Bus Tunnel Victim Says She Begged Police For Help Before Beating

KIRO TV ^ | February 11, 2010

[The Black Knight]

“Security” can be broken into two aspects: protection and deterrance.

Theoretically, these guards serve a deterrant factor. You see an authority figure, so you don’t do bad things there. Deterrence is the idea of making your area look safe, so that bad people do bad things in another area and not yours.

These guards also form a part of the protection structure. Protection usually happens in three sequential steps: detection, delay, and response. This is true of any professional security setup.

Security guards used to function as two of those three steps. They could report situations, detain the perps, and wait for the police (the response) to arrive. In some cases, they used to do all three. However, lawsuits have made any attempt at delay an open invitation to lawsuits. Not only lawsuits for battery, but civil suits claiming that certain groups’ “civil rights” being trampled upon. Because, of course, certain groups found that they were being delayed more often than others. Go figure.

What has evolved is the current security setup, in which guards are only allowed to do the first step in protection: detection. Their job is to report only. Security companies, wary of ridiculous lawsuits verdicts awarding millions of dollars, have banned security employees from getting involved.

As to your question about the difference between guards and cameras. I can tell you, for a fact, that there are usually only one or two people watching a camera system which may utilize hundreds of cameras. Camera systems are great for seeing what happened after the fact, as we saw in this situation. But a guy on the street with a radio can report an incident as soon as it happens. That is the logic behind security guards.

I openly acknowledge that it is a broken system. You are absolutely right about placing a guard in a uniform, and then stripping him of power. I believe that this incident alone shows the bad side of this setup. That is why I carry a knife at all times on the street, and keep a shotgun under my bed.

[itsahoot]

*Well, they might try putting under cover cops in a gang, naw hat would never work.*

You don't under stand

</sarcasm> ?

[j-damn]

Yeah, I’m sure they can find some 15 year-old black kids from White Center to infiltrate this “gang”.