Ambulance-Chasing NY Mayor Threatens Twilo

Twilo and the Roxy have been attacked by New York Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, for their policy of hiring private ambulances to cater for clubbers needing hospital treatment. "People are overdosing and the fact they put an ambulance outside a nightclub should be enough to establish that nightclub should be closed," Washington told the New York Times this week. The story emerged after officials from Greenwich Village's St Vincent's Hospital notified local authorities, who then began investigating whether clubs were actively trying to bypass the police. Mayor Washington told the Times that the very presence of the ambulances provided 'further proof that the clubs should be shut down."

Both the Roxy and Twilo defended themselves robustly, with the Roxy's general manager Jason McCarthy singling out GHB as a key factor in the issue. ""Several clubs in the neighbourhood have had people die in them because of GHB. And when people go down, 911 is useless." Twilo, which has been under threat of closure since 1998, also disputed the Mayor's conclusions.

"We are blamed for everything and we are never given the benefit of the doubt," said Peter R. Sullivan, Twilo's lawyer. "The reason we are still open is because we have been able to prove to the courts that we are the safest club in New York."

In an ominous echo of the circumstances that preceded the indictment of the New Orleans 3, Twilo's lawyer added that they'd long sought to collaborate more closely with New York authorities. "We have been asking the city for two years to work with us to make sure there are no illegal drug transactions in the club and they have refused," Mr Sullivan said. "So we have had to create a state-of-the-art medical system of our own."
http://www.twilo.com
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