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This just in from Wild Bill Nigro…
Forget the headlines, crime is actually down in Westport, Nigro says.
"I just got our crime stats from the KCPD and our crime is the lowest it’s been in 10 years," Nigro says. "We’ve just had a couple of high profile crimes. But outside of those everything is much better here."
Then again, how could crime not be down with business in Westport down – way down – because of competition from the Power & Light District, Martini Corner, Waldo , DUI checkpoints and the economy?
"That’s not right," Nigro says. "We just had a great summer and a great fall. The best in the last three years."
Now if someone can just muster the cajones to dismantle what’s left of the lame, withering Brian Euston monument.
It was one thing to put it up last year when the search to learn how the 24 year-old man died was still on. But now that Euston’s unhappy tale has been told – involving him inserting himself into the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time in the exact wrong way (while blind drunk), it’s time for the memorial to come down.
For a number of reasons….
For starters it represents practically every negative stereotype – right or wrong – that Westport is known for.
Drunken rowdiness, black-on-white violence and the overserving of alcohol to customers (anybody lived through a Buzzard Beach, 3 a.m., shots-only, last call?).
On top of that, the elements have not been kind to the four month-old, makeshift paper and plastic "memorial."
Now it’s time for Westport to take it down and move on towards a hopefully better, brighter future.
Bill Nigro…Westport is gone
…in the minds of most affluent, suburban partiers. Don’t make up stuff to try to save it the way it is. Change, resurrect the area with a new approach. Scamming the crime stats is not an acceptable approach.
Real fucking classy, Hearne
Goddamn Hearne! How many times do you have to point out that the Euston kid was hammered? What is the point? Let him rest in peace! I hope the thug who killed him spends the rest of his life in the Slam!
Mr. Nigro….Wesport is dead, and not coming back.
No matter how you spin it or what stats you want to throw out, the cold hard fact is that the KC Metro has moved on from Westport. With the growth of the northland and the continued development of the south and KCK, no one has any real reason to risk the DUI checkpoints and violence.
Please stop beating me.
Westport dug its own grave
Westport wasn’t tough enough to deal with its problems, serving the god of political correctness, and now women won’t go there. why should dudes? sorry, but I don’t feel one bit bad about it. I don’t see myself going back.
Are you serious?
“Lame” monument? The kid died.
Hearne, I bet you would blame a girl for being raped when she was passed out. Your insensitivity baffles me. You obviously have it out for somebody involved in this.
A kid died. Sure, he was very intoxicated, but who isn’t at Westport at 3am. You can’t walk 10 feet in wesport at 3am without running into someone as drunk as Euston was.
You’re an old, played out piece of garbage who is skating by on a name that many in our city have forgotten.
In fact, I’m a 25 year old with a J-degree and I’ve never heard of you. You’re washed up. No one fucking cares what you say.
Stop begging or I’ll let Tony comb out your tail
Brian, is it?
Small world, never heard of you either.
Ah, searching for my motive? Try digging a little deeper. I interviewed DUI experts on Euston’s blood/alcohol level and he was near death’s door drunk, dude. Get a clue. The consensus was that he had to be a hard core, serious drinking class drunk to still be standing upright at those levels. Let alone walking around, getting in people’s faces and popping off.
Your rape analogy is both lame and wrong. We both know better. No need to distort reality to try and make your point.
For the record, I don’t have a dog in this fight. Was pushing for answers early on, which the family also very much wanted. Don’t know Brian, met the mom once on a column I was writing. Nice lady. Very sad this happened to her son.
I also know people who know the family and are painfully aware of Euston’s problems with alcohol. Major problems. Please don’t naively dismiss this as a case of someone going a bit over the line. Look at it for what it is, a very sad, very serious lesson for us all.
But four months after the fact, there’s no reason to celebrate that 1) someone got ridiculously, obnoxiously drunk in Westport 2) that the person was obviously, illegally overserved and 3) died in an incident of black/white violence.
The funeral is over. The facts are mostly in. The law will run it’s course. There’s little to be realized by posting a bunch of weather beaten photos of the poor kid getting hammered over-and-over prior to this tragedy. Like on the Facebook tribute page.
It’s time to move on…
JMO
But, I DON’T think all the facts are in.
I know someone who tells me, and don’t get me wrong, but I think she might have some credibility, that his injuries were far more substantial than the “one punch” story that is accepted by everyone to this point.
Mr. Griswold, no doubt in fear of his life from a guy near “death’s door” from alchohol, may have inflicted more harm than we know.
Can’t blame Mr. Griswold though. He must have been really scared.
Just sitting here typing this, I am imagining how terrified I would have been if I would have crossed paths with Mr. Euston that night.
I might have hit him too, but of course I hate getting drool on fist when I punch helpless, somewhat ambulatory drunks.
But then again, he WAS WHITE.
It doesn’t add up…
Brian was a Rockhurst guy. Everyone knows that these guys are the “gold standard” among partiers – drinkers in the city. These guys are veterans in the districts and when the blood/alc count is moving upward. Shit ,most of the top local bars are even owned by Rock guys. Nigro, Lews/Well, Kennedy’s among many others.
It makes no sense that a Rock guy was drunk, then stumbled into a bunch of brothers and their women. Then hugged a black woman? Doesn’t add up. That’s beyond the fact that he came to Kelly’s by taxicab (another trait of the serious partiers in this town) and then when leaving, by passed the cab stand outside of the bar to end up down by America’s Pub.
Has anyone thought that the KCPD may have been closing in on the killer and the girl friend pulled the trigger on the reward ($35k)? I think it’s a cooked up story and the KCPD has accepted it to close the case without more racial overtones. Now as a favor to his buddy Nigro, Hearne wants to put an end to the memorial.
Shame on you Hearne.