With all the nonsense in the papers and media about the massed hordes of knife-wielding teenagers taking over the country I think a little perspective is required.
It's not hard at all to get hold of a knife, it takes very little skill to hide one about your person and only a very brief practice to get wield it effectively. However the motivation to commit knife violence and the kind of injury or death offered by crude stabbings lies beyond most folk.
If you're in the confined controlled environment of a bar or club, with cameras, doorstaff, search policies and swift access to the police most folk would not want to be carrying, let alone threatening to or wielding a knife. We do find the odd pen-knife or spiked comb but more often as oversights or stupidity than with intent. Knuckle dusters, stilettos, screwdrivers and other things we occasionally find but not in numbers enough to make us worry.
If you're in the less defined environment of drinking cider on street corners where anyone could turn up and do anything un-witnessed, then I'd worry about it.
Having said all this, standing on a front door with all and sundry walking by you, if you've got enemies, as just about everyone in my business does, it helps to have your back watched and know how to handle a pillock with a knife.
Occasional postings from a toe-to-toe customer services physical interface operative.
The ramblings and collected tales from a jobbing licensed doorman. Tales of drunken woe, machismo, loose women, loose fists and 99% boredom. Hopefully updated as thoughts worthy of an audience hit my mind.
'Over a decade at it and not winning any beauty contests'
2 comments:
I'm curious to know which door you work on. My door, on a saturday night we have 99% American soldiers who are rarely tooled up, but when they are its often the soft of knife you wouldn't particularly want to disarm; bearing in mind most of these guys are 6'6 and weighing in at 250 pounds of pure muscle. I definitely agree with having your back watched, some spotty asbo pulled a flick knife on me because I wouldn't let his jailbait through my door, silly boy didnt have anybody watching his back and subsequently a colleague having a fag round the corner goosenecked the muppet and I was sure he cried a little bit. Good times!
I'm not going to be specific about the venues I work.
We get our share of squaddies though. Over here they're usually smaller, run further, carry more stuff but can't fight singly for toffee. Get them together and they make a very fun scrap though.
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