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If you rip your shirt off in a bar and vow to take care of the people you were arguing with, best to make sure they don't have reinforcements

A man who ripped his shirt off as he was being escorted out of a Theater District club and vowed to take care of the guys he'd been arguing with waited around outside - only to find himself beaten to the ground and stomped when they were joined by more men, in an attack that ended only after police sprayed the scrum with pepper spray twice.

At a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning, police and managers at Venu, 100 Warrenton St., described what turned into a serious closing-time beatdown at Warrenton and Stuart streets on Nov. 24:

A guy, roughly 6'4" and 280 lbs. turned "aggressive" towards a couple of other patrons, neither more than 5'9" and began arguing with them. Club security officers rushed over and told him it was time to leave. He agreed to go, but as he was being led downstairs, he ripped his shirt off and told them, "wait to see what happened outside," a club manager said. The man then paced outside, across the street a few times and left, a club manager said, adding his argument opponents were allowed to stay because the club has learned from experience that if both sides are let out at the same time, there can be trouble.

But as the club started emptying out around 1:50 a.m., the man, still shirtless, reappeared. The two men he'd been arguing with exited. They were joined by four to six acquaintances. The shirtless man and the group met and a fight started and the larger man proved no match for the surrounding group of shorter men - they quickly shoved him to the ground and began kicking him as he lay on the ground, now with his hands protecting his face.

Two Boston cops, stationed a short distance away as part of a regular Theater District closing-time patrol, saw the fight and rushed over.

One of the officers told the board he ordered the men to stop immediately and move away. They refused and kept attacking the man. The officer told them he'd spray them with pepper spray. They kept kicking. "OC, OC, OC!" he yelled and sprayed them with the noxious liquid three times. They ignored that and kept kicking the man. He sprayed them again. This time it worked - the men ran away, although one gave one last kick to the victim's head, he said.

The officer said he grabbed that man and arrested him on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon - his shod foot.

The licensing board decides Thursday whether the bar could have done anything to prevent the fight and, if so, whether it merits any punishment.

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Comments

I have never understood the appeal of nightclubs.

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I think of nightclubs as marvelously convenient honeypots, attracting the most awful people and concentrating them in one place. Away from the civilized elements of society. So that those of us who can enjoy a nice cocktail without flying into a homicidal rage might have a pleasant night out.

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Get together with a group of your peers and all make yourselves progressively more stupid with alcohol, until the ones who inevitably turn mean after drinking demonstrate their superpower. Then everybody gets to beat on each other until the cops join in. What could be more fun than that?

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TIL: Venu, still a thing. I haven't heard it mentioned outside of a police log in over a decade.

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It was a perfectly good shirt.

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I blame Ronaldo for this collapse in public behavior.

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best to leave your shirt on.

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One team failed to show up.

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Everyone involved was a volunteer - I see no problem.

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I've been to some club's that were great with no problems, but they weren't in Boston or in Massachusetts. There is a wanna be tuff guy image people like to portray in Boston. Boston is not a party town, it's a get liquid courage show out show off act out cowardly town when it comes to the club scene.

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Nightlife here is a second job or a college course.

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The City needs to increase the number of liquor licenses in the city.

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The state controls the number of licenses in the city of Boston.

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People shouldn't fight they should stay home if thats how they act its not the bars fault

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There is a curious focus in this story on the heights of the opponents. You'd think it was a basketball game. That said, it could have used a little exaggeration (i.e. outright lies). Couldn't you have made it 6'10" and 5'2" instead of 6'4" and 5'9"? That way we could imagine a shirtless giant staggering through night while a mob of mini-toughs attempts to punch up his kneecaps.

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Reminds me of this guy...

https://youtu.be/tR-Fs8W0koo

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In the future it will be a pleasure to stroll streets of Boston Theatre District with redesign of the exterior environments of establishments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_space

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"...ripped his short off" Adam?
Don't they usually travel in pairs?

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But only managed to get one side off.

Or you're a writer in desperate need of a copy desk. Thanks, fixed.

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