Discusting. God forbid you take a photograph and you're instantly treated like a terrorist but when they're actually supposed to do their job they just stand there. They should be charged as accomplishes.

What a bunch of cowards! Can't even break up a fight or at least keep the girl's purse from being stolen..

So what the heck is their job as security guards then? They allowed an assault and a theft.
Excuse me, but you are paid to secure what???

Before we go ripping these "security" guards, do we know what their official job description is? Or what guidelines are placed upon them as far as intervening in a crime?

I can see the lack of human element here, but I can see the flip side too. 10 on 3 doesn't sound like good odds for the security. These guys allegedly radioed police, right? Do we know if these security guards were armed?


EDIT:

From the OP link:

According to their contract, the guards are to "observe and report" problems, not to get involved.

[edit on 10-2-2010 by Aggie Man]

IMO, it doesn't matter what restrictions were placed on these guards. They were right there. At one point even surrounding the teen on the ground and yet still allowed the attacker to return (after having left) to kick her again. The only decent move, would have been to stop that. This makes me sick.

Originally posted by LadySkadi
IMO, it doesn't matter what restrictions were placed on these guards. They were right there. At one point even surrounding the teen on the ground and yet still allowed the attacker to return (after having left) to kick her again. The only decent move, would have been to stop that. This makes me sick.

You know there have been numerous stories over the past few months of heroic employees (not just security either) that have intervened....only to get fired for breaking policy. In tough economic times, a job is of highest importance to some people...family to feed, bills to pay.

Seems like the security policy there needs to be revamped, but these security guards did nothing wrong, technically. But morally they did.

I can already guess what the arguments will be in support of the actions taken (or not taken) and that they (the guards) will be supported by company policy and procedure. Truthfully, I don't care. It does not excuse inaction. Moral character, caught on tape. Now they have to live with it. I hope it haunts them. Perhaps next time (if such a situation happens) they each will choose to act differently.

As for the city choosing to contract with a security company with a policy such as this - I think it's going to be facing lawsuits. At the least, a policy change mandate. The public is going to be outraged.

ETA:
...As for the bystanders not jumping in to help either... just as pathetic!






[edit on 10-2-2010 by LadySkadi]

I'm sorry but I ahve to be brutally honest right now...
And you may not take this seriously, but I sure as hell do.

Super Heroes with Incredibly SuperHuman Abilities... are our modern-day mythological Gods and Saviors...

If they don't start showing up, or if we don't start CHANGING INTO them.. .. SOON... then this world is doomed to complete absolute debauchery and degredation....

situations like this NEEDS A SUPER HERO!

so do natural disaster rescue and any and all who are suffering...

scoff at this post.. or roll your eyes because YOU KNOW? evvverything that is 'realistically' possible and what is not.. in this infinite universe right?..

scoff all you want.. you know deep inside that if we had super heroes then crime would plummet, corruption would recede.. and FEAR would be less prevalent.

-

Having lived in Seattle, I can't place a ton of blame on these guards. They are unarmed, for starters. Plus they were sorely outnumbered. Anybody who thinks that this mob of teens wouldn't have simply turned on the guards and attempted to beat them down doesn't know the type of trash that lives in Seattle. I actually know exactly where in the tunnels this took place. That was my drop off for work for a year and a half. That part of the city is a hodgepodge of street urchins and normal people simply trying to conduct their day to day business.

The incredibly ironic thing to me, and one of those "mysteries of ATS" I so often ponder, is the damned if they doi, damned if they don't situation these guards were in. Let's say for sake of argument that they had whipped out tazers or been carrying handguns. IMO, an assault is a perfectly valid reason to use the most powerful weapon at your disposal, be it a handgun or a tazer. In ATS world, had the guards used either this "shocking" headline would have been "Seattle Security Guards Assault Teen Gang."

The real news article here isn't what the guards didn't do, it's "Why weren't the guards carrying enough weaponry to stop this?" It's "Why wasn't a police officer available immediately to assist?" and, most importantly, "Why does any community tollerate these little thugs in their community in the first place?" It would be virtually impossible for anyone to convince me that this group of miscreants were perfect little angels prior to this incident. If you refuse to act like a contributing member of society, regardless your age, then you shouldn't be allowed to mingle with society.

The true criminals here...the parents of that group of ghettolings, and probably their parents before them, as it was, and statistically how it will be, for the offspring that may or may not come from that pack of heathens.

[edit on 2/10/2010 by UberL33t]

The guards' job description is clear. And that has something to do with why they did not intervene.
The other reason they did not intervene is because they are apathetic.

Looks like the victim knew what was coming, and she decided to hang out near the security guys... how dissapointing and helpless she must've felt...

Unreal, I don't care what your job description is, you just intervene without even thinking twice... but I guess that's not how it works for some people anymore these days. These guards are pathetic cowards and should indeed be charged as accomplices.

This website really irritates me at times. Last month at any given time there were threads about how police and other such figures abuse their power by assaulting people. Now we get a story about how guards stood by and did nothing, and you people are coming down on them for that, make up your damned minds.

You can bet that had they gotten involved the media story would have been about 3 guards who "abused their power" and "manhandled" some innocent teenagers. Most of the people would be railing about how we are becoming a police society and need to stand up to these people. You can't have it both ways. You pined long enough about them abusing power, now live with the consequences.

[edit on 10-2-2010 by Rook1545]

Something like this reminds me of a Thomas Jefferson quote.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

But instead, you could replace tyranny with Evil and silent with Inaction. I only say this is because if the guards would have stopped her, maybe they would have had the 8 guys after them. But then again, maybe the 20 people observing would have came to the guards defence.

The least the guards could have done is "observe and report" by putting up a barrier of themselves around the unconscious girl and "observe" from there. I hope they lose sleep at night for months because they allowed this to happen.