This video is perfectly mind blowing. Three security guards in a Seattle Metro bus tunnel are shown watching a group of teenagers beat and rob a 15-year-old girl and do nothing to stop it beyond calling 911.
Olympic Security Services, a private firm in Tukwila, supplies the security officers under a contract that says that guards, who are unarmed, should “observe and report” assaults and suspicious activity to police, but not try to physically intervene. It seems to me that Seattle needs to look not only at the contract but who was the genius who would sign such a contract for the city.
This could lead to an interesting lawsuit against the city, which reduced the number of police and replaced them with glorified human security cameras.
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This is mindblowing.
How do these people reconcile the fact they can not intervene with the crime of not giving aid to a person in need??
Oh, how brave we have become…. TEENAGERS may I remind you…. What if it had been gang members, terrorists, or maybe just a bad tempered dad in his thirties.
What on earth would they’ve done then, shit their pants?
Girl might just have broken her neck, I ‘ll be sick for a week now. Fuck security.
This video just took my breath away. These thugs, male and female, should not see the light of day for a long, long time. I don’t care about their age when I see the repeated kicks to the victim’s head. Adding insult to injury were these so-called security guards who only made sure that they themselves were secure. Is this privatization gone amok? What causes teenagers to have absolutely no regard for other human beings? Buddha and Mespo hit it on the head when they used the terms, “indifference” and “incompetence”. I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight after watching that short, but disturbing video.
Didn’t the cast of Seinfeld go to prison for not intervening in a mugging thus breaking the Good Samaritan Law. And these guys were security guards?! Jeebus
Canadian Eh,
I am not saying that they are not liable. Unless there is a good Samaritan law in place there is no duty to assist. However, I am sure that in the Union contract there may have been some just cause termination if they interceded.
What is the theory of liability? Police owe no duty to protect, even where they witness a crime. No private citizen owes a duty to intervene. So why the heck should a “security” guard be liable?
I’m genuinely curious. If the state owes no duty to protect against crimes, why should anyone else be liable?
The only theory that jumps out at me is pure transfer of wealth. If you can afford security guards, you can afford insurance to cover third-party criminal acts. Anyone have another theory?
Contract or no contract, the idea of 3 grown men sitting back and watching a 15 year old female get beaten is disguisting. Shame on them, I wonder how they would feel if that had been their, daughter, wife, sister, or mother?
Now if you ran a red light it would be hell to pay.
Additional coverage
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3yhxdpcijA&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Let’s also remember that the security camera that taped this incident did a great job of protecting that girl! Hooray for the expensive contractor that sold the transit system on this system, installed and now maintains it! Great job preventing this assault, security camera company! You guys did a similarly great job protecting the London underground from those bombers a few years ago! Thanks for saving all those lives! Hoooray security cameras!
I wonder who in Seattle had a brother working in Olympic Security Services?
This whole situation is just symptomatic of the acceptance of the meme that the private market always does things better. Which seems to be pushed as policy in areas where the person doing the pushing has some sort of connection to the private industry in question. Remember, it’s not nepotism if you hire out for it.
Must remember to check out local and state laws of the jurisdiction that you carry in. If they don’t recognize an out of state license or that public transportation facilities generally ban them, you might be the one going to jail.
The laws are kind of funny about that. I believe that Virgina is a carry state but it cannot be concealed. I guess you know who the carrier is and who isn’t.
Must remember to carry a handgun next time I’m in Seattle…
I smell a lawsuit.
Why call them ‘security’ guards if they aren’t actually ‘securing’ anything? I feel sorry for the old lady getting mugged, and the woman being stalked …
How sad that the better angels of their nature didn’t kick in, and help the girl they watched getting pummeled.
“It seems to me that Seattle needs to look not only at the contract but who was the genius who would sign such a contract for the city.”
Yep.
They should look into their finances as well.
The smell of incompetence in the morning! Smells like . . . politicians.
Do you really want untrained, minimum-wage security guards involved in physical altercations? That’s a formula for a lawsuit.
Well in the Off time they can indeed be assistance to the Bushney Team of Protectors. I bet that they can’t recall a thing that occurred that day.
SECURITY Guards? Security for whom?
What I find mindblowing is that Seattle would hire security guards that can only observe and report. This provides people (including the girl that apparently went to them for help) with a false sense of security.
“Three security guards in a Seattle Metro bus tunnel are shown watching a group of teenagers beat and rob a 15-year-old girl…”
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I wonder what they were guarding? Indifference.