People of Stockholm, Your Attention Please (Part 6)

It is official, the boycott is over.

OK, I'll let you off, I really don't expect to know exactly which boycott, so I'll explain a little. For those that haven't had the privilege of going out into Stockholm town, they have a little problem here with the chaps that run the doors to "establishments". I have to put that in inverted commas as we are not just talking about clubs here, just about anywhere that allows people to enter seems to think it needs bouncers; and not just any old bouncers either, these bouncers have a special little badge.

I don't know who had the bright idea, but at some point in the past someone somewhere decided that bouncers need to be given some kind of authority, so they wear a special little badge looking not unlike what a police badge may look like in other countries and, guess what, they go on a power trip. Quelle surprise.

Well, even that isn't entirely true. You see, in Sweden they have managed to create a hierarchy for bouncers. You ordinary, run of the mill bouncer may just be a guy, like in any other country. But more and more bars, clubs, pubs and whatnot are using Ordningsvakter on their doors. These are the people that you really have to worry about. They are the ones with their special little badge, next to no training and the power trip.

The badge of the Ordningsvakt.

You see for some unknown reason, despite the fact that they need next to no training (according to the Swedish Police Website they have 76 hours of education - that's less than two working weeks - and a bit more training every three years) someone thought it'd be a good idea to give them powers of arrest. And then stick them in front of bars. Around drunk people.

The strange thing is that some people are genuinely surprised that Sweden has a problem with violence and bigotry involving these guys. Try searching google for something like "dörrvakt diskriminering" (discrimination) or "dörrvakt misshandel" (assault). You'll be surprised. Or maybe not.

Anyway, I had an "experience" with some of these guys a couple of years or so ago. As a bit of background, I worked security in the University of Birmingham's Guild of Students when I was a student, I know exactly how much of an arse people can be and how people being dicks are just not what you want at the end of a long night. With that in mind, I was drinking with a few of my friends in one of the fine establishments on Götgatan. We'd had a good night and when the place closed we asked how long we had to drink up. We were told twenty minutes. At nineteen minutes past the hour we were ripped out of our seats by our friendly neighbourhood Ordningsvakter.

Maybe this sounds like whinging. Hell it probably is, but this was the first time (and so far only time) I have ever been ejected from anywhere. I'm now in my thirties, I managed to get through my twenties and five years at university without getting thrown out of anywhere. So one has to ask who really was at fault. I know who I think was.

So I - and others from that group - embarked upon a boycott of this particular establishment. But that is now over. Time has healed, other friends want to go there and I feel a bit of a tit sticking to my guns. But I will be watching those bebadged chaps carefully and so should you. Be warned.