Additional penalties handed down to Motion Nightclub after disturbance

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Providence Board of Licenses announced Thursday night that Motion Nightclub had been ordered to close for another weekend.

The board gathered Thursday to review next steps after a disturbance leading to seven arrests outside the club, including several charged for resisting arrest.

Body camera video showed officers trying to get a crowd of nearly 500 people off Broad Street.

The board ordered the club to close for three days at the time.

Chairman Dylan Conley said they would be ordering Motion to close once more for two days and also require a police presence at the club for its next 60 days of business.

“A two-day closure, with 60 days police detail is a very steep penalty,” Conley said. “We do progressive discipline, when there’s another incident, this is the absolute floor of what they would see.”

The chairman explained that Motion Nightclub only operates on weekends, meaning the 60 days worth of police details could last all the way into 2026.

“The challenge with a lot of these nightclubs is, are they a victim in the same way the city’s a victim?” Conley posed. “Did they do something wrong or did something bad happen to them? What we have to be very careful about is making sure a penalty is not too light but also that a penalty is never unjust.”