To curb violence...keep bars open later?
DENVER - At closing time in Denver, hundreds of intoxicated people typically stream out of the bars downtown, creating havoc for police trying to stem outbreaks of fighting or worse violence.
To fight back, state lawmakers are considering letting the bars stay open later, according to CBS Denver.
Currently, alcohol cannot be served after 2 a.m. in Colorado. The new law would allow towns to keep their bars open until 7 a.m. as an option.
Rep. Crisanta Duran, a Democrat who represents
northwest Denver, believes keeping the bars open until dawn would actually keep
crowds out of the streets and cut down on fighting.
“In larger cities where they have bars that are open later through the night people naturally leave and you don’t have hundreds of people on the street at a time,” she told CBS Denver.
“We’re just trying to give local governments another tool to work with to combat violence issues,” said Duran.
She is sponsoring the bill which would allow towns and cities across Colorado to decide how long the bars should stay open.
CBS Denver reports that in the summer of 2013 an airman was killed after an altercation outside the bars on Market Street in Denver. This year over New Year’s Eve in Denver a string of random attacks put several victims in the hospital.
A handful of business in downtown Denver already support the legislation, although they don’t believe the problem with violence is as big as it seems.