Salina Soto is upset that the need for security is being
questioned for a 3 Tha Hard Way party at Atlas Supper Club on
Saturday.
“In no way, shape or form am I or should anyone else be
afraid to attend,” said Soto, a first-year political science
and African American studies student.
An entertainment group run by three UCLA students, 3 Tha Hard
Way has been hosting parties about once a month for roughly four
years. They are keeping on schedule Saturday by hosting the
“Official USC v. UCLA After Party” at the Wilshire
Boulevard club.
This month’s party comes after an Oct. 18 shooting outside
the Sigma Nu fraternity house on Gayley Avenue when the group
hosted its last party, dubbed the “UCLA Blue and Gold
Bash.”
During the party, a man was shot in the ankle outside Sigma Nu.
Roughly 10 minutes later, additional shots were fired in Lot 8,
about two blocks to the east.
3 Tha Hard Way said the incident is the first shooting in its
history as party hosts. The shooting has not deterred the group
from scheduling events; in addition to Saturday’s party, the
group has scheduled two more parties at Atlas Supper Club to run
before the year’s end.
In an attempt to keep its reputation intact, the group is
stepping up security at Saturday’s event by providing its own
security in addition to the club’s regular detail.
Soto and other people who attended the October party believe 3
Tha Hard Way is not to blame for the shooting.
“It was an isolated incident,” said Christina
Bentley, who attended last month’s party and plans to attend
this weekend’s event.
In addition to checking for college IDs at last month’s
party, 3 Tha Hard Way said it provided 10 in-house security
officers at Sigma Nu, two of whom were armed.
Bentley said it seems as though 3 Tha Hard Way is being targeted
unfairly.
Fights and crime are not out of the ordinary at other parties
held at fraternities, and those parties are not questioned for
safety, Bentley said.
But a shooting warrants special consideration, said Nancy
Greenstein, director of university police community services.
“A shooting, more than other crimes, because of the sense
of injury and vulnerability of the people there … creates sort of
a group awareness of the seriousness of what could happen and how
they could be hurt,” Greenstein said.
The party at Sigma Nu drew about 1,000 people, many of whom were
unable to get inside the house and thus stayed outside, where the
shooting occurred.
Crowds that develop outside parties are something that Atlas
Supper Club has experience in handling.
“That is the reason that we have a traffic officer,”
said Roland Richards, the club’s manager.
Sometimes people cannot get into clubs or parties because
capacity is reached, they are wearing clothing associated with
gangs, or they attempt to bring weapons inside.
These rules ““ ones 3 Tha Hard Way said it also upheld last
month at Sigma Nu ““ will apply at Saturday’s venue.
When partygoers are refused admission, they often loiter outside
the party venue, Richards said.
In addition to the 20 security guards inside the club, off-duty
police, a metal detector and surveillance cameras, Atlas Supper
Club has two armed traffic officers patrolling the street
outside.
On its Web site, 3 Tha Hard Way advertised the capacity for
Saturday’s party at over 1,000.
“I’m not nervous at all,” said Richards, after
first hearing of the shooting at Sigma Nu.
“They’re going to pat you down like a man going to
see the president in the White House,” he added.