As we reported last night, Fabric was shut down by the Islington Council. A day later, this unfortunate situation has been claimed as being a conspiracy.
After the Town Hall, the 920-page Public Document Pack, which is the complete court documents, may show that the closure was part of a plan that was been long-term driven. Allegations are being strewn that this was all orchestrated by a council who was deadest on the closure, and that they used the police to set everything in motion.
Below is an excerpt from the official statement from the Islington Council regarding their decision.
- In 2014 a review of the premises license took place following deaths at the premises.
- Two 18 year old patrons died at the club between 25th June 2016 and 6th August 2016.
- The two people concerned consumed MDMA (Ecstasy)- Class A drugs, in the nightclub and purchased the drugs inside the nightclub.
- On both occasions the deceased and their friends that accompanied them to the club were able to conceal drugs on their person and get through the search and entry system without the drugs being detected.
- People entering the club were inadequately searched.
- The extent of the drug use was such that security and staff would have or should have been able to observe not only the use of drugs but also the effect of drug use on a large number of patrons and these groups in particular.
- Staff intervention and security was grossly inadequate in light of the overwhelming evidence that it was abundantly obvious that patrons in the club were on drugs and manifesting symptoms showing that they were. This included sweating, glazed red eyes and staring into space and people asking for help.
- Undercover officers witnessed, during a visit to the premises on 2nd July 2016, open drug use at the premises with being offered for sale. Searches on entry were again inadequate and in breach of the licensing conditions.
- People in the smoking area enquiring about the purchase of drugs within earshot of the security officer and in contravention of the licensing conditions relating to the dedicated smoking area.
- Deaths at the club have involved people who are very young (mainly 18 to 24 age group)
- Conditions 9, 20, 30, 35, 40 and 52 were being breached
The excerpt features the eleven bullet points of justification. Only two of these bullets were focused on the two youth who died from drug use. Following that, eight bullets were in reference to a July 2016 operation performed by undercover police officers.
In the 10-page report, which had been documented to conceal information that was released regarding the operation, there doesn’t seem to be any concrete evidence regarding drugs being consumed in the venue. With this vagueness, the eight bullet stating, “Undercover officers witnessed, during a visit to the premises on 2nd July 2016, open drug use at the premises with drugs being offered for sale…” is a tad bit too specific.
Another issue in the reports is the targeting of the venue and no the drug dealers. The reasons for their decision are attempting to twist it to be the venue’s fault when there are dealers that could have been attacked for this.
The first bullet was referencing a police review of the venue from 2014. Police listed a number of requirements after Fabric was reviewed. One of which was having drug-sniffing dogs outside the venue for at least 50% of the time it was open. Those who are accusing the Council of conspiracy are pointing out that these standards are not even held by military bases and airports.
However, in December, 2015 was this necessity reversed. “The Judge went further and found that the use of a drugs dog could undermine the licensing objectives in a number of unintended ways, including causing drugs to remain in circulation that would otherwise have been confiscated under Fabric’s thorough search procedures.”
So the question was raised, why is the government trying so hard? It is believed that the Islington council had lost half of its funding since 2010, taking a £17 million cut in 2016 alone. Up to 252 police officers are possibly at risk of losing their jobs. That is 44% of the police force.
It is believed that in order to save these jobs, the government is attempting to weed out these kind of venues and replace them with attractions for foreign investment, to jumpstart the economy.
To hear a conspiracy is always interesting. What do you think? Reading though the court documents, the “conspiracy theorists” have an argument. I am not going to say how strong or how weak it is, but they have an argument.