Police: there is no list of bad clubs

Surry Hills Police have denied there is a secret list of mostly-gay problem clubs, which a daily metropolitan newspaper yesterday claimed were consuming the majority of police resources in the area.
Arq, Oxford and Stonewall hotels were named along with T2 and Gas nightclubs.
However, a police spokeswoman said Surry Hills Superintendent Daryl Donnolly used the clubs as examples to highlight assaults and personal theft in Surry Hills during a quarterly meeting on statewide resource needs.
“They’re just examples, not a hit list. We’re not pointing out that any one club is worse than another,” the spokeswoman said.
She said crime occurs at clubs regardless of the sexuality of the clientele.
Community members have called the majority-gay list “insulting” and claim gay venues tended to have fewer problems.
Oxford Hotel licensee Steven Ferry called the claims “artistic journalistic licence” and said it was highly annoying.
“I met with the licensing board just a month ago and they have no issues with the hotel,” he said.
Arq management were in talks yesterday to discuss the story when they learned the claims had been refuted, but licensee Shadd Danesi said he would take no action against the newspaper.
Danesi said the police system of recording incidents against nearby venues was unfair to hoteliers.
“If a fight happens outside a particular hotel, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has anything to do with the hotel management,” he said. “It will be written up as if the trouble was caused by that hotel. That’s wrong.”
Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s plan to punish venues with bad management of anti-social behaviour by limiting late-night trading hours – as revealed in SSO two weeks ago – was also unfair, he said.
“Unless there’s a hotel causing extraordinary problems, there should be discussions and hoteliers given the opportunity to work through those problems. They have a right to natural justice,” Danesi said.
NSW Police and the City of Sydney Council have been under increased pressure to step up efforts to curb violence along Oxford Street.
Concern about the amount of homophobic violence along the strip has dramatically increased since three people were attacked on Oxford Street in one weekend.