Bail was set at $30,000 for a bar patron on Saturday, Dec. 13, after throwing a pint of beer at a Santa Monica bartender after she refused to pay for the beverage.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called to the Britannia Pub at 318 Santa Monica Blvd. at 10:10 am in order to investigate the report of an assault.
Upon arrival the officers spoke with the assault victim and detained the suspect a short distance away in Palisades Park, after the suspect had initially refused to stop for police.
The bartender told the officers that the female suspect had entered the pub and ordered a pint of beer.
The bartender had served the beer but when he asked for payment the suspect told him that she didn’t have to pay for the beer because she was white and he was black.
The bartender requested again that she pay, and in response the woman began to babble on about all the historical reasons that she believed entitled her to free beer that day.
The bartender then attempted to take the beer away, but the woman grabbed the beer and threw it directly at the bartender.
The bartender was able to block the flying pint with his arms but suffered from minor cuts in the process.
The officers arrested the woman, aged 31 and of no fixed abode, and she was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and obstruction of police officers in the execution of their duties. Bail was set at $30,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
