had a horrible and extremely upsetting experience at this club on Saturday night (August 10, 2019). My friends and I had arranged to have bottle service as we were celebrating someone's birthday and we'd wanted to do something special for her. We received confirmation emails from Sarah that we would be getting bottle service that night along with passes for 4 of us to enter the club for free when we arrived. The friend who'd booked the bottle service also knew the DJ who said he would had two additional people in our group of 7 to the guest list. When we arrived we were met with a very different situation than what we'd agreed to. We were told that only one person would get in for free as the DJ had put them on the guest list and that the rest of us would pay a "reduced cover" of 15 dollars instead of the regular 20. This was a bit ridiculous as we were already paying for bottle service and I can genuinely say I've never once had to pay cover after I've already agreed to pay for bottle service. We tried showing the emails to security and to the person at coat check multiple times and were called liars. They refused to even check the emails and said we'd have no choice but to pay cover. This was a shady business practice but whatever, we just wanted to enjoy our friends birthday celebration.
Next thing I know, my friend is being surrounded by security as she stood in line and being asked to leave because the girl working coat check said she'd thrown money at her. What a preposterous allegation, we had all been standing together and no such thing had occurred. Furthermore, how many hyper-aggressive male security guards does it take to remove one woman who had displayed zero aggression? She obliged and left the line and stood over to the side waiting for us.
My other friends and I tried to reason with the overly aggressive security guards but were told our only options were to go in the club and leave our friend behind, or to all leave at once. Naturally we chose to all leave as it was a ridiculous and unfair situation. Unfortunately the birthday girl had already entered the club at this point and was by herself, she had already been drinking and I was worried about her being alone. I personally asked one of the security guards if he could go get her for me so that I could explain the situation to her and we could leave, he agreed to help me out and was very kind. However, about a minute later another security guard came over and told me it was too bad and I'd have to call her. I explained to him that I'd called her and texted her already with no answer and once again he called me a liar and repeated that it was too bad. I cannot for the life of me understand the behaviour of these security guards, I explained to them that I hadn't even been asked to leave the club, I just wanted to get my friend and then they called over another security guard. I thought since she was a woman there was a chance she'd understand the situation I was in a bit better and be more sympathetic to me not wanting my friend to be left alone in a club. Unfortunately I was very mistaken, this guard was perhaps the most aggressive of them all, she acted like she had something to drive, even when no one was challenging her. This security guard, Taylor, was on a power trip of epic proportions. After I explained what happened she said too bad and that I'd have to leave as I had been asked to exit the club. I explained to her that no, this isn't true, my friend had been asked to leave, and I'd be happy to oblige and go, as soon as the birthday girl was with us. She then told me that two other security guards had told her I needed to leave, I once again explained to her that no, that wasn't me, that was my friend. Keep in mind that my friend and I bear absolutely no resemblance to one another. Taylor the security guard then grabbed me, twisted my arm behind me, and pushed me out of the line. How horrifying this experience was, as a security guard, Taylor had no legal right to touch me. I was never aggressive, I never threatened her, I was angry yes, but it was because none of them would do their jobs and assist my friends and I. I asked Taylor why she had touched me and she told me I had tried to "step to her". I have never gotten into a fight in my life, unlike Taylor I actually do not believe in physical aggression, so no, I did not try to "step to her".
As a racialize woman, this incident with Taylor was very triggering for me. All i could think about was the countless views I've seen of P.O.C being attacked for seemingly no reason and I could not believe this was happening to me. Although my instinct was to fight back, I did not for fear of what could happen to me simply because of the colour of my skin. I took a picture of Taylor afterwards and we exchanged words where she threatened to call the police on me. By doing this, Taylor even further committed to a nasty narrative where people of colour become policed and criminalized for read more