Unruly group spoils night out at bar

On Nov. 25 I went to a local bar to enjoy a few beers and a steak sandwich while watching the Grey Cup game. I ran into a couple friends who joined me whereby we began an enjoyable conversation while watching the game.

It was here that the enjoyable evening ended. Sitting behind me were three young men who, immediately upon the game’s beginning, began yelling and screaming in favour of Calgary. Their jubilant yelling and screaming escalated to fighting on the floor and knocking over furniture in the dining area.

After returning to their seats, an employee spoke with them and, I assumed, asked them not to conduct themselves this way.

The request fell on deaf ears. Furniture was again knocked over and, while the fighting had subsided, the yelling and screaming continued.

Additionally, I felt anxious because I had wanted to cheer for Ottawa and felt unable to because I feared the men yelling and screaming for the Stampeders would turn their violent attention on me.

They had already clearly demonstrated a capacity for violence and aggression and I felt scared to raise my voice in favour of Ottawa.

I decided to leave. While paying my bill, I expressed my fear and informed staff that my reason for leaving before the game’s end was the (continuing) violent and loudly aggressive behaviour of the Calgary fans sitting along the wall. I was told they were “regular” customers and what else should I expect from being in a sports bar?

I replied that I, too, was a paying customer — one who had regularly frequented their establishment. And what I expected was for people, regardless of their location or which team they cheer for, to conduct themselves as adults, as members of a civil society.

But, because I was in a sports bar, should I no longer expect this and passively agree to being forced to acquiesce to the “regular” customers’ determining the evening’s tone and atmosphere? Should I choose to sit meekly by while belligerent aggressors yell and fight around me?

No. This customer will not sit passively by. If this bar’s management would rather cater to belligerent, uncontrolled and uncivil customers, then they are free to do so. However, as also a paying customer, they will do so without the aid of my money and patronage.

Am I asking too much? Am I asking so much that I can’t feel safe walking out my door to visit a location that I had previously felt safe to go to? That I can’t cheer for a team of my preference because hooligans might take their displeasure out on me?

Has the lesson of how to live in a civil society one that Medicine Hat, as a city, has chosen to forget and no longer requires its residence to conduct themselves accordingly? If so, then Medicine Hat would do well to remember that lesson and be ashamed for forgetting it!

Mathew Hill Medicine Hat