On a busy clubbing night, an altercation caught on camera of a bouncer savagely beating a man on the ground spreads like wildfire on the media and prompts promises of change from the authorities.

If that incident sounds familiar, that might be because not only did it happen on New Year’s Day, but again in 2019, when a Paceville security guard was filmed beating the living daylights out of a Polish tourist on a night out.

On that occasion, the government had said it was planning on reforming the legislation that regulates licensing for bouncers after nightclub owners complained that the law’s stringent conditions made it difficult to find legitimate bouncers to employ.

The latest incident, on January 1, which saw a group of security guards beating a man lying on the ground and kicking him repeatedly in the head, which resulted in the arrest of three people – including the victim – has seen renewed talk about safety in Paceville and stakeholders wondering whatever had become of plans for reform in the licensing of bouncers.

When asked, the Home Affairs Ministry has twice sidestepped the issue and ignored questions by Times of Malta. When asked in writing about the reform, a ministry spokesperson condemned the attack and said that a licence was not a carte blanche to act violently.

When Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri was asked in person about the matter, he redirected his answer to announce that round-the-clock CCTV would be installed in Paceville.

It was a complicated discussion and we were in the very early stages- Former minister Michael Farrugia

Former minister Michael Farrugia, who held the home affairs portfolio at the time, told Times of Malta that under his tenure, the ministry had begun discussions with stakeholders about the matter; however, these were in their very early stages.

He specified that the discussion centred widely around all types of security measures, not just bouncers, and was considering issues such as whether security at mass events should be heightened to account for acts of terrorism, to what extent security personnel are allowed to search bags and attendees, and whether sporting events such as football matches should have more stringent security procedures.

“It was a complicated discussion and we were in the very early stages,” Farrugia said. “However, shortly after that, there was a change in responsibility for the portfolio, so I would not know whether they continued to work on it.”

Town Centre Management chairman for Paceville Philip Fenech said that currently, while club owners do find some difficulty in hiring security with the requisite amount of experience due to stringent conditions, this does not necessarily solve the issue of violence in the clubbing district even if it is tackled.

“The issue is maybe not the licence per se, but perhaps the kind of training they receive,” Fenech said. “We also have to consider that there are external factors that contribute to a situation going south. Drunkenness is often a factor, and a person who is denied entry into a club because of it sometimes blames the bouncer for it,” he continued.

Fenech said that while Paceville is well supervised by the authorities, the police cannot be everywhere any time a fight breaks out. What is important is that when an altercation does happen, bouncers respond proportionally to the situation they find themselves in.

“In these situations, emotions can run high, especially where you have a situation in which a person has also assaulted a bouncer,” he said. “Naturally, this isn’t an excuse to continue beating someone when they are already restrained. Going over the limit is the real problem. I think we have to stress on the response being restraining that person safely until the police can take over and tackle the problem.”