Skating on thin ice and emergency calls

Regrettably, I now hold anybody who gets drunk at work in disdain, because more often than not, they make life difficult for us. They also get me in trouble!

What I didn't mention in the Melbourne Cup post was that, when dragging the drug addled guy into the office, his brother pulled me off him and started on me. A colleague headlocked him, which in itself is not allowed, but he was still significantly struggling and kicking out. I tried to sweep kick him, as taught in my Security Operations course, but screwed it up. I then went to punch him, something that, in hindsight, I can't really justify. On Thursday night I was called into the office, and advised that, under no circumstances, can I strike patrons. That includes punching and kicking. Fair enough, I didn't know that, and won't do that in future. Shouldn't have punched the guy anyway, but I stand behind my kick (or at least the attempt) and the justification behind it, as I had situations in the police where I had someone handcuffed and restrained, was standing behind them and they kicked backwards, taking my kneecap out. Nonetheless, I will need to be careful for a bit.

It was the reasoning in that previous sentence that prevented me from being further involved in a serious incident of disorder outside the main casino entrance last night. Aside from a fight early in the night, it was pretty cruisy until about 3am. It was about this time that we removed two groups of idiots from Diamond Lounge, who were intent on fighting each other. Outside, a couple of them started fighting with the shift manager, and threatening the shift supervisor, who was wound up to the extent that he wanted to punch them. Since I was on 'careful, you don't want to get fired just yet' mode, I didn't intervene. We stayed inside the main entrance and were writing up our notebooks, when a request for surveillance to 'copy' the main entrance came over the radio. Unofficially, this means that if you're not a fixed point or otherwise tied up, you should make the area, as it's likely to be a troublesome person. The call is made so that surveillance actively monitor the area and can call for more people if they deem it necessary. Therefore, if you make the area anyway, you're helping both your colleagues and surveillance.

Three of the males had returned, and one, who was not let in, was not happy at all. Claiming that we were discriminating against him, and that he had, in fact, assisted us in stopping the fight in the bar previously, he took issue with one particular security officer. When that officer made a tactical withdrawal, the patron was incensed and attempted to charge the door. This triggers, for most security officers with any experience, the internal alarm that this person is one step away from assaulting the security officers, for if they are willing to charge the door, they will be willing to injure anyone who gets in their way, having already consciously decided to ignore the authority or orders of any uniformed personnel requesting them to desist. The other officers who were already at the door ran forward and took the limbs of the male and started to restrain him by pinning him on the floor. I tried to grab a leg, but then remembered that, as had happened on Melbourne Cup Day, it was likely that this guy's mates, seeing what was happening, would try and intervene, so people needed to be free to deal with them. Sure enough, one of the mates made a half hearted attempt at intervening. I gently eased him away and advised him not to get involved.

Meanwhile, two more, also related to the group, had run in and were clawing at the officers restraining the original male. It had the potential to turn into a free-for-all, very quickly, and with the potential for people on all sides to suffer serious injury. I shouted up that an emergency was occurring and we required all available officers to assist at the main casino entrance. More officers had arrived and were attempting to restrain the other two, whilst the original male was putting up one hell of a fight even though three people were on him. A crowd had gathered and were watching. They risked getting in the way or coming up with the idea of playing hero and intevening. I advised them to get back.

The original male was nearly at the glass doors and risked taking officers headfirst through the glass. I ran over to him. Dropped down. Grabbed his two legs. Pinned them to the floor. Still struggling. Nearly through the glass. I pushed one of the doors open. Luckily the door next to it still hadn't been replaced from when it had been smashed the week before. Now he was down. Pinned his legs. Still screaming and shouting. More people were gathering. Get back. No, NOW. He was down, not moving. Threat subsided. I stood up and saw a large crowd at the main door looking at the commotion. Things were loud, messy and all over the place. The guard at the door was also watching, probably oblivious to the crowd behind her. "Do crowd control!" I shouted, whilst the supervisor, who had now arrived, ordered her to close the main doors. By now all but one were down and restrained. The last one still had an arm tucked under him. I ran over, dropped down and tried to help free his arm. Pressure point pain compliance does NOT work on people who are heavily intoxicated, and it required sheer brute force, along with shouting directly in his ear, before it was free.

Through all this, the police had been summoned as an emergency call. They were on the way, so my colleagues started moving the males, still putting up a fight, into the nearby security office. I was not involved in restraining them, so there was no need for me to go in there as well. I stayed outside, writing up my notebook. Then there was a commotion in the main gaming floor, as three separate patrons decided to start on each other. They were quickly fired off. I asked the boss when we'd be getting a water cannon to deal with these people. Police arrived and dealt with the other three.

The final incident occurred when we turfed everyone out of one of the smoking terraces into another. By this time of the morning, the only ones that remain are staff just finishing shift, or deadweights that live at the casino and will quite happily spend every last penny on drink, cigarettes and gambling, yet have no social status in life and cannot afford the money, which would and should have been spent on such things as basic subsistience. It's a reverse hedonism of sorts. Half an hour later, one of the patrons, once again an indigenous fellow, was causing problems, throwing ashtrays and bins around. On getting in there, it became clear, through incessant reptition of the same phrase, that a man was unhappy with a woman. "SHE STOLE MY BEER!" he yelled to anyone who would listen, which, after the first one hundred times, was very few. He alternated between physically threatening and simply letting off hot air. We eventually persuaded him to leave the casino, and he spent the next hour alternating between the main and second casino entrances, whinging "SHE STOLE MY BEER" and accusing us of doing nothing about it. In that respect, he was correct. Eventually, he got bored and left, but not before he'd sealed the catchphrase for the next few weeks amongst the team who were on that night.

Another ten hour shift awaits tonight and Sunday night. Deep joy. I wonder how long I'll go before my 'low profile' way of working goes out the window...