CRIME: POLICE ARREST SIX AFTER FIGHT OUTSIDE TASTE

The Taste Lounge, a nightclub that has caused police problems in the past, faces loss of its city liquor license after the largest crowd in recent months gathered outside its doors to watch a fight.

Police Chief Rick Hetzel said the fight attracted nearly 150 people in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Six were arrested, three for disturbing the peace and the rest for failing to disperse from outside the lounge at 402 Good Hope St.

Police used two large canisters of Mace sprayed over the crowd to get some to leave, Hetzel said, but the potentially explosive situation stayed under control.

The lounge received a six-month probationary liquor license from the Cape Girardeau City Council in June. Hetzel had asked the council to revoke the Taste's license due to a high number of assaults and other crimes occurring either in or near the bar.

Mayor Al Spradling III said Monday that he hasn't seen any report on the incident and would want to review one before commenting on whether the Taste's liquor license will be yanked. The bar's probationary license is to be considered again by the City Council in December.

Those charged with disturbing the peace in Sunday's incident are Abdul Kareem Sides, 22, of 413 S. Benton St.; Robert L. Criddle, 18, of 323 S. Hanover St.; and Lasanda P. Grigsby, 23, of 909 Hackberry, Apt. 111.

Those charged with failure to disperse are Tony S. Smith, 25, of 181 E. Cape Rock Rd.; Juila C. Wright, 18, of 37 S. Benton St.; and Miah S. Terry, 20, of 722 S. Sprigg St.

When officer Darren Estes responded to a report of the fight soon after it started on Sunday, he found Sides and Criddle in the street swinging at each other, Hetzel said. A crowd estimated at 80 watched.

Estes made his way toward the two men and was bumped but uninjured. Others in the immediate area joined the crowd as more police responded.

Large crowds in the vicinity of the bar, which closes at 1:30 a.m., are not unusual, Lt. Carl Kinnison said.

"They have a history of that kind of problem," he said. "Then you have people just hanging around watching what's going on."

Grigsby was arrested after she began yelling at a man and attempted to strike him, Kinnison said.

Officers from the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department were asked to respond. However, the situation was under control by the time other officers arrived.

A videotape recorded by police during the incident could result in more arrests.

The last serious incident at the Taste occurred Sept. 3, when a man was stabbed inside the bar after an argument over a game of dominos.

On June 11, 1999, six police officers were injured and eight arrests were made following a melee outside the lounge.