Jan 02 Dennis Jones – Bouncers and the Police..

This interview was published in February 2008

One of the things about bouncing is that you get to observe people in the raw – now before you start laughing Steve I’m not talking about a nightclub full of naked bodies, although at times it does appear that way.  I could never understand it though?  It would be the middle of winter, with a slight drizzle and a cold wind howling down the street and yet nobody is wearing a coat except the doormen!  I remember one night a friend turned up for work wearing a pair of grandma’s furry boots.  Standing next to me he then peeled back the top of a boot and showed me the inside.  I couldn’t help but notice the furriness of the white imitation lamb’s wool and thinking how warm it must have been inside the boot.  “They keep my feet warm,” I remember him saying with a smug look on his face.  I also remember thinking; ‘I wish I had pair of those boots!’  Apart from getting cold I have had a great laugh working the doors.  Often I reflect on how my fellow doormen, through their genuine perspective on life, managed to find great humour in most circumstances no matter how adverse or even perverse they may have seemed.  

Watching human emotions played out in public can give a doorman an uncanny ability to work people out.  This intuitive knowledge that some bouncers bring to a job proves very helpful, especially when they use their ability to unravel what violent people really mean ‘when they say or do something.’  Most people posses the basic skills needed to second guess their work colleagues and associates.  However, this ability is generally associated with normal everyday life, not abnormal acts of violence.   

Its human nature to second guess what your rival or someone you dislike is up to -that’s what politics is about.  Relationships, friends, cooperation, working together, earning a living, providing for a family, being nice, being devious, being nasty and so on are the substances of life.  Most adults are familiar with the strategies they use for survival and they know that using ‘a physical response’ as a solution to a problem is in the majority of cases not necessary.  Quite simply, punching someone doesn’t usually pay the rent or put food on the table.  It can also attract a prison sentence.  

Often perception and belief in oneself is what insulates us from the occasional denigrating comments and opinions of other people.  Saying nice things about a person or perhaps being sycophantic or even expressing nasty half truths about someone you dislike seems to be something that humans like to indulge in.  It is a survival mechanism and is often used to give a sense of worth, allowing us to maintain a particular position within our family and among our friends and peers.  However, I have found that when danger occurs, the survival instinct, for the duration of the danger, dominates.  Fear and emotional turmoil will expose, for all to see, most people’s inner self, but it is our intellect (often after the event) that attempts to limit the emotional damage.  Nobody wants to be talked about in a bad way, it’s hurtful.  And in my experience truth always gets mixed with fiction and the resulting fairy tale of what happened is always good for laugh.

Let me give an example….

I was running the door at a local nightclub.  A group of Asians were causing some problems inside the club.  So a couple of bouncers and myself went to the top floor and told them to leave, which they did.  I knew a few of the Asians and apart from a couple of comments like ‘Den this is out of order’ they went without any grief.  But once outside they started arguing with another group of Asians that the doorman had refused to let in.  It turned out that one group were Muslims the other were Sikhs and they had a problem they wanted to sort out.  Very quickly the arguing turned into a battle.  Starting on each other it was only seconds before bottles, knuckledusters and other implements made their appearance.  Standing on the nightclub steps, I and the other bouncers watched the altercation turn into a vicious gang fight.  Having been told by the Licensing Officer not to go out in the street or ‘you’ll get arrested’ we happily settled down to watch the fight.  A few bouncers took it upon themselves to slag off any unfair behaviour but apart from that, we decided not to get involved. 

The fighting was getting really violent when suddenly a patrol car turned up.  With its lights flashing and two-tones going ten to the dozen it skidded to a halt.  Two police officers jumped out and without any hesitation they both got stuck in.  We all thought they were brave but with only a WPC and a PC in among ten or so brawling guys they were out numbered.  With two bouncers for back up I ran up to a police officer and asked if he needed assistance?  He replied ‘Yes!’ so we got stuck in and restrained a guy to ‘prevent a breach of the peace.’  He had tried to bottle another bloke.

We were restraining the guy when another patrol car turned up.  Out jumped a police officer ‘asp’ in hand and after taking a look around he came straight over and ordered us to release the guy we were holding.  Very quickly, as he was talking, we point out that both his colleagues were still struggling with a number of offenders and they ‘really do need your assistance’.  His colleagues were no more than the length of a front room away.  He turned and looked at them but as quickly as he looked, he turned back and started threatening to arrest us for assault.  He then handcuffed the guy we were holding (by now the guy had calmed down) and walked him back to the patrol car.  We then helped his colleagues and the situation was finally brought under control.

When it was over and a number of offenders had been taken away to the police station, the police officer that had arrested the guy we were holding came back and laid the law down.  He informed us that he intervened because, ‘three of you were beating the Asian guy up.’   Labouring his position as an upholder of the law, he then informed us that we were lucky we were not getting arrested for a serious assault.  Listening to him rattling on one of the bouncers got angry.  Snapping, Woody then told the police officer what he really thought.  Accusing him of taking the easy option, he pointed out that two of his colleagues could have got seriously hurt because he turned his back on them.  He called him a coward for running away and then proceeded to turn a bad situation into a real problem.  Repeating himself a number of times, everyone up the street could not help but hear him call the policeman a coward.  Doorman backing off always got up Woody’s nose and seeing a policeman do the same thing was just as bad.

Within days of the incident a phone call and a letter came winging its way to the nightclub.  The Chief Inspector informed the manager that the doormen were fighting in the street with some Asian youths and that one of his officers had to intervene to stop ‘the security staff assaulting a member of the public’.  He adds that P.C. (name withheld) was verbally abused and that the doormen were unhelpful, uncooperative and failed to assist the police.  He pointed out that on no occasion should the doormen be on the street, he also informed the manager that the club was at risk of losing its liquor licence for its continual breach of its licensing conditions.

Speaking to me, the manager asked me to write a report about the incident to be passed on to both the Chief Inspector and Licensing Officer.  Worried because he did not want to upset the police and have them on his case, he also wanted Woody sacked to appease them.  Not really knowing what to write I asked Jon my brother to put pen to paper.  He’s a lot better than me with this sort of thing and considering he was involved in the incident from beginning to end who better to put our case before the police than him.  This is what he wrote about the incident that occurred outside the nightclub at 2:20AM on the 9/12/95:

‘A group of unknown persons, Asian in appearance, were ejected from the premises for unreasonable behaviour.  Their exit was without incident and they left of their own volition, that is, without physical encouragement.

   However, there was present, outside the nightclub, a further small-group of persons, again Asian in appearance, who had earlier been refused entry to the premises.  Nonetheless, it was evident that certain individuals of both parties had developed an animosity between them.  This invariably culminated in conflict.

   The dispute manifested itself in violence among the two groups of Asians.  Fortunately, there was positioned nearby a mobile police unit, which attended promptly.  Upon, the arrival of the police, the head of nightclub security offered lawful assistance to the attending officers, and as such placed at his disposal a number of security personnel.  At this point it was noticed that an individual of one of the conflicting parties, struck out with a bottle at another, fortunately missing him.  Given this action, and under authority of police officers at the scene, three members of the security staff prevented the assailant from continuing his assault, and restrained him, using reasonable force, so as to prevent a breach of the peace.

   It was at this juncture, that a further officer, having just arrived, attended the incident.  This officer, making an accurate assessment of the situation, drew his asp (extending baton) and took control of a number of the combatants.  Thus gaining command with great efficiency, he instructed release of the restrained individual and placed him in handcuffs, and removed him to police custody.  At which point he thanked the security staff for their assistance, who then offered to provide statements to assist the police in their investigation.’

Initially I wanted to state our case exactly as it happened but my brother, and within minutes, wrote the brief report.  As sharp as a razor, the pragmatism of his approach shone through the words.  Smiling he said, ‘Nobody’s going to accuse us of lying now.’  We had a good giggle and then he added ‘And certainly not the officer that complained!’

Like the bouncer who wore his granny’s furry boots or the martial artists that pushes when he is pulled or even the bouncer who puts a shine on the truth:

Necessity is the mother of invention.

 And Woody kept his job!

Steve Rowe

Steve Rowe is a highly successful Martial Arts instructor - an International Neigong, Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher and an 8th Dan Karate with many other senior dan grades in other martial disciplines.

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