Benidorm Bouncers

Benidorm Bouncers

Benidorm Bouncers - Over the last few years the Door Security here in Benidorm have had a lot of bad press, both here in Spain and in the UK tabloids (which never seem to have anything good to say about Benidorm anyway) and several videos even went viral in the past, causing a very public outcry for more action to be taken and for the Benidorm Bouncers to be better regulated.

1st April 2023 - Doorman stabbed in Benidorm - The incident occurred at around 23.00, Thursday 30th April in the "British Area"

The two men involved were a 36 year old British man and the victim a 42 year old from Romania.  The argument broke out when the 42 year old doorman removed the British man from a well known bar, the British man then turned on the doorman with a knife.

The 36-year-old Briton was later arrested by the National Police after receiving medical assistance (he also injured himself with the knife), the doorman needed further treatment and was taken to the ICU at General Hospital of Alicante.

Viral news - 

The quite shocking video footage,  was uploaded to Facebook on Thursday 15th November 2018 and shows men being kicked and punched by various door staff.

Benidorm Bouncers

Please note the above is not the video just a photo, the video now comes with a graphic warning

But what lead up to this event?

This is a statement from the venue itself  "We can't condone the actions of any of the men in the video, but a lot of the men in the video did not in fact work for the Red Lion. Sadly, the situation should have been handled much better than it was, but it had escalated due to other parties getting involved. The police have been made aware of the situation and they will decide how to move forward.

However, the cause of the actual incident was initiated due to violent behaviour from the customer when he was asked to leave the premises. The Spanish National Police have cameras in the bar and can see everything leading up to the event that took place on the street. Obviously nobody wants these things to happen but unfortunately here in Benidorm they happen everyday and in many bars.

As mentioned earlier, we do not condone the actions of ANY of the people involved in this situation......INCLUDING the customers. As a general idea to make Benidorm better for all...... Have respect for staff in all of Benidorm and these incidents will drastically drop in number. When you are asked to comply with the laws of the bar by a member of staff, DO NOT question it OR throw insulting, colourful and (not on this occasion) racist language towards us, as we get this same abuse every night". end of statement.

Yes there will always be incidents and sometimes these do get out of hand, however, people do need to remember that this is Spain and the rules and laws are different here from the UK, but we are all aware that something does need to be done about the situation where some of the bouncers become too heavy handed.

The bouncers here deal with 1000´s of people every single night and obviously incidents are going to happen that fall under their obligation.  These incidents are often alcohol related, and involve large groups of stags challenging the doorman's authority.   The misconception that the doorman is alone fuels the challenge.  The reality is, they are all connected by radio, and each one has the ability to call for backup from the other bars at any time.

We get quite a lot of posts on the group about this subject and unfortunately they do not always portray the real story, when a video gets posted, no one actually sees what has gone on before hand to entice such violence and the stories get twisted like "Chinese Whispers".

Certain Benidorm bouncers have in the past been charged by the police for over aggression, so yes it is dealt with by the authorities under Spanish Law.

During our time of living here and spending most nights in the cabaret bars, I can honestly say that we have never seen the bouncers actually start a fight.

If you are asked to leave a venue for what ever reason, maybe you are talking during a show, or have simply had too much to drink and are becoming a nuisance to other customers then yes the door staff will ask you to leave, our advice is to just leave without trying to stand your ground.

It is stated that the bouncers here wear knuckle dusters.  This is also incorrect.   Many do however wear sports gloves designed for MMA for protection of the knuckles.

We often hear statements such as "I was doing nothing wrong, but was asked to leave"  Sorry but put things into perspective.  When there are hundreds of people in a venue, if you are doing nothing wrong why would the door staff ask you to leave.... why would you have drawn their attention out of the hundreds of other people there?  If you are asked to leave then please do so, there are plenty of other bars you can move on to in town.

Generally, there is always more to the story than meets the eye or what is posted and we try to always get factual information as to what actually happened and this can be very different from the initial story that hits social media, for example -

"Was absolutely loving my first time in Benidorm until last night when a bouncer threw me and a friend out for no reason whatsoever. I refused to leave and one of the bouncers kneed me from behind in my private parts. He laughed in my face then phoned the police.  The police demanded 100 euros from my friend or we would be arrested" and the real reason they were asked to leave the premises - "she attacked one of the bar staff scratching their face and then threw a drink at the doorman when he asked them to leave"..... hence why the police were called in to deal with the matter.

"I've just been put off Benidorm 20+ bouncers going after one 24 yr old lad some armed with baseball bats, if it hadn't been for one woman a guest from one of the hotels god knows what would of happened police arrived & he was taken away in an ambulance" - and the real events this so called man who had done nothing wrong was wanted by the police for glassing a doorman in the face the previous night, several arrests were made but this one man ran away before he could be apprehended, the bouncers spotted him and withheld him until the police arrived to arrest him.  A little different from the social media version!

"Tonight I have witnessed the once again barbaric actions of bouncers here. A guy who was drunk was beaten up  and laid out cold in the street. Another guy was standing with his head streaming in blood. The police and ambulance arrived and have taken them to hospital. It's disgusting what these bouncers are allowed to do. As far as I could see there was no questioning by the police being done with the staff. - and the response from the venue - "as usual there is always another side to the story. These 2 lads were part of a larger group and there was an altercation with the doormen, and one of the lads attacked the doorman with a bottle across his face. He acknowledges that they may have overreacted which I guess is normal if someone hit you in the face with a bottle. Both doormen have been arrested and this will be going to court".

We could go on and on with stories such as the ones above, these are just a very small example of how things can get twisted on Social Media and taken out of context, next thing you know its all in the UK tabloids, but again only one side of the story is told.

Entertainers have also been physically attacked whilst on stage, and of course the door staff will deal with these incidents. Both Tony Scott and Lee from Carnaby Street and no doubt others have been physically attacked, this is not acceptable behaviour.

April 2018 "Lee from Carnaby Street got cracked in mouth whilst on stage last night"

Benidorm Bouncers

We all hope that door staff will be properly licenced in the future and the rogue element is removed.  Those who know these guys will agree that  the majority of them are a good bunch of lads with the safety of the public and the staff their priority.  Like everything here in Spain these things do take time.

Stay safe in Benidorm.  If you are asked to leave a venue, even if you feel you have done nothing wrong, just accept it and leave.  There are plenty of other bars that will appreciate your custom.

Be careful what you write on Social Media in Spain 

BE AWARE Spain has very strict Slander and deformation of character laws (article 205 and 208 of the Spanish Criminal code), so before posting about a venue/person, make sure your facts are correct, think carefully or you could end up with a very large fine as this news article proves.

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