A video of what appears to be a brutal beatdown of four men by some Fisherman's Wharf nightclub bouncers has a lot of folks talking — but according to the club's owner, it was all in a day's work for the guards, who were only trying to protect themselves.
It was Saturday night at 4.5 Yelp starred Fort One Bar and Lounge, located at 2801 Leavenworth Street between Beach and Jefferson Streets. That's when, Fort One's owner tells KRON4, four men were turned away from the bar, because they did not meet the classy joint's dress code, and were "clearly overly intoxicated."
That's when the following two confrontations between the men and the bouncers happened. (Warning: there is profanity and, duh, violence! Take care where you watch this and at what volume.)
According to LiveLinks user Kitsune910, who uploaded the videos, the aspiring clubbers "started confronting the bouncers at a club and spitting on them after they were denied entry."
The Fort One Four might have bitten off a bit more than they could chew, as you see one get tackled by a guard and punched repeatedly, while others find themselves at the wrong end of another bouncer's retractable baton (a weapon made famous in Out of Sight's "tussle" scene).
Was this a case of bouncers out of control? Nope, says Fort One's owner, who told KRON4 that the guards' actions were "warranted (and) also followed protocol," as they were only protecting themselves from the aforementioned spitting, and after one of the men tried to punch a bouncer in the face.
The guards are trained for physical confrontations of this type, Fort One's owner says, and are licensed to carry batons like the ones we see used in the video.
Eventually, KRON4 reports, San Francisco Police Officers arrived and arrested one of the four nightclub-wannabes. But according to Fort One's owner, the club declined to press charges against the men.