Protesters in Perth are planning to gather outside of Rapture Nightclub on Friday, October 11 in protest of the venue’s reaction to an alleged spiking incident that took place last weekend.
The nightclub and its owner Neil Scott have been heavily scrutinised after screenshots went viral last weekend depicting his response to a spiking incident that took place at the venue.
[jwplayer 4M2B3Ni5]
19-year-old Shantel Smith was enjoying a drink at the club on Saturday night when she claims she was spiked. However, after contacting the venue to flag the issue with them and suggesting they should increase their security, Shantel was met with doubt and criticism from the club’s owner.
Neil Scott, 66, replied to her via Facebook messenger, claiming that she was not “worth someone trying to spike [her] drink” and that “no one would be stupid enough to waste their drugs on spiking anyone’s drink.”
Obviously, the internet went wild over the ridiculous response, and rightfully so. Drink spiking can happen to anyone, and people absolutely do “waste their drugs” on it every single weekend.
But since the scandal began last weekend, a group of Perth locals have decided to take the boycott of Rapture Nightclub a step further, and have organised a protest on October 11.
The Facebook event ‘Protest At The Rapture Nightclub’ has amassed 95 attendees, 406 people interested and 59 shares since it was created on Monday.
“Obviously we’ve all seen how (Mr Scott) completely ignored and even ridiculed a patron who claimed her drink was spiked at his venue,” the event organiser wrote. “It is important that we as a community try and work together to stop the Rapture Nightclub which holds disgusting values from running.”
“If we all work together and hold protest we can change the way the nightclub is running.”
Neil Scott, who has been running clubs for 38 years, welcomed the protest, claiming he’d like to see the faces of the people who have been abusing him.
“It will be good to see the faces of the up to now, anonymous haters hiding behind tag names,” Scott told Daily Mail. “Then there are a lot of messages of support and some telling me that Shantel was a brat in school.”
Scott, who seems to have an issue with being politically correct, has continued to dribble nonsense since the screenshots surfaced over the weekend.
“I think it’s all a big waste of time and people are dumbing down our Aussie culture with all this political correctness,” he said.
“Her multiple scenarios in the story would have the same odds of being true as the winner of the $100million Powerball.”
In addition to doubting the offence, Scott also made wild claims to 9News that Shantel simply isn’t “particularly attractive”, so why would anyone want to spike her? Um, I don’t think that’s how spiking works, Neil.
“Lets face it, why would somebody spike her drink? Why would they do that? What are they hoping to get? What is she hoping to get from it?”
Whether we have proof of the incident occurring or not, allegations of drink spiking and blatant drugging of people without their consent or knowledge need to be taken seriously.
