VietNamNet Bridge - Many people say that without bars and discotheques, HCM City will be extremely tedious. However, how to prevent problems caused by this sensitive business environment is a headache.

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Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Duc, deputy director of the Research Center for Criminology and Crime Prevention, talks with VietNamNet about the risks leading to criminal psychology in bars and dance halls.

Enhancing preventive information

Dr. Nguyen Minh Duc said that the environment in bars, discotheques stimulates criminal psychology.

"Criminals are being rejuvenated very quickly, deriving from loose management of many families. Young people who want to assert themselves often go to bars and discotheques. In the environment of bars, these people are easily excited to commit crime, particularly when they take drugs,” Duc said.

According to this expert, bars and dance halls are the sensitive places of business which must meet the requirements of security and order.

However, the cases occurred recently in bars, dance halls in the two cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City showed that the police were not timely informed about criminal cases at these places.

For example, in the shooting case at 030XClub and the murder at Monaco Bar in HCM City, if guards quickly reported to the police, murders would have been prevented.

Small conflicts that lead to the climax of the offense is what has happened at crowded bars.

"Reporting to the police when detecting insecurity and disorder is an obligation of citizens. Let alone that their duty is guarding but they let customers to carry guns and knives into their bars. Thus, guards did not fulfill their duties," Lieutenant Colonel Duc stressed.

In most of the scuffles at bars and dance halls, guards only asked the two sides to get out of the bars and did not report to the local police.

So far, all bars and discotheques which had scuffles have been fined for opening after 12pm. After 12pm, when customers are very tired, drunk and excited by loud music, even by drugs, just a small incident can lead to hysterical behavior.

"Ho Chi Minh City needs to tighten business management at bars and discotheques. Specifically, they can launch unexpected checks, impose serious sanctions on violators and withdraw business licenses if they repeat violations,” suggested Lieutenant Colonel Duc.

Sanctions, the lesson from Louis bar




According to a member of the HCM City social-cultural inspection team, the shaken murder at Monaco bar was a predictable incident.

In March this year, the inspection team checked the Monaco bar at No. 102 Le Van Tho Road, Ward 9, Go Vap District, and detected the bar committed up to 12 violations. Inspectors proposed to temporarily close this bar for opening after 12pm.

At the time of inspection, this bar still had more than 100 guests at 3am.

When inspectors entered the bar, many people stampeded while some others continued to dance madly in front of loudspeakers.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Tra Van Lao, Go Vap district deputy police chief, this year alone Monaco bar was fined many times, totaling over VND100 million ($5,000). However, until the murders occurred in September, this bar was closed, after four years of illegal operation.

The case of Monaco bar makes people remember the story about Louis bar on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai road.

Although operating without a license and being fined for a dozen times, Louis bar kept operating very late at night. Two years after a ring of call girls was detected at this bar, 36 customers at Louis were tested to be positive to drugs. Most of them are aged between 18 and 30, including some overseas Vietnamese from Canada, the U.S. and playboys from Can Tho, Da Nang, Ha Noi, etc.

After this scandal, this bar was fined several times for opening up late until it was closed by the authorities.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Truong, from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, said if the violations of bars are repeated many times, they would be prosecuted for illegal business.

However, the sanction on this behavior is not really harsh (being sentenced to two years’ probation) so many bar owners keep deliberately violating the law.

"With the huge profits from sensitive services, fines and administrative sanctions are not powerful enough to prevent violations at bars and discotheques," Truong said.

Quoc Quang