[HouTango-L] security issues for tango events

[A. Lester Buck III]

Dear Houston Tangueros y Tangueras,

This note is to update you on the unfortunate events of last
Saturday at Martin & Natia's milonga at King's Center of Dance.
There is some reluctance to share the details, but I think it is
better to have the facts out in public to prevent exaggeration
as the story makes its way through our tango community.  I was
not present, but I have received the story from two people that
were in attendance.

Last Saturday at about 10pm, with maybe 25 tangueros in attendance,
three masked men burst into Martin & Natia's milonga and
systematically robbed everyone present.  They fired a couple of shots
into the ceiling to get everyone's attention, and yelled much
profanity, but no one was physically injured in the robbery.  The
dancers were told to lie face down on the floor and the robbers came
around to each one collecting wallets, purses, jewelry,etc.  Natia
identified herself as manager, and she took them to where the entrance
fees had been stored.  The whole thing was over in about eight
minutes.  The police arrived about a half hour later and took
everyone's stories.  Little identifying information was available
about the robbers, as they had masks and gloves.  Following up with
the police a few days later revealed that this band had robbed another
event and stolen a Cadillac.  The Cadillac was equipped with OnStar,
and the police staked out the car and captured one of the milonga
robbers.  (He had some of the stolen items in his possesion.) He was
only recently released on parole.  The stolen credit cards and cell
phones have been used for various purposes, and the police are tracing
these purchases and phone calls.

Martin & Natia have assured the tango community that the
upcoming All Houston Milonga next weekend will have extra
security, possibly off duty police officers.  Alas, this type
of security is very expensive for smaller groups like tango, and
such security is probably not financially viable in the long term.
As you might imagine, a number of people who were robbed plan to
drastically reduce their dancing.  That is a natural reaction to
a very traumatic event, and as a community, we hope this event
will be taken in context and not lead to a permanent decline in
tango dancing.  Only time will tell.

One of the reasons this robbery was so shocking was that it is
very rare.  I've never heard of a similar robbery in twenty years
of dancing in Houston.  It's not clear if crimes like this make
it into the newspaper, but I don't remember reading about any,
either.  I know I blanched when I had to walk through the metal
detector at Crystal in 1992, and the owner of Crystal himself
was killed a few years ago while ejecting two unruly patrons.
A few years ago, when the bouncer at Extasis started to put
his hands down my trousers searching for God only knows what,
I decided I didn't want to enter that club.  I think we would
all agree that the average tango dance environment certainly
seems safer than the fights and stabbings that we read about at
many other dance clubs, such as salsa and C&W.  If nothing else,
we all pretty much know everyone else in our tango community.

Going forward, this is a wake up call for us all to be more aware
of the security issues in dancing tango at our various venues.
As all women are well aware, we are most vulnerable as we walk
to our cars.  Let's all hang together and support each other,
helping everyone get to their cars.  Minimize the valuables we
have on our persons. Keep our eyes peeled for suspicious people
around our events.

If extra security is demanded by tango dancers for a viable event,
maybe smaller events can group together and share the security
expense or otherwise work on the issues as a group.  Of course,
Tango Houston was founded to help solve community issues like this,
encouraging dialog and coordination between tango groups.


Best regards,

Lester