Seattle Bus Guards = Most Useless Humans On Earth

What the fuck!

These are SECURITY GUARDS. As in, they are supposed to provide some measure of security. But did they try to pull off the people attacking this kid? Did they shield her? Did they try to get between the attackers and the kid who was knocked out on the ground?

Ohh, they have "standing orders". Nice to see that people are more worried about keeping their jobs than protecting a kid from being beaten. Well, maybe the cops would do better.

Oh, good, Macy's was saved. I was worried.

And simple human decency takes a nose-dive. Better to let the ONE 15 YEAR OLD GIRL take the brunt of an attack then try to intervene. And I'll say it again . . . They are supposed to be SECURITY GUARDS . . . you know, providing some measure of security.

if they'd acted, they'd have lost their jobs. personally, i think it's worth it at the price, but that's me. the real failures here are the cops.

It was a fight between two teenage girls. They could have broken it up with a stern look.

The real failure is the mother of the 15-year old that attacked that girl. In other interviews she claimed knowledge of her daughter's previous fights and theft and did nothing about it. She didn't know a) that her daughter had attacked someone until she saw it on the news and b) didn't know where her 15-year old daughter was for a few days prior to the incident.

This story is about 2 weeks old.

Minimum wage unarmed security guards are usually not trained to handle something like this. Most of the time, this is a second job for these people. Some are retirees. They do what they are told to do.

I am not defending their actions, they should have stepped in in my opinion, but pointing the fingers at the security guards solely is wrong. The four individuals that attacked her are at fault. Three of which are over 18 and being charged with felonious assault as adults and the police are seeking a 17 year old. The 15 year old is being held in juvey until her trial and her mother still hasn't talked to her.

the vic was brutalized so badly she lost consciousness. i don't think these were the type of kids who are scared off by stern looks. not to get all internet tough guy, but i'd have booted the little shits through the wall. and i'd have lost my job. most security guards aren't even what you'd consider rent-a-cops. they are literally there to watch and do nothing else. they're contractually obliged to not interfere, in most cases.

Being a superhero and trying to stop an armed robbery with a flashlight is stupid. Standing by while one teenage girl brutally beats another teenage girl is disgusting.

So dumb.

Some of my client officers - real cops, mind you - detectives, sergeants, vice cops etc - have been shot at or stabbed by kids younger than these girls.

According to the linked article, the victim had possibly maced one of her later attackers earlier in the day. Also, the private, unarmed security guards were following orders (as misguided as those orders may seem to us now, after the fact).

In some ways, underage offenders are harder to deal with than adult criminals, because they can be impulsive and exhibit even worse judgment than adults - not to mention that they know that the worst punishment they're likely to get is a stint in Juvie and freedom with a clean sheet when they turn 18... or that is their perception, at least.

Part of this in an inadequacy or misapplication of terminology.

When I hear "Security Guard" the image that builds up in my mind, and I'm certain in others, is an individual hired to provide personal and property protection. Using that metric a security guard that stands by (at least he radioed in the incident) while two others turn their backs on a brutal beating and robbery doesn't cut it.

What is a proper term for people hired to do exactly what those 'guards' did? Perhaps we should call them that so potential victims know better than to rely on them for assistance.

not preventing or interfering with the attack is what it is. not checking to see if the kid is alright, though? that is some shit.

It sucks, it happens, looks like the company in charge of the guards are going to look at changing how to allow them to do their job.

But here's a question (after working watching that video).

If that witness is so upset about what happened, why the fuck didn't she do something?

Oh right, because it's someone ELSES job.

It's a recession right now, it's hard enough to find one job, but being fired (and they more then likely would have) and then trying to find a job? Slim.

Hero's don't get extra jobs, or security.

Nothing is going to change what happened, hopefully things will change so that it doesn't happen there again.

But frankly, if they had gotten involved, those ten other teens might have turned on them easily, maybe they had a knife (or two). Then what?

It sucks, but frankly, this is the society we've set ourselves up in, no one is supposed to take action unless they are allowed to.

And if all else fails, blame the other guy/girl.

yeah, i was wondering that myself. she was apparently in a bus across the street from the action. still, if she felt that strongly about it, she could tell the driver to stop so she could get out.

Good luck to the company trying to fire you for protecting a child from being beaten. Gonna have a hell of a time with the media backlash.

I like the dude standing right there over the girl as the attacker comes back and kicks her in the head again.

"Hey, you okay? Yeah, you're oka- oh, guess not now."

This reminds me of an incident several years back where one of our local Taco Bells fired an employee for leaving his post to give one of the customers CPR, which saved his life. They fired him despite the media shitstorm. It's a shitty world we live in.

I had to break up fights like this when I was teaching High School. Its not a particularly easy thingto do, and it can get dangerous, but its also not impossible to scare them off either.
I agree that the Security Guards should have done something, job or no job, one likes to think that its the moral thing to do. However, on the other hand, they didn't have the training on how to handle the situation and, in fact, their training ran counter to them helping. I don't put the full brunt of responsibility on them.
Honestly, its the damned cop who wouldn't even give the girl and escort to to the train, that should be held responsible, by and large.
That all being said, this seems like a pretty good example of a Kitty Genovese-style incident.

fixed!

The bus was parked.

The security guards were the only witnesses whose jobs were at stake.

Since when do you have to do a risk analysis to determine whether you should prevent a 15 year old girl from getting her head stomped repeatedly?

as my instructor in last night's CERT training says, you should never take any actions you don't feel comfortable or right in doing. It's easy to sit back from the comfort of our computer screens and say "I'd have jumped in and stopped that!" but real life is a lot different. Some people can, some can not, for a lot of reasons from physical to mental to ethical to whatever else.

Notice even the Sheriff in this incident recommended they stay out of it and just call the cops.

Well, I hope if I'm ever attacked, the security guards around me won't be the type that feel helping someone who is being attacked is the wrong thing to do.

yeah. basically, i don't blame the security guards any more than i blame the other bystanders--which is to say, all of them should have done something.

This is beyond ridiculous. The guards acted correctly in this situation, and I commend them for doing so.

First, these are security guards. To say that their job is to "observe and report" is correct. A guard is a professional witness. They are not bodyguards, bouncers, peace officers, or judge and jury. They were unarmed and untrained to handle this incident.

Second, any action they could have taken could result in injury or death, civil lawsuit against them and their employer, as well as possible arrest. Only a sworn officer has the proper training and know how to handle this situation correctly.

A security officer has no more authority to make arrests than a private citizen. Usually just their presence is enough to deter criminal activity. Unfortunately, it doesn't always have the desired effect.

Now, can we place the blame on those that committed this crime, rather than those that witnessed it?

Well there is an order of precedence when it comes to titles. The first is human being. With this title, forget being a security guard; your first instinct should be to protect another human being being stomped to near death.

Let's stop the mindless fucking "PC" babble here. The security guards are adults, who "should" possess both a natural and moral responsibility to intervene. Have we all become so narcissistic and morally corrupt to believe anything different should happen; especially if we were the person being beaten?

There is no excuse for those committing the crime or for those who turn their backs and walk away because it means less to them than tenuous employment.

It's frightening to see how people dignify a corrupt sense of what is "right" through comments on these boards.