Indy gay bars consider adding extra security after Orlando shooting
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Massacre in Orlando is forcing some gay bars here in Indianapolis to take a second look at their security measures.
Home is where you make it, and inside Metro Nightclub on Mass Avenue downtown, that saying couldn’t be truer.
“Gay bars very much become your home away from home,” said Ruth Hawkins, the bar manager who feels more like a mother than a boss to her employees.
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“I say employees, but when I’m talking about them I call them my kids, and the customers are my family,” she said affectionately. “That’s how the people at Pulse felt, too. Their coworkers, their customers, that was their family.”
Early Sunday morning, that Pulse family was brutally attacked by a man with guns in his hands and hate in his heart, killing 49 people and hurting dozens more. Hawkins attended a vigil Sunday night to pray for the victims. She said while attending she saw a post on Metro’s Facebook page.
“One of our regular customers said, ‘I keep thinking what if this had happened at Metro,’” she recalled.
Hawkins said that moment put things in perspective and prompted her to set up a meeting with Indianapolis police.
Along with a manager from Tini, another gay bar, she discussed security measures with a liaison officer for Mass Ave. and downtown district commander Chad Knecht.
Metro already has cameras, and bags are also searched at the door. But Hawkins said police had some quality suggestions.
One idea was the have her employees go through crisis response training to learn how to react during a mass shooting, as well as how to better spot suspicious activity or people before a problem happens.
She said they also suggested an alert system involving lights. Metro has two floors, and Hawkins said it’s difficult to quickly communicate between the bottom and top level when a situation arises. With an emergency alert system involving lights, she said staff could flip a switch that sends a signal to everyone. She said it can be hard to hear someone yelling over loud music, so a visual alert would be helpful.
“I think it’s understandable what they’re doing — it’s just sad that they have to do it,” said customer Kevin Fyffe. “It’s sad that we have to get to this point where we are having these discussions and taking these precautions.”
But that doesn’t mean Fyffe and his friend Ed Damour are going to live in fear.
“It’s an event that’s very sad and very devastating, but it also brings us closer together,” said Damour. “Every time something like this happens we get closer together and stronger.”
And when you’re as close as the LGBT community, protecting each other is a priority.
“[Metro] is their home and this is their family, and you want to be safe in your house,” Hawkins said.
Besides physical security measures, Hawkins said the bar has terrorist attack insurance.
She said it’s something that came to the forefront after 9/11, but Metro has only had it now for a few years.
Hawkins isn’t sure how soon her staff will get the crisis training, or when the emergency light signal might go in to place, but she said those two options and a few others are getting serious consideration.