Fight Club
Take it from a bouncer: As a former bouncer, I can tell you there is really no need to be a douchebag like the ones you wrote about at Dirty Blondes who are routinely beating up customers while the police look the other way ("Beat Down," Terrence McCoy, October 17). Sure, you have to deal with drunk assholes, but all you need to do is yank them out of the club and say goodbye. I never got paid enough money to exert myself that much in dealing with an asshole to actually get in a serious fight with them. Adolfo J. Herrera
Bouncers are thugs: Constantly looking over my shoulder for uneducated meathead hooliganism is not really my vibe when I'm trying to chill with a few drinks and a few friends. I will never again enter one of these establishments with overly violent bouncers protected by the law. There's only one reason people become "bouncers" instead of joining any reputable security establishment (like a police force or Brinks or another company), and that is prior arrest records. They are basically just thugs trying to eke out a living by doing what they do best: acting aggressively and without any type of tact or thought. gatornek
Cops protect bars: This all boils down to Fort Lauderdale PD's off-duty policy. Essentially, no police reports will ever be filed at these bars because they threaten you with arrest for trespassing, disorderly conduct, and public intoxication if you try to press a case against the bouncers. That protects the bar against lawsuits because there will be no police records of the incident. The only thing that happens is the victim is told to leave and forget about it. internetinternet
Cops acting like cops: You act as if this kind of police misbehavior happens only when cops work as bouncers at bars. But this is common behavior for many if not most police officers, who simply cannot handle the power and trust that has been misplaced in their hands. Sadly, the type of person who becomes a cop is exactly the kind of person who should not be a cop. They are not so tough one-on-one, but as soon as the cuffs are on or backup shows up, so does the macho behavior. Then you put three or four off-duty officers in a bar to throw out drunk patrons, and that same behavior goes on with even more impunity because their fellow officers who do the same off-duty bouncing are doing the investigations of any accusations of misbehavior or beatings involving patrons of the bar. Cops snitch on everybody but cops. I can't believe anybody is surprised by these incidents in Fort Lauderdale. We hear about it all the time, but nobody wants to believe that cops will behave like this, so when they say they didn't do it, too often it just goes away. If you ask yourself what kind of people want to be cops and bouncers, you're left with an ugly answer, and the answer is people who like to be in violent situations, especially when they can get away with it. kcguitarplayer
Porn Payback
Redefining "ruined": You know, we have a pretty low bar for saying something ruined someone's life. The guy whose girlfriend has become an advocate against revenge porn even though the charges against him were tossed out ("She Has Ruined My Life," Michael E. Miller, October 17), says his job was in danger over the accusations, but he didn't lose his job. As far as I can tell from the article, the girl didn't lose anything but her pride. Generally, being famous for any reason today opens doors that can be quite lucrative. I'd rather the phrase "ruined my life" be restricted to something like "I lost my arm in a car bomb explosion" or "I lost my job because of this and now nobody will ever hire me." A lot of people are way worse off than these folks. David Dennis
Not victims at all: It's hard to visualize either of these people as victims. You send self-made pornographic pics and videos, and then you go worldwide proclaiming your privacy was violated? Don't transmit anything you don't want the whole world to see. cobaltblu
Not guilty after all: "Honestly, he's guilty," Holly Jacobs says. "I just need stronger laws on the books to prove it." Does this woman even know what "guilty" means? Sure, it sucks for her that .0001 percent of the male population might see a picture of her naked in the sea of pornography on the web, but "hundreds" of naked pictures (and videos!) of her were put online. Hundreds! Why do you have hundreds of naked pictures of yourself on your computer? Mark Simpson
