Dirty Shirty
Wednesday 25 April 2007
So, the three chaps from yesterday come back in tonight, one at a time, separately with their partners, and we think nothing more of it. About half an hour later, however, Edmonson hears from one of the bar staff that they're going to refuse to serve them point blank. He enquires if they'd cleared this with the manager, and they have not.
Ho hum.
8pm. I get called up to the manager's office. Shirty is in there, sitting at his desk. The manager tells me that Shirty has informed him the three lads have threatened him again. This time, however, the bar manager saw it, too.
I look at Shirty's face, and I'm sorry, but I have to call bullshit on the whole thing. He looks like he's lying, or at least exaggerating. However, what the manager wants, the manager gets, and he wants them out of the complex. Walking back to the main bars I pass the bar manager and ask him what he heard. He didn't actually hear anything, he tells me, but he saw one of them lean over and whisper something to Shirty. Oh no! He figured it was because the guy knew he'd been clocked by the bar manager, and so 'whispered the threat'.
My opinion? I'm thinking what really happened is the three guys walked up to Shirty and asked for a drink and he immediately said something like, "We're not fucking serving you tonight...", or a sentence similar enough in weight and tone to put them on the offensive from the start. The problem is, once again, none of us witnessed anything. It's all hearsay. Somebody else's opinion. The question is, who do you believe? The manager, really, and that's it.
We get the guys to the main doors and they're asking what they've done, why can't they see the manager, etc etc. We tell them he hasn't given us any reasons but if they go down to the main gates now without any hassle we'll ask him to come out. They go. He doesn't want to come out, but says he'll come and see them tomorrow morning. Edmonson goes down to explain this to them - alone, by his own choice, to make it seem like we're not out to get them - while I hang back about thirty yards, just to be safe. I'm not worried as he has an enormous amount of experience of dealing with violent nutters and these guys shouldn't be a problem at all. Basically, he just knows what to say, and what not to. They're pleading their case, as per usual, and Edmonson later tells me that, like me, he's inclined to believe them over Shirty. At the very best case it's 50-50. However, this is the job. You do what you're asked to do by the boss. We're not here to give opinions or sympathise. If they want you out, you're out. I don't think we'll see them again, to be honest. How can we? If they come back tomorrow it's bound to start all over again.
Edmonson has to write out the incident report, so does the smart thing and decides not to rubbish Shirty (or mention his excessive use of language in a delicate situation) but, equally, not to rubbish the three blokes either. As he told them, we didn't see anything, and they did nothing out of order to us at all. It's always somebody's view. Life's honey trap.
posted by Sheamus @ 1:30 am
