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[NDReporter]

I can't believe no one started this thread already, so I will! I want to see what everyone has to say about this story. http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=26179

Video clip shows Reilly's bouncer punching man

Alicia Ebaugh
Staff Writer

MICHIGAN CITY - Caught on video by bystanders, footage of a doorman hitting a patron several times and then kicking him outside Reilly's Sports Bar and Grill last month has drawn pointed criticism from all sides. The patron and his family claim such force was excessive and wouldn't have been employed if he weren't black. Bar employees say the patron provoked the fight.

In the 28-second clip, which first found its way to the internet Tuesday, Eryc D. Calvin, 26, of Michigan City, is seen lying on the ground outside the bar at 1103 Franklin St. near some broken glass with two men standing over him, pushing him into the sidewalk.

The volume on the video is low, but Calvin can be heard saying "I didn't even do nothin'," to which doorman Eric Polomcak replied, "You took a swing at me, b----." A man identified by bar owner Mark Killerman as a manager is seen yelling to another bar patron involved in the altercation, "Marty, let him go!"

Calvin is allowed to stand up, fixing his pants and shirt sleeves. Polomcak then says, "You wanna play?" and punches Calvin in the face four times. After Calvin is on the ground, Polomcak asks, "Now we done?" before kicking him in the upper body.

The video, which was featured on the social networking Web site Myspace until Thursday night, drew more than 3,200 views over the three days it was posted there. It is now featured on YouTube.

"Bottom line, what they did was wrong," said Calvin, who is black. "It's racist. You know if that was me beating up on some white guy, I'd be in jail right now."

Polomcak, who admitted in an interview that he punched Calvin, disagreed.

"I saw it, and I know that video doesn't show everything that happened. He pushed another doorman," said Polomcak, 41. "I don't give a s--- if you're black, white, pink or purple, someone who's been drinking is like a loaded gun. You don't know what they're gonna do."

The incident started inside the bar a little before 1:45 a.m. Sept. 20, but Calvin and Polomcak give differing stories about how Calvin ended up outside. Calvin said he was at the bar with his girlfriend, his brother, his brother's girlfriend and two other women. A young woman was pulling on his sweater and trying to dance with him when a doorman came up to him and asked what he was doing, he said.

"He told me I needed to leave and pushed me out the door," Calvin said. "I wasn't trying to fight or nothing."

Polomcak said another doorman, identified only as "Jason," approached Calvin after the woman told Jason that Calvin, her ex-boyfriend, was trying to "start something" with her.

"Jason pushed him toward the door, but he got belligerent and pushed him back, so I got involved. I told him he needed to go and pushed him outside, and we went to the ground," Polomcak said.

The other patron who went outside with them was just trying to help defuse the situation, Polomcak said, and patted Calvin down for weapons. He did not have any.

When Calvin stood up near the curb, he said he would have walked away had the two men not been in front of him and a car behind him on the street.

"How am I supposed to get out of all y'alls club if you're not letting me leave?" Calvin said in an interview.

But Polomcak said that when he asked Calvin if he wanted to "play," Calvin replied, "Yeah, [expletive], we're gonna go." However, that's not audible on the video.

"I'm notorious for keeping my temper, but when he said that I wasn't going to wait to see what he was going to do next," Polomcak said. "I didn't want to get hit ... I could have held back from the knee, but I think everything else was justified."

Calvin's girlfriend, Britney Harmon, 21, Michigan City, said she saw Calvin talking to the woman and went to dance. The next thing she knew, she said, he was pushed outside.

"The bouncers wouldn't let us outside to see what was going on," Harmon said. "They were blocking the doors."

None of his friends saw what happened, Harmon said. Any time there is a fight outside, the doors are blocked to make sure no one else gets involved, Polomcak said. But the video clearly shows a woman was allowed outside during the incident to speak to the other patron who was involved.

Calvin's lip was cut during the fight, he said, and he said he still has severe headaches. He called police after he left the bar to make a report, but he said he didn't get the impression they would do anything about it. In a police report Calvin filed Thursday, he said he was unaware he would have to go to the police station to make a report for battery. The report was made after he first talked to The News-Dispatch about the incident.

Calvin's family has hired attorney Greg Sarkisian of Portage in hopes of pursuing action against the bar.

Bar owner Killerman said he was sure his staff handled the situation appropriately.

"We don't want this place to be like the old Sullivan's (the bar's previous name)," Killerman said. "We don't want trouble here."