Published 2011-10-18T19:01:00Z”/>
Juniper Rose
An increase in the number of fights at Franky’s and in the surrounding parking lot has caused interest and concern among Chico State students.
There is no apparent reason for the increasing number of fights, said Clint Norman, a bouncer at Franky’s and a senior construction management major.
“There’s no linking factor between the fights,” Norman said. “They’re just all kind of separate occurrences that revolve around drunkenness.”
While there haven’t been many fights in the past couple weeks, prior to that there was a three-week period when fights “spiked,” he said.
“It might have to do with midterms,” Norman said. “Maybe you have a midterm and then you go out and rage for like a week or so after that because you are tired of studying.”
The pizza line gets the younger crowds that are often harder to deal with but less likely to cause fights, he said.
“They have more sass but they don’t have anything to back it up,” Norman said. “They are just trying to be a pain because they have nothing better to do and when they start to linger that’s when stuff starts to go down.”
Holidays often see a spike in fights, Norman said.
“The people that come visit never care at all,” he said. “They just come, have fun, start fights and then leave.”
Students say that the fights taking place downtown can often be attributed to people visiting from out of the area.
“They just come up here for the weekend and party and get drunk and they don’t respect our community or our campus,” said Gavin Denike, a senior business administration major.
Police, however, are always quick to assist during fights, Norman said.
“Whenever there’s a situation, they’re there within a few seconds,” he said “They always have someone in the area and they are always 110 percent.”
The location is busy all the time, said Chico police Sgt. Rob Merrifield. However, there has not necessarily been any more fights recently than in the past.
“There is always fights either right in front of Franky’s or right next door because of the fact that it stays open so late for pizza and all,” Merrifield said. “Anywhere drunk people congregate late at night there’s going to be fights.”
Combined efforts from Franky’s bouncers and Chico police attempt to keep people from accumulating in the parking lot, said Crystal Abello, a senior psychology major.
“I think they do really good at trying to regulate,” Abello said. “But there’s always a lot of traffic right there.”
Fights occur outside Franky’s because it is the only place in the area where groups of people can stand outside, Denike said.
Because it is such a common place for students to go, people often see people they know and don’t necessarily like, which can lead to fights, she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of fights and I’ve gotten into a fight with my boyfriend right there,” Abello said. “I saw friends and gave them a hug or whatever, and me and my boyfriend got into a really big argument because of it.”
The owner of Franky’s, Nick Andrew, said the bar does what it can to keep problems from happening in the parking lot.
“We’ve been here for 19 years and that’s basically what we do – try to make it safe for everybody, and we’re pretty successful at it,” Andrew said.
The doormen outside are there to keep people moving on, he said.
“If we ever have a problem with an individual we will ask them to move on down the street so that they don’t mingle with the 99.9 percent of the good people that are here,” Andrew said.
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<strong>Juniper Rose can be reached at</strong>
<em>[email protected]</em>
