Another bouncer beating in Paceville has gone viral, with footage of 25-year-old Idriss Ahmed Adem laid out on the ground as a group of bouncers kick him. 

The island’s chaotic party mecca seems to see these incidents on the regular, with big, foreign bouncers kicking the heads of people laid out on the floor, leading to widespread condemnation every time there’s a violent incident. 

So, Lovin Malta spoke with different people working within the events and security industries to understand why there’s so much violence involving those hired to ensure safety and security.

How does Malta’s event security system actually work?

In Malta, like most countries, clubs and bars usually hire security personnel from third parties.

Companies which you’ve probably seen at major events, can provide personnel for everything from clubs, bars, and events to cyber security, security consultancy, and event VIP protection.

Let’s be clear – incidents involving bouncers and partygoers are as old as time immemorial… though thats no excuse to kick someone in the head. 

And in the above case, which happened on New Year’s Eve, at least one bouncer involved in the video said he was acting in self-defence.

But when it comes to local security workers, one former Maltese bouncer who spent years working in Paceville spoke to Lovin Malta about why so few bouncers seem to be Maltese anymore.

“To get a licence, you need to have five years experience as an ex-police, ex-military, or a former serviceman of the country. Then you spend years with a company for measly pay. You think former servicemen want to work there?” he said. 

He also asked why victims often don’t follow police orders, and instead decide to take on bouncers themselves.

“Plus, resource wise, imagine the police go every time someone says ‘a bouncer beats me? Imagine… how many police officers are there?”

Regardless of the number of police in Malta, which is known to be low, even more worrying is how few bouncers are licensed.

A 2017 beating of two men in Paceville involving six bouncers found that all six were unlicensed… 

And even crazier is that a court ruled that them wearing all black and standing outside the entrance of a club did not mean one could presume they were bouncers.

One leading club owner who spoke to Lovin Malta on condition of anonymity said clearly: “we are strict with our security, but it’s like a wild west over there, and some club owners aren’t strict with their security”.

Meanwhile, Jovan Grech, the founder of Signal8, a leading security company in Malta (who had nothing to do with the incident in question), spoke about the sector to Lovin Malta.

“We are always against any means of violence and condemn all type of aggression wherever it comes from. We cannot comment on this particular incident as we have no kind of information other than what is being reported in the media, and our advice is to get all the information and proven facts to cover all sides of the story.”

However, with several security firms operating on the island, each with their own ethos, while some companies may take a similar route to Signal8, others choose their own standards.

As footage of a man laid out on the ground while security kick him in the head goes viral and the island wonders what is going on, do you think we’ll ever see an end to partygoers getting beaten on a night out?