If you were inside or just outside the Speedway Boulevard strip club known (for the time being) as Ten’s, Tucson police want to talk to you about a shooting.
Then again, if you’re a regular of that establishment at that time of night, police queries might start becoming part of the routine for your gentleman’s club excursions.
A 32-year-old man was shot to death in the parking lot of Ten’s Showclub early Sunday morning, the second fatal shooting there in little more than a week. The first incident on Dec. 22 had four victims, one of whom died a few days later.
With two homicides in its parking lot in eight days, Ten’s could find itself in the same predicament the club formerly known as The Candy Store was in a few years ago.
The Candy Store, where the club Venom can now be found at 22nd St. and Craycroft, had two fatal shootings in its parking lot in 2009, and a few months later The Candy Store was raided by police to break up an internal drug-pushing operation.
Nothing so far about Sunday’s shooting directly connects it to Ten’s itself, or any activity inside the club — police say it was the typical scenario of two groups of people first jawing, then punching and then ultimately shooting at each other — but the parking lot publicity can’t be good for the club.
Any suggestions for names for the club if and when it shutters and ultimately reopens as another version? Mine is the Pit Stop, fits well with the Speedway location.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2012 – Jan 2, 2013.
I think it’s cute that bloggers want to rename a business. If you’d like to know what it should be called… just ask the proprietors. That’s how it works in the good ol’ U S of A. Shooting happen when people get crazy. That doesn’t mean business must be renamed or shut down.
After all, I see the Safeway at Oracle and Ina is still called Safeway, two years after Loughner shot Gifford.
Now back to your strawman.
You have a point: the business is still the same exact business it was before the shooting(s).
The thing is, this isn’t the kind of event that should be repeating at a business. That it continues to happen is reminiscent of a business within the same industry that was shut down shortly after those events, albeit for reasons unrelated to repeat shooting incidents. One might then wonder whether or not Ten’s is headed down a similarly regrettable path.
Therefore, wondering if Ten’s is (metaphorically) becoming the new Candy Store isn’t such of a stretch.
Shooters – sounds appropriate.
nothing good happens after 1 am at a strip club any where in the us. however in sweeden at 1 am in the summer you’re wearing sunglasses for a reason. our strip joints are marginal at best, and the cliental is wacked out of their minds. i have stories from the 60-70’s and although there weren’t the shootingd, there were plenty of stompings.
You know you’ve made it in this business when someone who frequented Swedish strip clubs in the 60s and 70s chimes in on the argument.
This is the most ridiculous posting EVER! Candy store was shut down because it had internal drug trafficking, you said it yourself, not to mention the countless amounts of prostitution that the establishment was notoriously known for! It was shut down because what was found during the raid. That doesn’t mean that just by Tens having 2 shootings (1 of which the shooter(s) were never even in the club the night of the shooting) that it will be closed down too! There were shootings at a hospital and Tucson mall the same day as the 1st shooting, but no one seemed to think those were as big of a deal or that those establishments should go out of business! I think it’s ignorant for people that know nothing at all about the business and full details behind all the events that have occurred there to try to pretend they do and sit there making jokes about renaming it! Look at TDs west; there was a manager shot, the outside shot up, and a shooting INSIDE the club all within a few months of each other but they’re still in business! The guns weren’t inside the club, Tens did their job to make sure there were no weapons inside their establishment, but what people do or have outside the building (even if it’s on their property) is beyond their control.
How about “I Don’t Care How Many People Are Murdered In My Parking Lot Because I Have a Constitutional Right To Bear Arms So The Solution Is To Arm Every Patron And That Will Stop the Shootings.”
Maybe it’s a Petri Dish in an alternate universe we just don’t quite know about, Brian J. Pedersen…
To Ehud Gavron:
I think you might have mistaken Pedersen’s suggestion about a new business name as serious. It was actually more of a shot at sarcastic humor with a hook to draw in readers, who might like to respond with their own ideas for funny/sarcastic names.
My response for a new name is “Bangers”. It’s a sarcastic reference to the sexual nature of the business, the history of shootings on the property, and a play on the familiar name “Hooters”.
So now, I’ve had my chuckle and I will now look forward to reading Mr. Pedersen’s next article ..ever hopeful that it will have another little intellectual hook. (wink)
I say raise the cover charge on weekends or whenever gang bangers and thugs tend to show up. The price doesn’t have to be exorbitant, just high enough to price out the low-lifes who seldom if ever, tip the employees. The level of clientele is likely to rise as well if customers who want to see beautiful women don’t have to worry about getting caught in the crossfire of scumbags.