Security guards at the Frontier restaurant have recently adopted stricter measures in response to violent incidents at the restaurant.
While managers say the tighter security, including physical searches at the entrance, have been successful at decreasing violence in the eatery, many UNM students said the measures are a recipe for disaster.
Mathew Fuemmeler, a UNM sophomore, was eating at the Frontier on Oct. 30 with several friends when an altercation broke out between the group and restaurant security guards.
Recounts of the incident differ, with both sides saying the other was at fault.
Fuemmeler and at least three other people in the group were hit with pepper spray as the altercation spilled into the restaurant's parking lot.
Witnesses of the incident said Fuemmeler was handcuffed and then beaten by the security guards with their fists and metal batons.
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He sustained several deep bruises on both legs and numerous cuts on his face.
"The situation was completely out of control," said Fuemmeler, who plans on suing Everest Security, the Frontier's security provider. "I admit that we were also in the wrong, but it could have been contained. The security guards really crossed the line."
William Belleto, a UNM sophomore, said the Frontier's security guards have grown increasingly hostile and are too quick to use force.
"Of course there are those situations where physical violence is the last resort," he said. "But this wasn't one of them. It's getting to the point that they're alienating their own customers."
Rob Hamic, co-owner of Everest Security, said the Frontier's management asked Fuemmeler and his party to leave, and when they refused, the security guards were "forced to remove them from the establishment."
"A restaurant is private property," said Hamic, noting that the security guard also suffered injuries during the altercation. "When a person is asked to leave, that is a lawful request. We have to do what we have to do to protect the restaurant's patrons and employees at that point."
Hamic said several instances of people trying to enter the Frontier with firearms prompted Everest Security to institute physical searches, which include scans with a metal detector.
Several other violent incidents have occurred in or near the Frontier, including the shooting of an Albuquerque man in July after he attacked a Frontier security guard with a crowbar. More recently, UNM student Bryan Christensen was critically injured in an attack in the restaurant's parking lot in August. Christensen remains under medical supervision.
Hamic said the Frontier is prone to violence because it is open 24-hours a day and because it attracts large crowds after bars close.
Dorothy Rainosek, owner of the Frontier, said Everest Security is doing a good job of controlling those who can't control themselves. Several of the restaurant's paintings have been vandalized recently and there have been times when things got so out of control that management had to close the restaurant until the situation was under control, she said.
"It is a sad situation when people don't respect other people and their property," Rainosek said. "It's sad that we even had to hire a security force in the first place. But it is important they have the upper hand at all times."
