites for the rest of their lives. Think about it.
Ian in fairness you make a good arguement for full decriminalisation which will inevitably follow this initivave.
In portugal decriminalisation of drugs has slashed HIV rates.
@john doe: HIV rates have been slashed already in Ireland through the hard work of the addiction services and resources like Trinity court. The whole point of the methadone program which was responsible for this was to avoid intravenous use of heroin ,not encourage it.
A great day my arse if we had a supervised area to commit any other crime there would be war a supervised rape center or burglar center perhaps lunatics taking over the asylum
@Declan Gartlan: I guess if you have a choice between walking your kid around the city and they witnessing addicts injecting themselves with dirty needles, veins exposed, blood splatters or having this contained indoors in a safe environment with sterilised needles then it’s an easy decision, open injection centres. This is a step in the right direction.
@Declan Gartlan: Hoes that war on drugs going again? How much do the guards waste every year, chasing shadows, just to appease the narrow minded conservatives among us?
Sean@114 I agree 100% nobody should have to take there kids through that but this is no solution it’s not dealing with the problem .Arrest and conviction then a choice compulsory treatment or jail time. After the addicts inject you will still have to deal with the addicts out of there heads wondering round the same streets and the dealers hanging around the same area
Soccer t’s well they spend a lot of time chasing burglars too do you propose we stop no get better at it . Lived in Usa for a long time wait and see what the weed legalisation is going bring home in the years to come.
@Declan
There is a MAJOR difference between the crimes you list (rape and burgalry) and taking a harmful drug…
any idea what the difference is?
Have you got it yet??
No.. ok ill tell you… taking drugs doesnt harm anyone else but the taker. Rape and burgalry do and should be tackled with the full rigor of the law.
Isnt that obvious?
John joe maybe it’s not to obvious to you how do you think drug users get money couple of hundred euro a day to feed there habit mugging burglar,walk in to a shop with a syringe not to mention car crime anti-social behaviour and all the other mess yea just harming themselves !!!!
@Sean @114: give them all them all want save the taxpayers a few bob, this wont make a difference outside merchants quay they are dealing everyday while whisky nose who runs it, looks out at them
@ Declan
And mugging and robbing are rightfully illegal and should be policed accordingly.
Some people are just scmbags there always have been and always will be scmbags who steal. However there are many many drug addicts who don’t steal and they deserve to be treated as humans and not die on the street when something could have been done to prevent it.
Some sad comments ,one liners that tell us all you have half a brain ,where is your humanity ,I hope in your life none of your family end up using drugs and in the process become zombies ,cut of from family ,normal society ,hiding in the shadows of a society that is loosing any sense of sympathy or understanding of the horror of this twilight existence .lots of these people were addicted young ,they deserve at lest a safe place to get their fix ,o k it probably wont solve the problem but at lest as a society we tried to do something .
@Anthony Gallagher: ah yes it everybodys problem no one asked them to put stuff up their noses or in their vains or any other part of there body, there are more important things to spend our taxpayers money on, protecting old people from these filth
Here let me show you how to shoot up ,hi I’m Jim I have been trained and being paid by the taxpayer s of Ireland so you can have every comfort while your searching for a vein,
Let me show you how to do it right, don’t be injecting yourself in the balls anymore.
Plus we ll dispose of that dirty needle for you and make sure you have a clean needle n swap
I am conviced this is a very bad idea. I thinks its encouraging drug use and also the centers will become places where dealers will hang out. We need to be opening treatment centers for addicts giving out the impression that taken drugs is okay.
This is not going to work it’s a load of bull crap not even 150 detox beds in the country but plenty of centres will be there to facilitate drug addicts they need help but not this
@Nick Allen: Very sad comments indeed, but you dont break an addiction by facilitating it.
But there are other drugs that will help some very sick people in Ireland that cant be accessed at all.
Im not a FG or Labour voter but fair play to O’Riordan and FG for seeing this through. It is a no brainer which will save lives, reduce hiv infections, reduce injecting and related litter in public areas and help direct addicts into treatment.
Well done.
Does anyone know – do they just inject themselves then walk out to be off their faces on the street or are they kept in there? If its the former, How is this a good idea in centre of the capitol?
Love to see that outright stupidity still permeates Irish opinions. People commenting against this do nothing but showcase their own ignorance. This isn’t just “Liberal nonsense”, it is a proven method of harm reduction for cities facing drug problems. Whether you agree with it or not, statistics don’t lie. This isn’t about accommodating junkies by giving them a “safe space”, it gets them off streets, needles out of harms way and a genuine chance at rehabilitating junkies so the public doesn’t have to put up with them. seek to understand the problem before you chime in with comments based solely on personal opinion.
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