The Police Just Failed to Shut Down One of Glasgow's Biggest Clubs

This post originally appeared on VICE UK.

The police failed in their bid to have one of Glasgow's largest clubs and arts venues shut down permanently today, after their proposal was rejected by the city's licensing body at an emergency hearing.

The Arches, a cavernous warehouse space lying underneath Glasgow Central Station, is a cultural institution in the city. The prestigious venue is famous for both its massive club nights and eclectic arts programming. Lately, however, it has been attracting more attention for its run-ins with Glasgow's licensing authorities.

Last Saturday, 2,000 clubbers packed into the Arches for GBX, a regular house and trance night run by a stalwart of west of Scotland commercial radio, George Bowie. But it would be forced to shut an hour early after the police served an emergency closure notice. This followed a woman falling unconscious within the venue from an "alcohol related episode," and police officers on the scene recording up to "26 offenses for drug and alcohol related incidents" in or near the venue. The woman later discharged herself from hospital.

Today, the club—which is run by a non-profit charity who subsidize their highbrow arts events with lucrative club nights—was hauled in front of an emergency sitting of Glasgow City Council licensing officials. With the police pressuring the council to shut down the club for good, the licensing board reached their decision this morning. Thankfully, it's good news for the city's EDM aficionados and avant-garde theater fans alike, with the committee rejecting the police's line of argument and refusing to revoke its license.

Any sanctions placed on the club would have been devastating news for Glasgow's burgeoning club scene, with the potential for this level of scrutiny to start hitting other venues too. If even the Arches, with its masses of security, lack of drinks promos, on hand-drugs workers, medical staff, chill out rooms, plethora of non-club events and er, council arts funding, wasn't safe, other venues—with a fraction of their resources—would have faced a crisis.

This wasn't the first time the Arches management have found themselves in this position. Just over a year ago, 17-year-old Regane MacColl died in hospital after taking pills tainted with PMA at the venue. On that occasion, a near moral panic ensued, with much of the media outcry surrounding the tragic events failing to differentiate between the relative safety of ecstasy/MDMA, and its potentially much more dangerous imitators. The Arches—in contrast to Manchester's Warehouse Project, who in similar circumstances in 2013 announced plans for a drug testing pilot—found themselves backed into a corner, reiterating their "zero tolerance" stance towards drugs and agreeing to step up body searches of those entering the club. No sanctions were taken against the venue in the end, although an over-21s entry policy was adopted for a short time in a further bid to placate the council and police (in 2008, though, the Arches was forced to shut for a six week period, after two police officers walked in on a 30-strong orgy during a club night).

What has become a persistent feature in recent events surrounding the venue, though, is just how clueless the police are at understanding what night clubs are and why people might want to go to them. Last year, the police demanded that the Arches enforce "moments of calm," an idea that would see DJs stop playing music for five minutes each hour, with the lights switched on. This proposal was rejected by the venue, but not before it made the cops come across like a bunch of overbearing teachers at a school disco, so worried that someone might be necking vodka in the toilets that they send everyone home.

It emerged during this morning's hearing that 11 of Saturday's 26 arrests came after the police forced an evacuation of the venue, with them then charging clubbers who'd taken alcohol outside. Such was their desperation to make a compelling case against the club, they'd neglected to previously mention that it was their own actions in shutting the club early that led to so many offenses being recorded.

This bumbling ineptitude and rigid adherence to a "just say no" policy can sometimes prove dangerous in itself. In March 2014, just weeks after the club agreed to step up body searches, a 39-year-old ended up in a coma after swallowing four pills at once, after he was "searched and confronted" about them at the door. Taking mysterious pills is never going to count as a particularly safe past time, but cultivating an environment where people are so scared of being criminalized that they're prepared to down their stash in a queue doesn't seem particularly conducive to public safety either.

Of course, people could just stop taking drugs. That's the advice from Mark Sutherland, the police commander for Glasgow City Centre who this week said, "I am keen for young people to enjoy the city but please do not use drugs of any kind and drink responsibly. We remain committed to working closely with those who own and operate the licensed premises across the city but will take decisive action against those who fail to ensure public safety."

Decisive action was taken today, and despite the best efforts of Police Scotland, the Arches will not be closing down. Whether the police like it or not, tens of thousands of people—of all ages—will still go out this weekend, take drugs, and maybe drink too much as well. Some of them might do this at the Arches, but it remains one of the most well managed club spaces in the city, and the shameless scapegoating of one venue isn't going to solve problems that exist across society for a multitude of reasons. Nor is it particularly clear why the police have decided that one club—and one of the key, non-commercial cultural venues in Glasgow at that, which would be unable to fund itself or function without its license—poses more of a danger to public safety than anywhere else.

Last February, the former owner of another Glasgow clubbing institution, Sub Club, spoke out on the issue in light of the reaction to Regane MacColl's death. Paul Crawford, who ran Sub Club for two decades, told the Herald that, "People are scared to even debate drugs, especially people in the nightclub industry or any industry that is licensed… you're scared to put your head above the parapet because you're worried that the authorities might take a dim view on your point of view and might make life difficult for you."

That culture of intolerance to anything except "zero tolerance" is doing a huge disservice to everyone, regardless of whether they take drugs. Hopefully today's level-headed decision to reject the police bid to shut the Arches can now spur a real debate about how we can take an approach to alcohol and drugs that actually tries to keep people safe, rather than just demonizing one venue.

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