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So,
Where to begin? I was doing a favor for my brother, and working as a bouncer on "his" bar-door for a weekend. That weekend also happened to be my first weekend "off" from other commitments since somewhere in July. I also have a day-job so after a few months of continual working I was getting a bit tired and was looking forward to aforementioned weekend and thinking warmly about the bottle of scotch I had stored away from somewhere.
Friday comes, and at about noon my brother calls me that his son is sick, and that him and his wife had been almost completely sleep deprived since monday, and that maybe if I could just this once yet again?
So in comes the friday night, I get off work about 1600, go home to try catch a few hours of sleep, chance in to my working clothes, and off I go. To start the weekend I'd later dub as "The Mildly Interesting Weekend."
The evening starts pretty much routinely: I collect cover fees and peoples jackets as they come in, and whenever I have time I go raound the tables collecting empty glasses and emptying ash trays, whilst keeping eye on people and walking out men and women alike who have "had enough for the night." You, dear reader, should also know that this isn't one the mid-town upscale places, this ones deep in the suburbs, and not in the middle of better parts of those either...
Suddenly at about midnight, I just sense something going wrong. Not long after, I hear some commotion in the mens room, and arrive running just in time to see one of our regulars harrassing another. You might not want to get this mental image in your heads, but I'll tell anyway: A man, in his 30s, about 2 meters tall and weighing around 180 kilos, is answering the natures call at the urinary. Whilst another man, in his 60s, a known junkie and a small time dealer, about 155 tall and weighing something around 60 kilos, is trying to push the first-mentioned man away from the urinary, whilst mumbling something unintelligble about "HIS URINARY." I yell at the latter man to stop, and to get a life, to think of the urinary next to the one occupied or any other of 5-or-so urinaries that are also unoccupied. The village idiot won't stop, and just as I'm about to physically remove his presence from the bar once again (did I mention, the guys a regular?) he tries to hit the larger man to the side of his face.
I'm still few meters away, eventhough I have been moving towards the pair since I heard the commotion in the first place. Keep in mind, all of this happened in seconds. I can only watch as the puny punch gets blocked, and as the first-mentioned man gives a back-hand slap to the side of the face of a much smaller man.
Needless to say, the small guy drops like a wet sack of rocks, and starts bleeding profusely from his nose. The bigger guy just zips up and says "Hey man, do I have to leave the bar, you saw it was self defence?"
I've reached a decicion making point of this space time continuum: both are regulars, other is a known trouble maker, and the other is what one could call a good customer for a bar; drinks a lot, but (almost) never too much, and has before this been known to let the dogs bark. Hasn't been aggressive before, and only did what one could probably say to to be an act of self defence, even if the consequences for the other party were a bit more dire than he prbably meant.
I have about half a second to reach a decision; legally I can't throw them both out at the same time, 'cos then I'd still be responsible to some extent of their actions even if they fought outside the bar.
Do I need to tell you which customer continues his evening and gets a complimentary beer on my tab?
And which customer gets a rude awakening from the bathroom floor, gets thrown a wad of paper at him, and walked out of the bar still bleeding whilst the only thing holding him standing is the extra-tight wrist-lock?
buh bye, hold off till next year to come in again, ya hear me?
This seems to get a bit long as is, so I'm gonna post part II tomorrow, or when I have time.
Where to begin? I was doing a favor for my brother, and working as a bouncer on "his" bar-door for a weekend. That weekend also happened to be my first weekend "off" from other commitments since somewhere in July. I also have a day-job so after a few months of continual working I was getting a bit tired and was looking forward to aforementioned weekend and thinking warmly about the bottle of scotch I had stored away from somewhere.
Friday comes, and at about noon my brother calls me that his son is sick, and that him and his wife had been almost completely sleep deprived since monday, and that maybe if I could just this once yet again?
So in comes the friday night, I get off work about 1600, go home to try catch a few hours of sleep, chance in to my working clothes, and off I go. To start the weekend I'd later dub as "The Mildly Interesting Weekend."
The evening starts pretty much routinely: I collect cover fees and peoples jackets as they come in, and whenever I have time I go raound the tables collecting empty glasses and emptying ash trays, whilst keeping eye on people and walking out men and women alike who have "had enough for the night." You, dear reader, should also know that this isn't one the mid-town upscale places, this ones deep in the suburbs, and not in the middle of better parts of those either...
Suddenly at about midnight, I just sense something going wrong. Not long after, I hear some commotion in the mens room, and arrive running just in time to see one of our regulars harrassing another. You might not want to get this mental image in your heads, but I'll tell anyway: A man, in his 30s, about 2 meters tall and weighing around 180 kilos, is answering the natures call at the urinary. Whilst another man, in his 60s, a known junkie and a small time dealer, about 155 tall and weighing something around 60 kilos, is trying to push the first-mentioned man away from the urinary, whilst mumbling something unintelligble about "HIS URINARY." I yell at the latter man to stop, and to get a life, to think of the urinary next to the one occupied or any other of 5-or-so urinaries that are also unoccupied. The village idiot won't stop, and just as I'm about to physically remove his presence from the bar once again (did I mention, the guys a regular?) he tries to hit the larger man to the side of his face.
I'm still few meters away, eventhough I have been moving towards the pair since I heard the commotion in the first place. Keep in mind, all of this happened in seconds. I can only watch as the puny punch gets blocked, and as the first-mentioned man gives a back-hand slap to the side of the face of a much smaller man.
Needless to say, the small guy drops like a wet sack of rocks, and starts bleeding profusely from his nose. The bigger guy just zips up and says "Hey man, do I have to leave the bar, you saw it was self defence?"
I've reached a decicion making point of this space time continuum: both are regulars, other is a known trouble maker, and the other is what one could call a good customer for a bar; drinks a lot, but (almost) never too much, and has before this been known to let the dogs bark. Hasn't been aggressive before, and only did what one could probably say to to be an act of self defence, even if the consequences for the other party were a bit more dire than he prbably meant.
I have about half a second to reach a decision; legally I can't throw them both out at the same time, 'cos then I'd still be responsible to some extent of their actions even if they fought outside the bar.
Do I need to tell you which customer continues his evening and gets a complimentary beer on my tab?
And which customer gets a rude awakening from the bathroom floor, gets thrown a wad of paper at him, and walked out of the bar still bleeding whilst the only thing holding him standing is the extra-tight wrist-lock?
buh bye, hold off till next year to come in again, ya hear me?
This seems to get a bit long as is, so I'm gonna post part II tomorrow, or when I have time.
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