Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to report an incident that took place at Casa Cuba Bar (Hohenzollernring 32, 50672 Köln) on 11.11.16 between 17.30 - 17.45.
I was in the club with 2 other friends from 2pm. At 5.30pm, I had to take an urgent call, and needed to step out of the bar to do so. The bouncer saw me stepping out of the bar to take a quick phone call. The call was only 3 minutes long. When I tried to re-enter the bar, the bouncer told me in German that I would have to join the back of the queue and pay in order to enter. I then explained to him in German that my friends were still in the bar, I had just stepped out to answer a phone call, and my belongings were still in the bar. When he refused to let me in, I explained my situation again in English. As I tried to enter the bar, the bouncer then grabbed me very roughly by my right wrist and yanked me out of the bar. During the scuffle, he bruised my right leg (please see attached picture) and also hit my phone to the ground (please find attached picture of my damaged phone).
During the entire incident, he offered not a single apology, and was especially aggressive to a defenseless woman who was on her own. He also chose not to acknowledge my explanations when I gave them in both German and English. I find such behaviour from a security personnel absolutely reprehensible. He had taken advantage of a situation - a defenseless foreigner could not get back into the bar to retrieve my belongings and he had used brute force on me. I understand that he had a right in controlling the crowd in the bar, however using excessive force on me was no excuse. He could have asked his fellow bouncer to escort me back into the bar to retrieve my belongings. Instead, he chose to use excessive force on me. The management could also do a lot better in terms of managing the crowd who is coming in and out of the bar. When people step out of the bar for a quick smoke or a call, they could give us a stamp on the wrist so they could easily identify the people who were previously in the club and were just stepping out for a short break. This episode has left me disgusted and bruised at the treatment of foreigners in Köln. Just because I am not able to speak German fluently, that does not give anyone the right to physically hurt me. I have attached a photo of the bouncer who has aggressively "man-handled" me. I hope corrective actions can be taken so that similar incidents like this can be avoided. read more