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Steve Crow - Source: Close Up -
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An all out brawl is brewing between members of the RSA in New Plymouth and porn king Steve Crow.
The members won't let him in but he owns the building and is now threatening to shut them down.
The crowd at the RSA are usually a peaceful lot but they have got a few choice words to say about their landlords, Steve and David Crow.
The brothers bought the RSA buildings 16 months ago after promising their dying father they would save the club from going under.
But members have fallen out with the brothers who some call arrogant bullies. They say the way the Crows have gone about making changes has all the subtlety of a hand grenade.
Steve Crow has now upped the ante, demanding the president and vice president's heads on a platter and threatening to shut the RSA down. He told Mark Sainsbury on Close Up that the problem lies with "a disgruntled new president and his sidekick".
He says when they walk in with their mother they get the cold shoulder from "two newly elected officials on some sort of power trip".
The Crows say they have poured over $700,000 into bailing the club out and have worked their for a year free of charge, paying their rates, power bill, water bill and insurance because the club cannot afford it. And they say they have had supportive phone calls since the situation came to a head.
"The bottom line is they are still there because we put our money in and have made the changes that had to be made," Steve says, admitting they have ruffled some feathers while turning it into a break even situation.
But members say they were spoken down to and ordered about in their service life and they won't stand for it now.
President Roy Komene says things got so heated last week, David Crow shoved him as he was leaving his office. And he says Steve Crow's comment that he wants his head on a platter shows him to be a dictator.
"That is telling the people exactly what he is - a bully," says Komene.
Matters came to a head on Friday when both parties changed the locks on the front door and then exchanged trespass threats.
The police refused to get involved.
"It's our property and we're gonna trespass them off they tried to do it to us," Steve Crow says. "We're going to show them exactly how the law actually works."
The Crows have upset veterans by removing pictures of VC recipients and other war memorabilia from the walls. They also plan to paint over the mural outside the club and replace it with two billboards to advertise upcoming events like Steve Crow's upcoming Erotica Expo. But Steve Crow says they took down some dusty old pictures, spent about 100 hours digitising them and turning them into an extensive slide show which shows continuously in the club on a touch screen arrangement.
Both have resigned their membership and management of the club since Steve failed to win any position on the RSA executive at the recent AGM.
Club members are sad at the turn of events and say the Crow brothers' father was a gentleman and well respected.
Members are frightened they will lose their club and say they are tired of being told by the Crow brother that they own it all.
They say if the brothers had come in with a different attitude it could have been worked well.
But Steve Crow says the option is to "make the changes we have
made or don't have a club".
