Dancing Ban in VA

On July 12th, the city council of Richmond will vote on an ordinance that will place restrictions on what they have vaguely labeled as "dance halls." Everyone is quicker to throw around Footloose references than to examine the reasoning behind why this legislation was even conceived in the first place.  Violence, drugs and disorder are common amongst all aspects of nightlife.  From concert venues to clubs, I feel comfortable in saying that on any given night the possibility of problems arising are equal regardless of what kind of music is playing or what the age/gender/race/sexual orientation the crowd is.  People in large groups are dangerous.  Look at what kind of catastrophes have happened at sporting events.  This isn't due to the size of the crowd as much as it does the energy surrounding it.  Whether it's a sporting event, concert, or club people get amped on the idea of being surrounded by a bunch of like minded people who have made the conscious decision to congregate together. They become energized when something happens that collectively resonates with everyone.  This energy can be either positive or negative.

The disturbing part of this entire situation is that even though the intentions of trying to better handle crowd control in negative situations are valiant, they are being done under the presupposition of this only being a problem in places where people dance.  Has there been a lot of club related violence? Yes.  If you said no, you're lying to yourself.  Don't believe me? Get on the Richmond City Police website and search the address any of your favorite nightclubs or bars in their crime reports section. Shit happens. Does that mean it's because of the dancing? NO! It's a combination of a lot of different variables.  Alcohol and demographic composition are the main catalysts to violence.  Please do not misinterpret this as a form of sexism or age discrimination, but I'd gather that the majority of problems that occur at these "dance halls" involve males 18-26. Does this mean that every dude under 26 should be seen as a threat to start trouble? No.  I'd like to think that if I walk into a bar being a 26 year old male, that I wouldn't be considered a possible threat.

Long story short, I think that the way to tackle this problem is to look at who is causing the trouble as opposed to what is.