GUEST COLUMNIST: The responsibility of the bar owner

Roger Harman, Guest Columnist Roger Harman, Guest Columnist As one of the owners of The Palladium, I am writing to address the University community about the DP article regarding the police raid at the Palladium on Tuesday night ("LCE cites 33 in raid at Palladium," DP, 3/20/97). The article was well-written from a student point-of-view. But we all have to live within the laws that we have, and as a restaurant we have to ask our customers to respect us enough to do the same. We work very hard at The Palladium to operate food and bar service with systems that are adult in tone, and effective without being hostile. For bar business late in the evening (after 10 p.m.) this means we have door people who request proper ID to prove a person is at least 21 years of age. Prior to 10 p.m., people of all ages are permitted to enter The Palladium for meals, and waiters and bartenders check IDs individually. We do NOT currently use video cameras or more intrusive interrogation, such as those used at other campus bars. Our staff is also trained periodically in identifying fake IDs and dealing with guests who have had too much to drink. There is a question, however, of whether some of the current undergraduate student population is prone to abuse our good faith. I say this because the 31 people who supposedly were drinking underage in The Palladium all gained access by deceit -- either using fake ID or the real IDs of someone similar who is over 21. Because of this essentially fraudulent behavior of some, perhaps we will be forced to use take more Draconian measures at the door, or perhaps we will be forced to close early in the evenings. Three of my staff and I had to spend 24 hours in jail and will face potentially large fines and even temporary loss of license. Our crime, I suppose, was to be gullible, certainly not deceitful. The underage people who were deceitful do NOT face criminal charges, but instead face only a small fine. For better or worse, this is the way the law is written. My use of the word "supposedly," by the way, refers to the fact that the same law applies NOT to all 31 people cited, but only those who were found to be drinking on our premises. This excludes anyone who was not drinking alcohol at all or who drank only prior to coming here. Lest you think this is some minor quibble, based on the evidence we have seen, this excludes the large majority of people cited. It is particularly galling to be charged with "contributing to the delinquency of minors." While the drinking age in Pennsylvania is 21 years, for just about all other matters -- voting, sex and marriage, legal documents, legal violations (including misrepresentation of age) -- one is an adult at 18. It is the population failing between one legal age (18) and another (21) that is of concern here. We do not have any advertising for our bar, we do not have any drink price specials for our bar, we do not carry keg beer or pitchers. We do nothing to "lure" the low budget crowd or the 18- to 20-year-old crowd. In short, underage students who use fake IDs to come to our bar do it completely of their own volition; there is no sense in which we are "enticing" minors. They may drink as minors, but they deceive as adults. Please bear this in mind when you consider to what extent The Palladium and its staff were responsible for what happened Tuesday night.