Abused by Smack Bouncers Facebook Campaign

A Facebook Group called ‘Abused by Smack Bouncers’ is calling on students to take action against the popular student club Smack. The group hopes to increase awareness about the behaviour of the Leamington club’s security team, which it claims often mistreats its student customers.

‘Abused by Smack Bouncers’ feels that students are often subject to harsh and unfair treatment by the bouncers and is seeking to unite Warwick students in a campaign to reform the behaviour of the club’s security. It hopes to approach the management when it has 1,000 members, however since its creation on 9 March it has only obtained around 180 members to date.

The group has stated that its aim is “to make venue management and security management aware of student feelings about Smack’s security”. It hopes to do so by making students aware of their own influence and collective ability to “hold security accountable”.

‘Abused by Smack Bouncers’ is hoping the group will result in an “appropriately suited security team working at Smack” which, it commented, “is more realistic than you might think”. The group also encourages students to report any unfair treatment by security at the club to the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

The group has proven to split opinion however, with some people agreeing and sharing their own stories of abuse, whilst others have come out in defense of the bouncers, maintaining that their actions are merely in line with their duties.

Other complaints on the group’s Facebook page have focused on the reasons behind people’s rejection from the venue, believing that in many cases it has been based on prejudices against a customer’s race or sexuality. One complaint claims that the door staff have a habit of ejecting people merely for kissing members of the same sex.

Against these complaints, many people have come out in support of Smack and its bouncers. One comment on the ‘Abused by Smack bouncers’ Facebook page even suggests setting up a rival group called ‘Save Smack Bouncers’.

First-year Economics student Gajern Kailavasan is one such critic of the campaign. Speaking to the Boar, he commented: “I think that the Smack bouncers are highly trained, sophisticated individuals and I pity the fact that they have to deal with some barbaric and animalistic individuals from Warwick university.

“Everyone needs to calm down, and be more respectful towards the Smack bouncers- they do an excellent job, especially considering the amount of tears they have to deal with every Tuesday when people just cry about the size of the queue”.

Olivia Carabine, second-year Psychology student, said that “I personally have never had any issues with the smack bouncers, but as an old employee I did notice that at times they were unnecessarily rough when removing people from the venue.”

This apparent use of unnecessary force is a main complaint of those siding with the Facebook group, recounting stories of people who have been manhandled and literally thrown out into the street. Carabine said “I’ve heard rumours of inappropriate behavior, but I’ve never witnessed any myself.”