Bouncer talk- Visual Patdown

For the last two years I have either been bouncing off and on to supplement my income.  It has served to support my family as well as a free laboratory for studying people of all types.  When I started I began to post some of my findings in a what became a very popular thread on the Usual Suspect Network.  Another MCS instructor Art Dorst suggested I post some of them here on the blog.  Many are not article, but thoughts and ideas about people and violence.  I will try to name them to keep track.   I have worked several different places from punk concert venues to a pub at a golf course (more violent than the punk club) Here is the first -  Visual Patdown

Some thoughts that just came to mind. The club where I work has a concert as well as a loft with a DJ. When I am working the door I make a habit of visually patting people down as they come in the door. I start at the face like most people but then go right to the feet. As a police I found out that after committing a crime if people change their clothes they seldom change their shoes. I love guys where flip flops, nothing like stomping their feet. Brings the head down fast. Next I am looking for boots that have visible metal in the front of the sole or toe. If they are shiny and unused there is a good chance they are for show, if they are scratched up and work I am going to look for other things to colaborate my profile like chain, studs, and folding box cutters, prison/racist tattoos. 99.9% wear this stuff for show, the ones that don't are easy to spot.

I would say that approx 80% of people refuse to make eye contact with me. The 20% that do are almost always obvious good guys or bad guys. Again- just some thoughts- George