An increased RCMP presence on Leon Avenue, Halloween night didn’t stop incivility between club-goers and people experiencing homelessness.
Derek Foreel, a man who was camping along the street said RCMP had let them know early Friday morning that there would be a police presence that evening to limit contact between them and the people at the nightclubs.
RCMP did just that, but Foreel said some of the partiers still managed to throw some choice words at the people in the encampment — among other things.
“There were some bar patrons shouting obscenities at us,” he said.
“A car came through late shooting Roman candles at some of the tents.”
Foreel said the incident happened around 3 or 4 a.m. after most of the clubbers had gone home. No injuries were reported.
“(They were) just angry about having such an aggressive attack that could’ve seriously harmed someone and damaged a lot of property. As far as I am aware, the RCMP were notified.”
The RCMP presence was a good thing according to Foreel, who said they were there ensuring the safety of everybody on the street.
Both Sapphire and Gotham nightclubs are on Leon Avenue, just up the street from the encampment and the Kelowna Gospel Mission. Last Friday, upon Gotham nightclub’s grand opening, RCMP forced the around 100 people camping on the street to leave, allegedly giving them just 10 minutes to pack up their things.
Capital News reached out to RCMP for comment but they could not confirm incident.
Neither Sapphire Nightclub nor Gotham Nightclub could be reached for comment.
READ MORE: RCMP evict homeless people camping on Leon Avenue
READ MORE: Kelowna homeless claim they are assaulted ‘regularly’ by police, public
@michaelrdrguez
michael.rodriguez@kelownacapnews.com
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