{"id":153971,"date":"2025-06-03T05:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153971\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T05:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:16:13","slug":"every-city-centre-police-officer-scrambled-to-huge-brawl-at-bar-promoting-pouring-tequila-down-each-others-necks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153971\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Every city centre police officer’ scrambled to HUGE brawl at bar promoting ‘pouring tequila down each other’s necks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have never been in any place where pouring tequila in someone\u2019s mouth was considered acceptable\u201dAn Instagram post shown to the licencing committee on Monday(Image: Eagle Bar\/Instagram)<\/p>\n

\u2018Every\u2019 police officer on-duty in Manchester city centre was scrambled to an \u2018outrageous\u2019 fight at a bar which \u2018promoted\u2019 customers \u2018pouring tequila down each other\u2019s necks\u2019, it’s been revealed.<\/p>\n

Deansgate was rocked by two large brawls on April 28 and May 4, both of which started inside Eagle Bar and resulted in patrons crowding on the thoroughfare, blocking traffic.<\/p>\n

Eagle\u2019s licence was suspended after the two incidents, and reviewed by Manchester council on Monday (June 2).<\/p>\n

Some 200 people spilled out onto Deansgate in the early hours of May 4.<\/p>\n

A licencing hearing was told by PC Stuart Hammersley how Greater Manchester Police required \u2018every\u2019 officer on its night-time economy team to disperse the crowds.<\/p>\n

A fight a week earlier, which started in the bar and filled Tonman Street, saw armed police arrive because a neighbour 999 \u2018they thought one of the members of security shouted the word \u201cgun\u201d\u2019 amid the fracas.<\/p>\n

\"EagleEagle bar on Deansgate(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

But \u2018a significant police response\u2019 then \u2018spoke to all staff present and people in the area, and none said they had heard it other than the one person who mentioned it on the phone call\u2019, PC Hammersley added at the review.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all 30 [police officers] to attend is unusual. It\u2019s not a weekly occurrence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those officers not engaged means they are not across the city centre and other busy areas. It\u2019s not something we can promote week in and week out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eagle\u2019s neighbours also told the hearing the chaos was part of a what they described as a wider trend of antisocial behaviour stemming from the bar. This included incidents of public urination and loud music being played from cars parked outside the venue.<\/p>\n

Deansgate ward councillors Joan Davies and Anthony McCaul reported similar worries, with the latter adding he believed Eagle had ignored a condition of its licence to \u2018promote is responsible drinking\u2019.<\/p>\n

He produced a series of images taken from Eagle\u2019s social media and website pages which appeared to show bottles of liquor being poured into women\u2019s mouths.<\/p>\n

The bar owner admitted he \u2018can see\u2019 it promoted irresponsible behaviour(Image: Eagle Bar\/Instagram)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOne of the [conditions] was to not allow patrons to pour alcohol down each other\u2019s necks. I am concerned this is driving some of the behaviours at the bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never been in any place where pouring tequila in someone\u2019s mouth was considered acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eagle\u2019s licensee, Ugochukwu Inyama, said the images taken showed \u2018bottle shows\u2019, and no alcohol was poured into customers\u2019 mouths by staff.<\/p>\n

But he admitted he \u2018can see\u2019 it promoted irresponsible behaviour.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cBut it\u2019s not what we represent. When people do this, it\u2019s to put it on Instagram for likes. Now we will not allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Inyama, a 25-year veteran of Manchester\u2019s hospitality scene, said the fights were \u2018regrettable\u2019 and apologised.<\/p>\n

\u201cApril 28 was very regrettable. GMP have looked at the whole thing and they have made recommendations which we fully agree with,\u201d he told the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two nights we slipped up and we are sorry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progress was already being made on implementing police recommendations, such as hiring a new security firm, adding more CCTV, and requiring staff to wear bodyworn video cameras.<\/p>\n

The bar had been subjected to 40 complaints in a little over 18 months, council officers said, but after investigations, they found no noise nuisance attributable to Eagle directly. That led Mr Inyama to say he felt \u2018ganged up on\u2019.<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cWhat I have found in this particular location is disturbing. I feel ganged up on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn May 26, 2025, we were closed and a resident reported an incident that we had music playing and cars parked all over the place. We had the licensing team visit and look at CCTV and they could see we were closed. Because Deansgate was busy and it was packed and it’s a one way street\u2026 the assumption is it\u2019s Eagle. That\u2019s what we are going through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two nights we slipped up and we are sorry about it\u201d(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

Only four crimes were recorded at Eagle in the previous 12 months \u2014 including two phone thefts and two assaults, one of which was between two staff members, which PC Hammersley said was \u2018below average\u2019 for a bar in town.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, councillors decided to allow Eagle to stay open, but restricted its operations. Chair Coun John Flanagan, who called the disorder \u2018outrageous\u2019, said: \u201cWe have decided to modify the license.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe accept in full the recommendations from GMP and Licensing Out Of Hours, which include removing the designated premises supervisor and looking at the door company, and changing conditions on cameras<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also looked at a variation on the recommendation regarding outside promoters. Only events are permitted and held by the premises themselves. There\u2019s no excuse that it\u2019s an outside promoter now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are insisting the website removes all the issues about unsafe drinking. We will put in detail about that and drinking out of the bottle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll bottles of alcohol, other than wine with a meal, cannot be sold. We do not believe it promotes safe drinking. We believe it\u2019s a danger having glass bottles handed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have noted both incidents happened at a weekend where there is variation to increased hours. We are going to remove the time variation [so closing is] on Friday down to 2am and the same on Saturday, and on Sunday it is at 1am.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe provision of alcohol and late night refreshment will stop half an hour before. Same for live music, we feel it would be unfair to leave a suspension in place but the conditions will be modified [in the interim so they apply immediately].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI have never been in any place where pouring tequila in someone\u2019s mouth was considered acceptable\u201dAn Instagram post…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,17630,393,4884,2465,8086,8828,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-153971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-deansgate","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-city-centre","14":"tag-manchester-council","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114617738428819920","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}