Taz Pagan and Nightlife Violence

By Gamal Hennessy

Elements of the nightlife community found out about the death of one of their own last Sunday morning. By all accounts, Eric “Taz” Pagan was a good bouncer who put in extra effort to support the venue he worked for and keep the establishment in the good graces of the community. Those might have also been the same traits that got him killed. Mr. Pagan’s death goes beyond the issues of security and violence in nightlife. The incident highlights the need for a basic change in the mentality of some of our patrons.

Uncommon Circumstances

In spite of the media sensationalism surrounding nightlife violence, the fact is that nightlife fatalities are very rare. When you eliminate the extraordinary case of the Happy Land fire, there are specific patterns that have emerged over the past twenty years.

Evidence suggests that fatal violence is more likely to occur in the immediate area outside a venue as opposed to inside the venue itself. The logic behind this isn’t hard to figure out. There is a higher chance that the ego and self esteem of fanatics will be bruised outside a venue, either because they can’t get into the club or they just got kicked out. Authority or force has been used on them and lashing out at either the operators or at random passers by is a way for them to regain his sense of power and control. There have been a few fatal encounters between bouncers and patrons in recent memory. David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo shot bouncer Marcus Peterson outside of Palladium in 1990 . In 2003, a bouncer named Dana Blake was stabbed to death outside of Guernica by Isaias Umali. And in 2006, bouncer Stephen Sakai shot Gustavo Cuadros outside of Opus 22.

Pagan’s death differed from the others in significant ways. The shooting took place outside of Forbidden City, but by all accounts it wasn’t the result of fanatics trying to get into the lounge, because the place was already closed. Pagan often worked as a bouncer at the venue, but he was off that night. He only stopped by to check in on his friends. He wasn’t part of the fight that took place outside the lounge. He simply tried to break it up. Pagan’s death had very little to do with being a bouncer or being at a club. At the time of his death, he was just a man who tried to calm a violent situation.

Larger Solutions

In previous articles, I have argued that the presence of police officers outside of specific venues would help reduce the levels of violence. But in this case that solution wouldn’t be a viable answer. Even if police walked a beat outside Forbidden City, they still wouldn’t be around after the venue closed. Even if security inside the club was in contact with the local precinct, Taz wasn’t part of the security team that night. Louis Rodriguez, the man accused of the shooting, might not have even been inside the club, so neither the police nor security would have any clue the man would be a problem. Police officers can’t be stationed near venues on a constant basis. At a certain point it’s about the patrons, not the operators or the cops.

Fanatics go out with the goal, expressed or implied, to cause as much mayhem as they can get away with. For them, nightlife is a sandbox for them to destroy. To put it quite simply, if we want to reduce the number of problems associated with nightlife, the most effective plan is to convert as many fanatics as possible into nightlife natives. The fewer fanatics we have, the fewer issues we have. This is not a straight forward process. It requires altering the values and thought patterns of people rather than simply throwing more money or manpower at the problem. But until we reach a point where disputes aren’t resolved with a bullet in the forehead, the nightlife community and the city as a whole will continue to lose people like Taz Pagan.

Have fun.
Gamal