CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
A normal person looking to have a late night drink in Queensland says he feels lucky to be alive today, after a close call with licensed security guards outside a low-key Brisbane dive bar on the weekend.
John Hutchies (32) says he can’t believe how close he was to getting a bullet in the brain, during several high-intensity bouts of interrogation from the bouncers, who wanted to make sure he hadn’t had more than two drinks before arriving at their venue at 11:30pm on Saturday night.
Partygoers looking for a drink anywhere in South-East Queensland after 10:00pm must have their identification scanned on entry, as well as their faces, with both front and side profile shots.
The technology allows venues to share information about problematic patrons and prevent them from re-entering another club or bar — a decision made by the Queensland Government to combat alcohol-fuelled violence because they can’t find the budget themselves to put more police in a nightlife district four times the size of Kings Cross with 50,000 visitors each weekend.
Agitated patrons are now forced to wait in snaking queues to get into Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley hotspots and those who had stepped out for a cigarette are made to scan their IDs again, making lines yet longer.
However, despite the technology that allows venues and police to know literally every personal detail about everyone who visits their nightclubs, bouncers are still being encouraged to ask questions themselves, sometimes at gunpoint.
“Stop dancing around the question?!” shouted one bouncer, while holding a torch in John’s eyes.
“How has your fucking night been?” asks another, who also holding a police-issue glock at his forehead.
“Much to drink tonight, mate?”
