Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1514108
I imagine most of you will have already seen the latest viral vid- eo, of a man being beaten to a pulp by several bouncers, as he lay senseless outside one of Paceville's popular nightclubs (Havana, in this instance). And if, like me, you have been following local news for the past three-or-so decades… you will surely have experienced an odd sensation of 'deja-vu'. Where, oh where, have we seen this sort of thing before? And how often, for that matter? Let's see now. This is from an article published in July 2017: "Paceville bouncers have been caught on camera beating up two men in an apparently un- provoked attack that happened two months ago. "The attack […] left a Syrian and Jordanian man aged 29 and 33 respectively with seri- ous injuries and needing mul- tiple stitches. The two men were allegedly attacked after being refused entry into the nightclub." This, on the other hand, is from an article dated October 31, 2019: "The issue of bouncer licenc- es [more of which later] was cast in the national spotlight earlier this week after an un- licensed nightclub security worker was charged on Tues- day with grievously injuring a man. "The victim, Maciej Zyluk, suffered blunt force trauma when he was kicked in the head during a brutal beating that was caught on camera. A num- ber of other bouncers alleged- ly involved in the incident are still under investigation." Later, in August 2020, this newspaper reported yet anoth- er 'caught-on-camera' Pace- ville fight: "No arrests were made in Paceville on Friday night after a large brawl be- tween revellers and the bounc- ers from the Havana establish- ment took place late at night. "Preliminary investigations show that the men had twice been ejected from the club fol- lowing an argument inside it, after which the fight broke out. "Bottles flew and glass was shattered wilfully by antago- nised clubbers, whom police believe are of Syrian national- ity, as they engaged with the club's bouncers, which police said are mainly of Eastern Eu- ropean origin." And, what do you know? Two years later, footage emerges of yet another 'fight' – this time, more closely resembling a full- scale riot – outside the same Havana nightclub, slap-bang in the heart of Paceville. This is how it was reported on June 26, 2022: "The footage shows a large group of people fighting a popular nightclub's security. […] The perpetrators can be seen shouting at Ha- vana's bouncers, before a man throws punches. One of the men behind the attack is seen throwing a metal barrier at the security." Naturally, all four of those ar- ticles came complete with the relevant footage – taken either by CCTV cameras, or mobile phones – and as such, they can all still be viewed online today. Now: to be fair, only the first two can really be said to 'mir- ror' the circumstances behind this week's fracas… even if the parallels are rather (ahem) 'striking', in all three. They all concern individual men, of foreign nationality, be- ing singled out for vicious as- sault by multiple assailants (all bouncers employed the same, or similar, nightclubs: some 'of Eastern European origin'; oth- ers Maltese). The other two videos, how- ever, seem to illustrate an al- together different (though not exactly 'opposite') side of the same coin. Here, we actually see the bouncers of said night- clubs, being subject to violent attacks themselves; and while we have no indication of how either of those fights actually started… well, it doesn't really matter that much in the end, does it? Whether by illustrating the sheer violence, that some (and I would like to think, 'not all') Paceville bouncers are capa- ble of inflicting, on their sin- gled-out victims… or whether by illustrating the sheer DAN- GER, of the circumstances these same bouncers must also often find themselves in… it all boils down to the same thing, really. As the police themselves re- ported, in 2020: "[there had been] 400 fights leading to injuries, over the past four years"; and "the highest num- ber of fights resulting in bod- ily harm took place in 2019, when the police reported 135. In 41 of those cases, grievous injuries were reported, while weapons of some sort were used in 25 cases…" Now: I don't have corre- maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 JANUARY 2024 10 OPINION Paceville bouncers were supposed to have been 'regulated'. What happened? Raphael Vassallo