Lauren C.
Yelp
I was assaulted during a show at the Alberta Rose, and the staff did nothing to insure my safety and let my assaulter continue to watch the show in peace and even kept her from speaking with the police, who wanted to question her. This was a show that I'd been looking forward to for 4.5 months, since I'd bought the tickets then, and spent over $100 on them.
The assaulter/woman, was seated at least two feet behind me said clearly "this woman's hair is all over in my space". Then I heard a rip and sharp pain, and my hair had been torn out. A big huge part of it, to where I was bleeding and bald in a patch.
I told her she ripped out my hair, and she said "your hair was in my space; it was an accident". My husband heard this too.
The staff at Alberta Rose knowing I was bleeding and hurt, gave me an ice pack and moved my husband and I outside the theater area to stools in the bar, which is outside the theater area. That's all they were willing to do. The woman who assaulted me was free to watch the show in peace.
I called the police, but the staff of Alberta Rose kept reinforcing to them that the woman who assaulted me and her friends had a different story. The friends and my assaulter said my hair got caught in my seat; there was no assault. Hearing this, as well as there are no cameras in the theater, the police didn't even bother to speak with the women, or her friends.
If the Alberta Rose Theater staff had brought out the assaulter, as the police had initially asked, before the staff was so dismissive, everyone would've clearly seen that the area of my hair that was pulled out, is a layered area, and it's only about a foot-long. It is impossible for it to have gotten caught in my seat. I was too upset to realize and point this out at the time. The police did get a picture of my bloody head, and were taking this situation and assault seriously prior to the staff being so dismissive.
Besides the shock and pain, another reason I was so upset is that the woman who attacked me was still in the theater, behind my family, who I was no longer able to sit or be with. Even worse the staff wouldn't even let me back in to see my family after the show was done. I didn't even see the show, and the artist I hold so dearly in my heart, at all after the assault. She's literally of my favorite artists. This was my fourth show at The Alberta Rose, in so many months.
I'm still in a lot of pain nearly 2 hours later. And my assaulter was just allowed to walk away.
Alberta rose has been one of my favorite places in Portland. Now I'm sitting in my driveway at home in tears over what happened to me, without their keeping me safe, or defending me in any kind of way.