Originally published at: Private security in U.S. increasingly heavily-armed and belligerent - Boing Boing
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I suppose they need something to stave off boredom and lend a sense of purpose to the tedium. Fantasies of power apparently do the trick.
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Citation required.
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ShockedNotShocked.GIF
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Purple line? When’s the last time a security guard wore purple? I guess thin beige line was too… dull.
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I was thinking that saying they have less training and oversight than US cops is a scary statement indeed.
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The John Candy/Eugene Levy comedy Armed & Dangerous had a lot of jokes about how low the recruitment and training standards are for private security guards. Yes, the standards are lower than the ones for American police. And yes, that’s really saying something.
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Well, at least Americans’ unfounded fear of crime will become increasingly founded once we have cops and an ever-increasing army of armed security to help push crime rates back up. By committing them.
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I was a security guard in college for a while. It was a lousy, low-paying, thankless job, staffed by college students, people who already had a lousy low-paying job and needed more money, and aggressive guys (and they were all guys) who wanted to be cops but weren’t brainy enough to make that low bar.
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The article says the training course for acceptance into Allied Security lasts 3 days. It’s the largest private security firm in the world.
US police courses are usually 6 weeks plus, which is actually very low by European standards. For instance the humble British bobby does about 20 weeks, and that’s before they go onto probationary duty.
Norwegian police candidates need to be university graduates.
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Canadian security guards are forbidden to carry firearms unless they are armored car cash escorts; they have specific firearms training and qualification criteria. BC security guards, even the in-house guards, are required to attend and pass a 40 hour basic course. Handcuffs also require a special certification and illustration of need (work in healthcare or similar).
Edit: Security guards in every Canadian province are not security officers AFAIK (some provinces may now be different); their position is not bestowed by the government but by a private employer. The identification patch must read Security Guard despite the various companies advertising their people as security officers.
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The mall ninja isn’t satire any more.
Listen, I don’t expect you civilians to understand the situation. But bear with me and I’ll see if I can pound it into you soft skulls.With the decay of society and the rotting away of the moral fiber of our country this world is getting more and more dangerous and down right mean. Who do you think protects you from the scum of this society??? The cops, the FBI, the army???Guess again, it’s the guys guarding your companies, your banks, your schools, your homes, your supermarkets, and yes smartass, even your malls. What good are the cops going to be if a shooter shows up at your workplace??? How about your kid’s school, remember Columbine? I’ll tell you what the cops will do, call the SWAT team and screw around trying to locate the front door for 30 minutes, while you or your children are shot down like prairie dogs at a drunken machinegun shoot.We are on site, when the cops are cruising around handing out speeding tickets or harrassing prostitutes. We risk our lives so you can go home to mommy at the end of the day and this is the respect we get??? Hell, I’d call some of us “heroes”, but I’m sure most of you juveniles don’t understand the meaning of such a Distinguished word.So go play Rainbow Six and frag some “tangos”, and tell your mommy to bring you some milk and cookies. **Meanwhile, my ass is one the line so your fat butt can go to the mall and pick up the latest copy of “Computer Gaming Monthly” without getting jumped and sodomized in the mall bathroom.**Stay safe Gecko45! I got your back brother!
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When I was at the Seattle Nordstrom the other day, there were armed security guards.
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I don’t know if this is “in fairness”, but the Uvalde Police SWAT team’s record kind of supports that guy’s opinion.
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That whole “mall ninja” thing was just… unhinged. And yeah, even then I wouldn’t be entirely sure if it was satire, or just the kind of fantasy world nonsense claims real ammosexuals make on a regular basis.
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If you didn’t arm security guards that way, how else will you be able to hire assholes?
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It seems that you could delete “private security in” from the headline and be no less accurate.
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