News Oct 27, 2011 at 4:00 am

Several Lawsuits Take Aim at Old Town Dance Club Bouncers

Comments

1
I worked as a doorman for a club which has been the recipient of quite a few bad reviews on Yelp the past couple years. It was one of the worse jobs I've ever had. You deal with so much BS checking IDs and no matter how nice or simple you make the process practically everyone thinks you're an asshole bouncer. When the bartenders were having a bad night, for whatever reason, they would pick random people and ask me to "throw them out." When the door was quiet I was expected to walk around and pick up empty glasses and bottles. You have people with drinks spilling on pool tables, breaking things. Sometimes the place would reach capacity and it was damn near impossible to maintain any type of calm or order. It's a crap job. You can't imagine what it's like to have all the stress and anger and pent-up frustration build up every night--you see a side of humanity that is really quite despicable. There was a bartender at the club I worked who actually enjoyed beating people up. He told stories, with pride, of jumping over the bar to body slam patrons or the time he caught a guy pissing in the Men's room sink, dragged him out the back door and threw him into the snow. When I read about Michael Ellis or Tushar Singh I have a great amount of sympathy. Unfortunately it's an incurable situation if you ask me. You have people working a shit job dealing with shit-faced people. The guy who has had a couple drinks or just happens to be in the wrong place, wrong time is just as susceptible to vexation as the drunk punk who's throwing the pool rack across the bar. I won't even mention what it's like at closing time, when the music stops & the bright lights come up, the drinks have to be finished and everyone has to go back out into the cold night.
2
Check out this video of the incident. What do you see?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhuHT7zft0
3
I think the big fat white elephant in the room here is the TYPE of bars/clubs and the TYPE the people they patronize. Basically, you're talking about shitty people who go to shitty clubs (such as Dirty, Dixie, Barracuda, Etc.) and deal with the shitty people who work/run such places. "Bros" with spiked high-lites, bimbos with miniskirts and nothing else and it's 40 degrees out. Just shitty pedestrian people, over all. I hear alot of shit talked about hipsters all the time, and it's all well deserved. But the typical fake airheads (and yeah, a disproportionately large amount of them DO come in from Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, and Gresham) that make up the vast majority of Portland's "club scene" get let off the hook far too often.

All the issues mentioned in this article NEVER happen at Plan`B, East End, The Know, The Fez, Embers, Lovecraft, Mt. Tabor, Branx/Rotture, Someday, Holocene, or Crush. Gee, i wonder why?
4
After watching the video,it looks to me like he had more than 3 drinks, or can't handle his booze....
but is that a reason for security to grab him? Are they supposed to toss people out for getting drunk?
Over half a million is way excessive to claim, whatever side you take though.
5
It looked to me like the guy slightly tripped over the bouncer's big fat feet, in a very crowded bar. You can clearly see what an effort it was just to move around his ass - he was practically blocking off the bar! There's no way to determine how many drinks the guy had, other than the ONE he grabbed for.

Besides, if he's Muslim, i doubt he was getting drunk in the first place. This looks like a definite hate crime.
6
@DAMOSA: DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SIKH AND A MUSLIM?
7
Wow DamosA, I seem to remember you arguing with someone else a few weeks ago about how wonderful it was to have a strip bar in your neighborhood vs. a church! My, my, how a few weeks can change things. And for the record, your comments about "Gresham" is veiled racism. The most racially diverse part of Portland are all the communities east of 82nd Ave., not your precious little downtown. There are far more blacks and Hispanics in bars east of 82nd than ever downtown. If you want to call out the gangbangers, be a man and do so, don't hide behind your caucasian hipster defense shield.
8
@ Graham, i DO actually. And have known since BEFORE IXXI. Since before MOST Americans knew. Do YOU know, bitch?
9
@DAMOSA: IF YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SIKH AND A MUSLIM, WHY DID YOU CALL THAT SIKH DUDE A MUSLIM?
10
I believe i said "if he's Muslim".

But all this is really way beside the point and having nothing to do with the article. But a cyber-stalker such as yourself already knew that, didn't you?

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