Silhouettes Gentlemen's Club sues Providence police for racial profiling. What suit claims

PROVIDENCE – An African American-managed club that caters to Black patrons is accusing city police of targeting the establishment with selective and discriminatory enforcement based on the race of its management and clientele.

Lola’s Rendezvous, which operates Silhouettes Gentlemen’s Club, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Providence Police Department, the city and the Board of Licenses alleging that they and their patrons have been unlawfully discriminated against, ultimately leading to the closure of the business at 245 Allens Ave.

The club, which caters to members of the African American community, accuses the police of conducting multiple illegal and unconstitutional searches of patron’s cars that netted no arrests but served to scare away customers and irreparably damage the business.

“There is no other adult establishment within the city of Providence that is victim to the overzealous attention that Silhouettes receives from the PPD,” lawyer Joseph Carnevale wrote in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The plaintiffs  – Lola’s Rendezvous, Miami Employment Inc., the Pink Building Inc., owner Steven Medeiros and manager Shay DiPina – have suffered significant harm as a result of those actions and others, all “carried out with the explicit intent” to force the club out of business without the legal authority to do so, the suit argues.

They are seeking more than $10 million in damages.

A spokesperson for the Providence Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Dylan Conley, chairman of the city’s Board of Licenses.

Suit says discrimination happened as soon as the club opened

The lawsuit traces what it alleges are a series of discriminatory acts by the police and licensing officials since the club opened at the former Cheater’s site on March 4, 2021.

According to the complaint, the club was visited two days later by two detectives who said they were checking for compliance with COVID protocols. At the time, 88 guests were inside, under the number allowed inside the establishment under pandemic restrictions. Nonetheless, the detectives directed off-duty detail police officers that no additional customers were to be allowed inside the club.

DiPina complained to an unnamed  “high-ranking” officer within the Police Department about what had transpired, the suit alleges. In the aftermath, the club alleges that officers labeled DiPina “a bad guy,” with some commenting that “they would get” him.

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Weeks later, police arrived at the club again and advised that only four more people could enter the establishment, despite the executive order in effect at the time allowing 175 people. At that time – 12:45 a.m. – there were 121 people inside the club, the suit said.

On March 31, 2021, a lawyer for the club issued a cease and desist letter to the Providence Police Department, advising that its activities were in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment for its disparate treatment and discrimination against Silhouettes and its patrons. The activity stopped for several months, according to the claims.

In May 2021, DiPina got into a dispute over pay with a police officer working a detail. In the ensuing weeks, DiPina would submit written requests for police details without success.

It’s then that the club accuses the police of implementing a new strategy to interfere with the business by stationing marked and unmarked patrol cars outside the club.

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“This occurred despite the fact that Plaintiffs had repeatedly requested that PPD provide police details at the entrance of the establishment, and those requests had repeatedly been denied with the PPD citing staffing concerns,” the suit said.

From August 2021 through last month, the club said that it had documented more than 30 instances of the police placing marked cruisers on the property, “being present inside of the establishment taking pictures and videos with flashlights, and illegally and unconstitutionally stopping and frisking patrons in the parking lot of the property simply for walking to or from the establishment.”

In addition, the club accuses the police of “consistently” racially profiling its customers and repeatedly pulling over vehicles driving in and out of the parking lot, for no reason other than the passengers were entering or exiting Silhouettes.

These public displays were intended to chill business, the suit alleges.

In May, the club planned to have New York rapper Rowdy Rebel perform before it was summoned before the Board of Licenses on an anonymous complaint that it had failed to secure a performance license. DiPina brought a written application to the May 12 meeting, but the license was denied.

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According to the complaint, other venues, including Studio Lounge, feature performers without obtaining a license, indicating that the city is selectively and arbitrarily enforcing its rules.

The club agreed not to have Rowdy Rebel perform, but the next night the police again restricted entry during an expected deejay show by dj Pretty Lou, the suit said.

According to the complaint, DiPina saw a detective holding a “closure notice,” signaling that the police “intended to shut the establishment’s doors for the evening without cause or explanation.” DiPina said he advised the detective that Pretty Lou wasn’t there and the detective put the notice back into his pocket, remarking “`if Pretty Lou was here, I was shutting you down for the night.’”

On May 14, less than 15 minutes after Rowdy Rebel arrived at the Silhouettes, numerous Providence police officers arrived with cameras and lights and forced Silhouettes to shut down for the night, the suit says.

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The club alleges that defendants’ disparate treatment and intentional interference with its operations have been motivated by its appeal to the African-American community.

The club has since closed, according to the complaint, which does not specify a closure date.

Silhouettes is the latest iteration at the storied Allens Avenue site, which for years operated as the Cheaters Gentlemens Club. Cheaters ran into trouble over a decade ago, when an underage girl was found dancing at the club. The teen was accompanied by a Massachusetts sex offender who was later convicted of acting as a trafficker of her and another 15-year-old girl.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence police accused of racial profiling by Silhouettes club