Most of us are asleep when the trouble starts.
It鈥檚 2 a.m., 3 a.m., even 4 in the morning when arguments happen, fights break out, and sometimes people flash guns and even fire them at each other.
The locations are pretty predictable. Certain hookah lounges have been the sites of lots of trouble, including the Aug. 11 incident outside 蜜柚直播 Hookah Lounge, near East Speedway and North Swan, in which about 200 rounds were fired in a gun battle and four people were injured.
Occasionally, a smoke shop is a node in the early-morning action as well. After 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, two robbers hit a smoke shop near East Speedway and North Campbell, 蜜柚直播 police said. A physical altercation happened, and an employee was left with a puncture wound from an unclear source.
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It鈥檚 no mystery what鈥檚 going on in most of these instances. People gather after bars close, drunk or high or both, and bad ideas or impulses become reality.
The question is what to do about it, something the 蜜柚直播 City Council is scheduled to discuss at its Sept. 25 meeting.
Council member Karin Uhlich, who requested the item, noted that hours of operation are a natural area to explore. If we can close these places down earlier, then people won鈥檛 gather there. She also said regulating them as entertainment venues with stricter requirements for things like parking could be considered.
It鈥檚 a good start, but the council shouldn鈥檛 ignore the individuality of the trouble spots. If a few hookah lounges are repeatedly the sites of trouble when others aren鈥檛, then they ought to be willing to take action against just those few, not punish them all.
The 蜜柚直播 Hookah Lounge at 4620 East Speedway was a trouble spot before the gunfight broke out Aug. 11. Police records show 7 calls for service to the place in the month before that shooting. There were another five calls in June. In the two years before that: 62 calls, or one every 12 days.
The neighboring businesses along that strip have struggled to minimize the impact when dozens of people gather outside in the parking lot and inside the lounge in the early-morning hours. Daniel Calderon, the manager at Dwight鈥檚 Tint and Glass, told me of a series of shootings that the business鈥檚 cameras have recorded over the years and showed me a chaotic video with people diving behind cars and firing guns.
Julie Sprotte, who owns The Blind Guys window-covering company with her husband, moved from the space next door to the 蜜柚直播 Hookah Lounge in large part because of the late-night crowd it attracted.
鈥淭here was a mess in the parking lot every Monday after the weekend crowd,鈥 Sprotte said.
鈥淭he hookah lounge was an absolute nightmare to be next to. I don鈥檛 understand how they haven鈥檛 been shut down.鈥
Last week, I left a letter at the lounge for the owner, Husam Baker, but he didn鈥檛 call or write me. When I reached him by phone Tuesday, Baker said he wanted to speak with his lawyer before speaking with me.
Court records show the ownership of the business is in dispute. Ali Alais said in the lawsuit that he and Baker formed the business together in 2018, but in January, Baker filed fraudulent documents with the 蜜柚直播 Corporation Commission 鈥渁nd forced Alais out of the business without any compensation.鈥
Baker, in a response, said Alais had agreed to the changes 鈥 鈥渉e knew what I was doing and I have proof.鈥
Previously, , speaking in Arabic through a translator.
鈥淭he six years that I鈥檝e been here I鈥檝e never had any issues. There have never been any shots fired,鈥 he said.
That鈥檚 at best an artful response, pointing to the lack of gunfire inside the business. However, a victim of the Aug. 11 fight was pulled from the parking lot adjacent to Baker鈥檚 hookah lounge, and last year a triple-shooting occurred nearby.
In August 2022, another shooting in the parking lot killed a man, Joseph Hunter.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been nonstop,鈥 Calderon said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e had killings.鈥
One homeless and addicted woman told me on Aug. 11, as I was reporting at the scene on the shootout, that she and friends had been camped in the alley behind the hookah lounge but left because of all the conflicts and a shooting. It was too rough even for them.
In recent weeks, the 蜜柚直播 Police Department鈥檚 data analysis team compared police activity around the six hookah lounges in 蜜柚直播 with six smoke shops and six bars. They found much more police activity in the quarter mile around the hookah lounges than around the bars, and a bit more activity around the lounges than the smoke shops.
The analysis of calls from Jan. 1 to July 31 showed, 鈥淗ookah lounges have experienced an 18% increase in violent events compared to 2023 year-to-date. Smoke shops have experienced a 12% increase, and bars have experienced no change,鈥 police spokesman Frank Magos said in an email.
In some cases, the smoke shops are victims of their late hours more than being gathering spots like the lounges. Mazin Shahan, the owner of Mezo Smoke Shop, 1726 E. Speedway, told me that when two robbers came in early Tuesday morning, the employee fought with them, which is against the store鈥檚 policy.
Shahan said his other two stores only have windows open for business after midnight, but the Speedway location has been open because it hasn鈥檛 had problems.
鈥淲e usually don鈥檛 have troublemakers,鈥 he said, though he acknowledged, 鈥淎ny place that鈥檚 going to be open late is going to have some kind of problem.鈥
But of course, there鈥檚 a big difference between being a victim business that gets robbed and a perpetrator business that is a persistent gathering spot for violent people.
The city has taken many legal risks before. Consider, for example the decision to charge higher water rates to people living in unincorporated Pima County 鈥 a policy that was doomed from the start but cost 蜜柚直播 years of legal work before the city finally lost in court.
They ought to be willing to take some legal risks to severely curtail or shut down specific troublemaking businesses. We should make them justify their existence given the chaos they attract and the costs they impose on us.