Racket Or Racism, You Decide
Friday, Aug 7, 2009 | Updated 12:30 AM EST
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A New Haven drum squad has a run-in with Kansas City, MO brass after hotel guests complained about the noise they were making.
The hotel denies the allegation and said the group was warned many times about the noise level before the cops were called.
They just want to bang on their drums all day, but a New Haven drill team claims they got no love on Tuesday when they were booted out of a Kansas City, Missouri hotel for being too rowdy.
The Nation Drum and Drill Squad from New Haven's Dixwell neighborhood was soaring high on a victory at a national drill team competition earlier that day. The squad won gold and silver trophies.
Apparently when they returned to the Sheraton Kansas City Sports Complex Hotel, the 35 kids in the corps were too excited to go to sleep. After receiving several complaints from other guests, the hotel called the police.
According to Doug Bethea, the founder and head of the Nation squad, Kansas City police officers armed with taser guns banged on the hotel doors at 1:30 am Wednesday.
The group was told they were being kicked out and now Bethea says it was plain old racism, not noise that was behind it all.
"It all boils down to, they had 48 black people in their hotel and they did not like it," Bethea told the New Haven Independent. He has also said he considered filing a racial discrimination lawsuit.
Posted Friday, Aug 7, 2009 - 12:13 AM EST
