Respect and Reputation

Charles Bronson

Description

In this increasingly violent and troubled world, people demand to be respected. But what is exactly is respect? Is it learned or earned? How do you go from being a 'nobody' to a 'somebody'? How do you respect others and equally how can you get other people to respect you? Can you only be truly respected if you have a reputation? There is probably no one more qualified to talk about respect and reputation in prison than Charles Bronson. Tagged one of the most violent prisoners in the UK, Charlie has spent over thirty years in solitary confinement, is respected by both prisoners and wardens alike and has a fearsome and frightening reputation. In complete contrast, although he has spent much of his life surrounded by violence, former bouncer and bodyguard Robin Barratt would now prefer to take a passive path away from any conflict. In this fascinating book, Barratt and Bronson examine in detail respect and reputation including how to behave in prison, how to treat other prisoners, how to be a great door supervisor, when to show respect, how to gain the respect of others and ultimately how to develop an awesome reputation both in prison, on the doors and in life generally. With lots of real life anecdotes as well as contributions from many other hard men (and a few women), this gripping book takes its reader into the psychology of a world rarely explored.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• True crime

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 25 mai 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781907792045
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
RESPECT AND REPUTATION
On the Doors, in Prison and in Life
Robin Barratt and Charles Bronson
Foreword by Bernard O’Mahoney
Publisher Information
First published in 2010 by Apex Publishing Ltd
www.apexpublishing.co.uk
PO Box 7086, Clacton on Sea, Essex, CO15 5WN, England
Digital Edition converted and published by Andrews UK Limited 2010
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2010 by Robin Barratt and Charles Bronson The authors have asserted their moral rights
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition, that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Dedication
Because of the high level of disrespect in the industry now, this book is dedicated to every single professional door supervisor working the doors today; I respect you and the job you do, for it is infinitely more difficult than it ever was when I worked the doors. However, if you are a scrote or scumbag, or an ineffectual, unprofessional, arrogant doorman that couldn’t give a toss about his job and the people you have been tasked to protect ... fuck off!
Becci Maple Born: 3 March 1983 Died: 23 March 2009. She loved working for the guys at Alamo Security and her favourite door was at the East Bar in Swanage. Rest in Peace Becci, and keep the idiots from Heaven’s gates!
Note
Respect
[rispekt] the condition of being esteemed or honoured: to be held in respect
Reputation
[repyuhteyshuhn] favourable repute; good name: to build one’s reputation a favourable and publicly recognised name or standing for merit, achievement, reliability
FOREWORD
By Bernard O’Mahoney
Out of all the words in the Dictionary, the true meaning of one word has to have been abused more times than your average Catholic Choir boy. To each and every one of us ‘Respect’ has a different meaning, and it is usually a meaning that we have tailored to suit our personal needs and lifestyle. The Government, for instance, have set up a website called `Respect` to deal with what they deem to be antisocial behaviour. The same selfrighteous bastards also send young men to the other side of the world to Iraq and Afghanistan to meet their deaths in a futile war. Ironically, the very antiwar group that campaigns against this senseless slaughter by the Government is itself called ‘Respect’.
Like our hypocritical masters, the common man preaches one thing about respect and then practices the complete opposite. The infamous Kray brothers went to great lengths to propagate the myth that people in the East End of London respected them. In reality the meek that kowtowed to the terrible twins did so because they were simply terrified of them. The smiles and handshakes that greeted the Kray’s wherever they went were usually camouflage for genuine fear and resentment. And so it was with my father, a sadistic bully who demanded `respect` but who was incapable of expressing love, affection, or any other decent human emotion to his own wife and children. How can such people claim to know the first thing about respect? When you are forced to live in the shadow of a deluded violent maniac who truly believes that you respect him, you accept all of the fear and misery that you are subjected to for a while. But within us all resides a beast that is rarely unleashed. When it is, it can never be stopped until our tormentor is defeated or dead. At the age of fifteen my father disappeared from my families’ home after receiving his comeuppance. Fear had evolved into anger and he was badly beaten by myself and my brother.
He was not the only bully that I have met in my life who confused the meaning of respect with fear. In 1987, I arrived in Basildon, Essex after being released from a prison sentence for wounding. There, I began work at a nightclub called Raquel’s where the clientele appeared to be only interested in either fucking or fighting one other. My fellow doormen were at best inadequate with dealing with the battles that raged each night. They were local men who `respected` the local bullies who had earned their reputation in the playground and who were determined to take them to their graves. It was my view, that the sooner that happened the better.
After confronting the head of security about his spineless attitude, he walked out of the club and I took over. Within weeks I had brought in a man named Tony Tucker as my partner. Tucker controlled a large and extremely `influential` door firm that was ‘respected’ throughout London and Essex. At first things went well. We cleared Raquel’s of the local bullies (usually head first via the three storey concrete stair case) and decent people once more began to frequent the premises. In the early 1990`s the love drug Ecstasy arrived in club land and Tucker and I found ourselves in a position to control a very lucrative market. Dealers would pay rent to sell drugs in the club and soon we were enjoying a lifestyle that neither of us had ever before experienced. However, the more money we earned, the more concerned I became. I could see beyond the smiling faces that showed Tucker and I `respect` and who wanted to be our `friends.` Meaningless, empty people who wanted a piece of the action to enrich their miserable lives would do their best to immerse themselves in the murky world that we inhabited. I chose to avoid them, Tucker chose to exploit them. He would ply young men with bags of pills and packets of powder. They would then be dispatched to various clubs throughout London and Essex to earn him money. Inevitably some dealers would take the drugs themselves, give them to friends or occasionally get caught in possession by the police. Regardless of their sob story, Tucker would always want his money. If the dealers were unable to pay, Tucker would take great pleasure in subjecting them to cruel and merciless violence. `If I let one off, they will all take the piss, they have to respect me,` he would say. In December 1995, Tucker and two of his associates went to meet one of the dealers that had failed to pay his dues. The dealer, a rather nondescript individual who has never been known to be violent before, had already suffered the wrath of Tony Tucker previously, but he had decided that he wasn’t going to suffer it any more. He wasn’t angry, he was in fact scared, but the beast that resides within us all had been unleashed. He knew what he had to do, the bully who confused respect with fear had to die. When the Range Rover carrying Tucker and his associates pulled up at a Farmer’s gate that night, the middle aged drug dealer approached the car. In his hand he grasped a Spas.12 semiautomatic pump action shotgun. Moments later, Tucker and his associates were dead but the gunman continued to fire into their motionless heads. All of the fear, the anger and the hatred that he had felt for Tucker was finally being expelled. As three men had died, a new man had been born; one who knew the true meaning of respect. Never would he confuse fear with respect because he had endured it. The man had learned that you cannot respect anybody until you respect yourself. To have self respect you have principles, stand up for yourself and treat others as you would wish to be treated. To have self respect you have to love and cherish those closest to you. To have self respect you have to honour the wishes of others. And if you do these things, you don’t have to think about giving others respect or earning it, because you will have already done both.



PART ONE
ON THE DOORS
Written and compiled by Robin Barratt with contributions from: Mick Lyons, Jamie O’Keefe, Will Bishop, Rob MacGowen, Paul Knight, Steve Wraith, Geoff Carter, Wesley Downham, Ryan Hucker, Jim Thompson, Jim Myers, John Brawn (www.johnbrawn.com), Jeff Stewart, Colin West, Lloyd Smith, Richard Wood, Dave Llewellyn, Ben Elliot, Becci Maple, Masood Kamal, Chris Houghton, Donna Stanley, Steve Strudwick, Karl Spooner, Karen and Zarah.
INTRODUCTION
By Robin Barratt
Because I have no real desire to retrain already trained door staff, this book is not about the mechanics of the job. Since the Security Industry Authority (SIA) introduced national training and licensing for door supervisors throughout the UK, most if not all door supervisors have had some form of basic training, although undeniably SIA training is not nearly enough to equip new door staff for life on the doors and in this increasingly violent world. But this book is all about building a reputation and bringing back respect into this once worthy and loyal industry. And what a better world it will then be!
Although your mother may love you, if you are a wanker you are a wanker, simple. And I hate wankers; I hate wankers working on the door pretending to be door supervisors; and I really hate the kinds of wankers who think they are ‘someone’ and want to cause trouble. Although I fully understand that massive alcohol consumption and binge drinking have a great deal to do with a violent and wankerfilled Britain, if you have a core respect for other people this should remain strong, whether you are drunk or sober. Long gone are the days when doormen had authority and control, and now even stonecold sober people show so much more disrespect for the public and, of course, for door supervisors than ever before. People just don’t care anymore. But, aside from the influence of al