FIGHT FRIGHT
FLIGHT
SOME clubbers at
Clarke Quay were stunned when they saw a fight unfold before
their eyes over the weekend.
|
| The
victim was bleeding from his nose and had blood stains on
his T-shirt. |
Four bouncers
chased a Caucasian man out of IndoChine's The Forbidden City bar
and restaurant. Then after a scuffle, the man, an expatriate,
fell flat on the floor.
And the horror
began.
He covered his
face, rolled to his side and moaned while the four bouncers in
black polo T-shirt and pants stood around him and continued
kicking him.
The man went into
a foetus position to avoid their blows but each time, the blows
seemed to get more brutal.
This went on for
more than two minutes in the shadows of the pillar in front of
the already closed Coriander Leaf restaurant, in between
IndoChine's The Forbidden City and Attica.
I saw it. And so
did about 20 others, some of whom hurried past the violence, too
scared to get involved, while others merely stared in shock.
It was 2.30am
early on Saturday - early by Clarke Quay standards.
A steady crowd
was still streaming into the lane, mostly heading for the queue
outside the expat hang-out Attica - which was packed with women
dolled in short dresses and men in long-sleeved shirts.
My girlfriends
and I, in typical weekend celebratory fashion, had just left
Attica's lilypad outdoor al fresco bar, having earlier popped a
bottle of champagne.
But we were
immediately shocked by the scene of violence as soon as we
stepped out into the lane.
|
| Two
unidentified security officers who saw the beating leading
the police towards the taxi stand. But the victim had
already left in a cab. |
The four bouncers
were clearly having a go. For whatever wrongs the expat had
committed, we were anxious for the kicking to stop.
But we stood,
gasping in horror. We feared to get closer.
The sight deeply
angered two other expats, Mr Christopher Po and Mr Oliver
Ricaille, who were passing by.
Regional manager
Mr Po, 35, thought at first that the men were friends fooling
around - until a bouncer pulled the expat's shirt and kicked him
down.
Mr Po said: 'They
kept kicking him when he was on the floor. They almost broke his
nose.'
Mr Ricaille, a
32-year-old consultant, added: 'When one (bouncer) dragged him
on the floor, the other two kicked him as he was on the floor
trying to protect himself.
'I was
shocked...'
He was so
outraged that he returned home and immediately penned an e-mail
to The New Paper at 4am.
He asked in his
e-mail: 'What is the role of a bouncer? How did the management
of IndoChine train the bouncers?
'Are they
required to follow any troublemakers outside IndoChine?
'Are bouncers
allowed to beat a person on the street? Or shouldn't bouncers be
simply keeping the establishment safe of any issues?'
After the
bashing, the bouncers dispersed. The expat slowly got to his
knees, stood up and lit a cigarette.
No one helped
him.
His face was
bloodied. He was bleeding profusely from his nose. There were
blood stains on his white T-shirt. All the buttons on the white
shirt he was wearing on the outside had come undone.
Another Caucasian
man appeared and the two men made a dash towards the taxi stand,
got into a taxi and left.
All this time, an
IndoChine staff member in the same black polo T-shirt stood by
The Forbidden City's entrance.
He said: 'That
guy hit one of my men. So we hit him back.'
What Mr Ricaille
could not swallow, he said, were two other men standing in the
vicinity who were wearing fluorescent vests with the label
'security' on their backs.
They simply stood
and watched the beating. Clarke Quay management officials said
the two men were not their security officers.
Passerby Miss Tan
Wen Jing, 27, said: 'Clearly the people attacking the subject
were bouncers. It did not look like a random fight so I did not
feel my safety was threatened.'
Police said they
received a call at about 2.45am.
When they
arrived, the two men in fluorescent vests accompanied police to
the taxi stand. But the expat was gone.
The Forbidden
City's bar manager, Mr Mohammed Riduan, said he phoned the
bouncers to return to the bar after police spoke to him.
'They had gone
off,' he said.
When contacted
yesterday, the expat asked that we leave his name out of this
report.
He said he did
not want to risk his job in Singapore or cause embarrassment to
his employers.
He wanted to let
the matter pass. He explained: 'I have a young family and I am
an expat working here.'
Was undue force
used against the man?
Lawyer Sunil
Sudheesan from Kattarwong said bouncers are expected to respond
proportionately to the violence carried out by the patron, such
as restraining the patron, or to stop the violence from
escalating.
Police are
investigating.
IndoChine: He
hit bartender and choked bouncer
WHILE the expat
wants the matter to be forgotten, the IndoChine Group has
reported his assault on their bartender to the police on
Saturday.
In a statement to
The New Paper, an IndoChine Group spokesman alleged that the
expat had assaulted a bartender and choked a bouncer.
IndoChine Group
spokesman Clementine Rogers claimed that a Caucasian man had
staggered into The Forbidden City bar that night accompanied by
a woman who spoke English with an Indonesian accent.
The expat
disputes this. In an SMS message to this reporter, he said: 'I
was having a drink with my wife at the venue.'
In the statement,
Ms Rogers also said: 'The woman ordered a juice from our
bartender while the Caucasian man, who appeared intoxicated, sat
next to her.
'As our bartender
presented the bill, this drunk customer started to hurl verbal
abuse at our bartender. He then jumped onto the bar and
attempted to assault our bartender.'
Ms Rogers claimed
that one bouncer immediately stepped in to stop the man.
'This drunk
customer retaliated by choking the bouncer.
'Two other
bouncers then escorted the man out of our premises to protect
the safety of our staff and our customers.'
SUBCONTRACT
The bouncers were
subcontracted from an external service provider, MsRogers said.
She added:
'According to our internal investigations with our subcontractor
and their bouncers, after being escorted out of Forbidden City,
this intoxicated guest stumbled away and hurt himself outside of
the premises.'
UNAWARE OF
COMMOTION
Seven customers
at the bar we interviewed after the incident were not aware of
the commotion.
One customer
said: 'We had been sitting there all night and if there was (an
incident), we didn't notice.'
The expat called
it 'a nasty matter that started over the bill'.
On IndoChine's
claims of his attack on their staff members, the expat said: 'I
certainly didn't hit anyone while I was there.'
He called his own
actions embarrassing and his injuries superficial.
He added that
such behaviour was not in his character.
'I really wished
it never happened. It was a very 'nothing' event blown out of
proportion. They asked me to leave.'
IndoChine's chief
executive Michael Ma, 40, was didn't know of the incident until
The New Paper called him on Saturday afternoon.
Mr Ma, who was
boarding a plane to India, called it a massive breach of
conduct.
He said:
'Normally, our bouncers are instructed to hold rowdy patrons
back and put them in separate taxis.
'If it (the
incident) is true, the bouncers will be fired immediately.'
