A weekend shooting in Lawrence is the latest incident that calls out from a crackdown on violence at the city's nightclubs.
City licensing officials and the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission must start holding clubs accountable for what goes on inside their doors.
Lawrence has become a center of the club culture, a mecca for Latin music and dance lovers across eastern Massachusetts. That's not a problem. If well managed, it can be an asset for the city.
The problem is the subculture of drugs and violence that runs through the clubs. And club owners, raking in the profits from the weekend party crowd, are all too willing to look the other way.
Fights are too common, particularly as drink-fueled patrons empty from the clubs at closing time. This already is taxing Lawrence's police force to its limits. But too often, the violence explodes beyond fistfights.
Early Monday morning, shots were fired at the La Guira Restaurant at 205 Broadway. Four people were shot. A man and woman died, he at the scene, she in a Boston hospital yesterday. Another man is also in a Boston hospital with life-threatening injuries. A second woman was treated in Lawrence for lesser wounds.
Lawrence police chased two suspects to Lowell. There, they arrested two men, believed to be from Lawrence, and charged them with murder.
Lawrence police Chief John Romero said there is too much violence surrounding the city's nightclubs. The chief has worked in the past to enforce earlier closing hours for the clubs.
Beyond the punishment of the perpetrators of such violence, which should be severe, there needs to be consequences for the clubs as well. Heavy fines, suspensions and loss of licenses are appropriate.
Club owners need to get the message that looking the other way while violences simmers in their establishments will cost them the privilege of doing business in Lawrence.
