Cleveland Councilman Kerry McCormack said he will look into weekend late night street violence in the cities popular Warehouse District.
Fighting in the streets, captured on video and posted on social media, has McCormack wondering what can be done to de-escalate the situation.
McCormack told News 5 overall violence in the Warehouse District has been dropping over the past few years, but he said recently there has been a spike in fighting and physical altercations, especially at closing time.
"Noise regarding large crowds, some criminal activity as well," McCormack said.
"I have seen the video and it's troubling, anytime you see folks fighting."
"It's been very clear from my residents in the warehouse district that they're not happy."
Cleveland Councilman Michael Polensek, who is also on the Cleveland Safety Committee, said better enforcement is needed as soon as possible.
Polensek said state liquor agents need to crackdown on nightspot owners.
"There is nothing good going to happen out of an uncontrollable situation out in the street," Polensek said.
"If you don't deal with this now, you're going to have the same situation you had in the flats."
"It's up to the bar owners and people with a liquor license to be held accountable if their patrons are causing a problem out in the streets."
"It's up to the Cleveland Police Department, it's up to the state liquor enforcement agents to be there as well."
"That's what has to happen, because if not, I predict to you it will get out of hand and somebody is going to get seriously hurt over there."
McCormack said he will contact certain club owners, and if the weekend violence doesn't subside, he'll look into challenging some liquor permits before the Oct. 1 deadline.
"We'll look at all the calls for service, we look at neighborhood complaints, we look at any liquor citations, we'll look at all of the data," McCormack said.
