Bars in Pittsburgh create unified ban list of unruly patrons in an effort to curb violence
Black-owned businesses in Allegheny County banded together to create a list of banned patrons in an effort to curb violence.
"If something happens, we go back, find your information, we put it in there. Automatically, it becomes a ban. We're going to share this across the Pittsburgh area with other bars and locations so they know this person was banned," said Mike Reid, the owner of Eon Bar and Grill in Homestead.
His is one of nine Allegheny County businesses in the Black Bar Owners Coalition. Participating locations will have a logo posted on site.
"The violence we are all getting, this can happen in Target, it can happen in Walmart," Reid said. "It's no different than the South Side. It's just that we're a destination."
Reid said the coalition is effective immediately, but by June 1, all nine bars in the coalition will have a scanner to help flag banned patrons. While a ban list is nothing new for each bar individually, now the data will be shared with all participating bars.
"Previous bans, it's going to show up the date, what did you do, what your violation was. Being that it's effective now, that gives another location the opportunity to say, 'We're going to give you a chance even though you're banned,'" Reid said.
KDKA'S Mamie Bah asked, "What about due process? Let's say someone goes to court and they are found not guilty of something, are they still allowed to come back here?"
"I'm going to do my own investigation," Reid said, "with the camera system that we have."
Reid continued, "If you're not the aggressor and you stop and you're allowing us to break the situation up, we could talk about that."
Reid believes the ban list can be a tool to prevent tragedy.
"This is something to keep our business open, to keep the community safe and allow our customers to know that if you come to one of our locations, you're going to be OK," he said.
