Two bouncers learn you can't strike patrons even if they are being complete assholes

A bouncer at Game On in the Fenway lost his job after smacking one alleged jerk of a customer in the forehead with his flashlight, while a bouncer at Candibar in the Theater District was suspended for a week after punching a customer who made an particularly crude remark about his 11-year-old daughter.

The Boston Licensing Board heard testimony in both cases this morning and could decide Thursday whether either incident merits any sort of sanction.

The Game On incident at Game On on Lansdowne Street began around 12:35 a.m. on Oct. 8, when two patrons went downstairs to shoot some baskets in an arcade game there, only they got bored or something, climbed on the game, tossed all the basketballs out and began trying to make the hoop from across the floor. Bouncers determined it was time for them to go and escorted them out.

One of the ball tossers told police a bouncer pushed him as they got to the street, so he shoved the bouncer back, at which point the bouncer struck him a couple of times in the forehead with his flashlight, opening an inch-long gash that required stitches, police told the board, adding that whether the bouncer has to face assault-and-battery charges is now before a clerk magistrate in Roxbury Municipal Court.

A manager terminated the bouncer, who had worked at Game On for about six months, that night, one manager told the board, adding Game On has a strict no-hitting-patrons rule for its workers.

Around 11:55 p.m. on Jan. 27 at Candibar on Warrenton Street in the Theater District, a guy started giving a doorman trouble for daring to look over his passport, police and club owner Charles Delpidio told the board. The man, who was of Asian descent, accused the doorman of being anti-Asian, which the doorman objected to, telling the guy he had an Asian daughter.

"The comment that he made was terrible," Delpidio said. " 'I probably fucked your daughter.' Why would a man say something so crude to another man?"

The doorman punched the guy right in the nose. "He hit him, yes, he did," Delpidio acknowledge. "It was just that bad."

Candibar suspended the man for a week and Delpidio said that employees have been re-trained not to punch patrons, no matter how reprehensible they might be - and to immediately call 911 and let police handle any particularly reprehensible reprobates.

He continued that doorman is possibly the toughest job in the club business - you spend long hours in often bad weather, dealing with awful people. The particular doorman has worked for him for more than 20 years. "He has been with me for so long, I depend on him to do the right thing at the door and he has" - at least up until that moment - and that being a doorman is just one of the two jobs the man has to support his family, which includes, in addition to that one daughter, four other children.

Under questioning from Delpidio, Sgt. Det. William Gallagher, agreed that in his ten years in the BPD licensing unit, the man "has always treated us with respedct and dignity and made us feel welcome."

As in the Game On case, a clerk magistrate, in Boston Municipal Court, will determine whether the bouncer has to face a criminal charge, police told the board.