Nightclub Bouncer: Jersey’s drinking culture is getting worse

Thursday 04 January 2018

A club doorman has revealed the stark reality of the island’s night scene, after he was racially abused by a drunk man on Boxing Day.

Joe da Costa works as a community support officer for St Helier, policing residential areas of the parish, but he also does security work for Tanguy’s bar on Mulcaster Street, a job he’s worked for the past two and a half years.

Describing his job, Joe told Express: "Working in an enforcement environment is never easy, regardless the job we do, but dealing with intoxicating [sic] people makes matters worse, and people don’t realise how bad this island is.

“The drinking culture is getting worse, people use the drink excuse to cover everything up, [I’ve] seen cases where some guy beat his girlfriend - the excuse was, "Sorry, I was drunk and don’t remember."

"And recently in Tanguy’s, [I] stopped four young guys from coming in. One didn’t take no as an answer and punched the front window, cracking the glass. [He] later got arrested and said he didn’t mean it.”

Pictured: Joe da Costa has seen and been victim to racist incidents through his job as a doorman at Tanguy's. 

Joe has experienced members of the public quickly turning against Police and door staff when they detain or arrest drunk and abusive people – criticising them for over-using their powers. He’s even had one incident where a club-goer told Joe that he knew where he lived and waited outside for him. The man only left after he was removed by Police.

But an incident on Boxing day, filmed by the bar manager and shown to Express, finally led Joe to break his silence on the situations and abuse door staff are confronted with.

In the video, the man can be heard repeating, "this is my island", and the bouncer's arm can be seen placed defensively in front of him.

Joe says the man became racially abusive after he was refused entry to the bar twice that evening due to being rude and drunk. And he says racial remarks are not an uncommon occurrence.

"Over the years I’ve seen some racist incidents, but people seem to think that we are a civilised population, well we’re not, and it’s proved by my last incident on Boxing Day.

“I can take everything, being called names, all sort of names, being involved in breaking up fights, almost getting punched, even almost stabbed… but being told by a local drunk, that this is his island, and that he will harm my family, and his son will come and kill me is just over the top.”

Pictured: The bar manager filmed this man being verbally abusive after Joe refused him entry to Tanguy's. 

Joe added: “Yes, the job comes with an extensive job description, but as a local for over 20 years, paying my taxes and getting up every morning to go to work, taking this amount of abuse is just not acceptable.”

Joe for one is pleased the Christmas party season is over, as he felt December 2017 was a lot busier than the year before, with a lot more trouble on the streets, and having to refuse more people from entering Tanguy’s bar.

To address the issue, Joe believes closing times need to be reviewed.

”I think this 2am closing rule is not up to date, because people want to drink as much as they possibly can, knowing from the time the pub closes until the time the nightclub closes is only three hours.”

He’s also concerned about the number of underage drinkers.

"What scares me most is the number of young people trying to come into clubs. Almost every week we come across a 17-year-old trying to sneak in with someone else’s ID, and almost every week we hand over to the police fake or expired IDs use by youngsters. My question is, should parents be responsible for knowing where their kids are? Well, I think they should.”

Joe also suggests charging drunk people for wasting ambulance and doctor time, as it could be a deterrent.

“During December, an individual was so badly drunk, he fell on the ground, banging his head badly. Due to the ambulance service being busy, a fire truck team came to assist and wasted over 30 minutes waiting for an ambulance to carry another drunk to hospital. Why should my taxes be paying ambulances to be transporting intoxicating [sic] people to hospital, when they might be needed for a real emergency?”