Difficult job on the nightclub front line

Bouncers – or door supervisors as they prefer to be known – have come a long way since the days when they were just hired muscle who kept out the riff-raff and were sent up by comedians Hale and Pace as The Management.

Thoroughly professional, they are regulated by the Home Office’s Security Industry Authority and trained in all sorts of conflict management techniques.

To see doormen at the front of venues in Canterbury such as The Cuban, The Pound and The Lounge is not a sign that it is dodgy or rough or insalubrious. It is a sign, more often than not, that the venue is popular and that its owners care about the safety and wellbeing of customers they rely on to survive.

There will always be the proverbial bad egg in a city like Canterbury, with its large student population and vibrant nightlife.

Indeed, one of those bad eggs was Canterbury Christ Church University student Gideon Wallace, whose court case we report this week. When he arrived at the Cuban, doormen would never have thought he had a knife on him – nor that having been thrown out of venue he would produce it.

In extraordinary scenes captured on video, the doormen from Akon Security removed the 19-year-old from the club, took him outside, disarmed him and subdued him until police arrived.

With police resources and numbers stretched ever further, doormen and other private security officials comprise an increasingly important tool in public safety.

They deserve respect for the difficult job they do and special thanks for neutralising threats posed by the likes of Gideon Wallace.