Confessions of a security guy

[Transk53]

There was a time, long ago - around the same time as Stillmatic dropped - when I too was the kind of person who believed that it's always society that is to blame for people committing crimes.
I realised however after not too long a time that things aren't quite that simple. It's more of case-to-case basis. This one's society's fault, this one's his/her own, that one is his/her own and over here we've got a combination...etc.

It may be slightly cynical of me, but I've come to realise over the years that a lot of the legal predicaments people tend to find themselves in are, at the end of the day, comprised of one bad decision stapled on top of countless other bad decisions. As I've said earlier, I've been accused before of not having a conscience, due to my apprehending destitute single mothers stealing diapers and whatnot.

That's not how things tend to go down in reality.

I remember the little dude with baggy pants and spiky hair with the cider cans, obviously feeling like he's being neglected amongst his siblings. I can understand that much. What I can't understand is why five years later, he celebrates graduating from high school by attempting to stab both his parents to death, allegedly because of a marijuana-induced psychotic episode.
I remember the little boy who needed duct tape for his skateboard but apparently was short on money. Less than ten years later, he's one of the major drug traffickers in the area and was recently handed a 3,5 year sentence.
I remember the first guy I apprehended, a seventeen-year old high school dropout with a single mom. Shortly thereafter, he was featured in a newspaper article on how he's managed to turn his life around after a construction company took him in. Apparently he chose to display his gratitude by means of assault, rape, robbery and possession.

I also think that we can - and should - maintain the discussion about why so many of these people are listed as "no pork" on the food cards in jail, why so many of them have Polish, Georgian, Mongolian and Roma names, why so many of them return with the predictability of the sunrise, why so many of them reside in the same areas, and why so many people far better off in terms of material standards maintain the knee-jerk reaction to come to their defense, however heinous their crimes.
Also, we can - and should - debate what these constant arrests are actually good for in the long run, why the police have become so INSANELY inconsistent in their handling of the situation, as well as to what extent store owners and staff are part of the problem (because believe me, they are, in more ways than one).

Well then maybe then maybe you could be more proactive with store owners and the staff. Having worked in security for some 14 years plus, we advised what had to be done to improve things. Seems to me that you are happy to remain cynical, but do nothing proactive. Staff members don't have a security head, that is why security are there to lead!

 

[Tez3]

Well then maybe then maybe you could be more proactive with store owners and the staff. Having worked in security for some 14 years plus, we advised what had to be done to improve things. Seems to me that you are happy to remain cynical, but do nothing proactive. Staff members don't have a security head, that is why security are there to lead!

There'd be no fun in that for him, much better to just post his racist and politically biased posts on here.
There's supposed to be no political posts on MT but he seems to get away with them.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

There'd be no fun in that for him, much better to just post his racist and politically biased posts on here.
There's supposed to be no political posts on MT but he seems to get away with them.

Whatever political agenda there is to be found here is in your head and your head only.

Socialists tend to call me a liberal, liberals tend to call me conservative and conservatives tend to call me a socialist. Which kind of says it all about how narrow the boxes are that we're expected to place ourselves in.

Now I suggest we drop that topic.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

Well then maybe then maybe you could be more proactive with store owners and the staff. Having worked in security for some 14 years plus, we advised what had to be done to improve things. Seems to me that you are happy to remain cynical, but do nothing proactive. Staff members don't have a security head, that is why security are there to lead!

Let's just say that I believe you and I work in completely different environments.

The company I work for holds all kinds of courses and certifications for store personnel all the time, but what with high turnover rates and eccentric co-workers who prefer to act on their gut, well...last time I suggested changes to the layout of a place I was told to mind my own damn business.

There's much more to it than that though.

 

[Tez3]

Whatever political agenda there is to be found here is in your head and your head only.

Socialists tend to call me a liberal, liberals tend to call me conservative and conservatives tend to call me a socialist. Which kind of says it all about how narrow the boxes are that we're expected to place ourselves in.

Now I suggest we drop that topic.

And people with common sense call you what? You are spouting racist rubbish, so, no I won't 'drop it', so... exactly why are you posting diatribes against humanity on here? Everyone seems to be wrong except you, you can't even just say workers, you have to describe them as 'eccentric' and of course they are wrong as well.

 

[Transk53]

Let's just say that I believe you and I work in completely different environments.

The company I work for holds all kinds of courses and certifications for store personnel all the time, but what with high turnover rates and eccentric co-workers who prefer to act on their gut, well...last time I suggested changes to the layout of a place I was told to mind my own damn business.

There's much more to it than that though.

Well to employ some common sense over our positions in the security field, well at least when I was, I left security in June of this year, obviously what I had to deal with in the UK, is vastly different to the US. Well, I am assuming you are in America. Threat levels would be vastly different. I.E. I only had the potential of knife crime to deal with. I can tell you that shop staff, bar staff and the like, would not be eccentric at all. Now I can't say that a invidual would not suddenly charge in a like bull, and likely turn into an ambulance job, but generally speaking, the majority wouldn't.

Simply because all of the training and certification we did, helped
to instill confidence in those staff members. Many of which were in bars, restaurants, shops and the gym. One big layout there. Seems to me you look upon those staff as being pieces of meat, when what they want is confidence that security can at least make them feel safe on a fundamental level. Just my take.

 

[Tez3]

Well to employ some common sense over our positions in the security field, well at least when I was, I left security in June of this year, obviously what I had to deal with in the UK, is vastly different to the US. Well, I am assuming you are in America. Threat levels would be vastly different. I.E. I only had the potential of knife crime to deal with. I can tell you that shop staff, bar staff and the like, would not be eccentric at all. Now I can't say that a invidual would not suddenly charge in a like bull, and likely turn into an ambulance job, but generally speaking, the majority wouldn't.

Simply because all of the training and certification we did, helped
to instill confidence in those staff members. Many of which were in bars, restaurants, shops and the gym. One big layout there. Seems to me you look upon those staff as being pieces of meat, when what they want is confidence that security can at least make them feel safe on a fundamental level. Just my take.

He isn't in the US, he's in some unnamed European country hence all the Roma and other racist slurs.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

And people with common sense call you what? You are spouting racist rubbish, so, no I won't 'drop it', so... exactly why are you posting diatribes against humanity on here? Everyone seems to be wrong except you, you can't even just say workers, you have to describe them as 'eccentric' and of course they are wrong as well.

Do you have any idea how much racial profiling I'm regularly subjected to myself? How often customers as well as staff, even in stores I've worked in for years, go talking about me behind my back about how scary I look?

Do you know how many people come up to me and say things like "dead muslims is the best thing there is", even though I'm of Portuguese and indigenous Brazilian descent?

Do you know often store personnel (most often blond women under 30, for some reason) as well as cops more or less deliberately give me a poor reception compared to my colleagues?

And how is soaking thieves in their own urine or telling outlaw biker gang hangarounds to do unmentionable acts with their family members not eccentric behaviour?

You're free to disagree with me and/or not read this thread, but what really rubs me the wrong way is how intellectually dishonest you're being by conveniently ignoring the efforts I've made to make my own personal stance against racism as clear as possible. For starters, you could re-read this: Confessions of a security guy

Or you could just keep away from this thread, which would probably be preferable.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

Well, I am assuming you are in America.

Well, then you didn't read the first post in this thread.

 

[Transk53]

He isn't in the US, he's in some unnamed European country hence all the Roma and other racist slurs.

Oh lol. Got the impression that a lot of "hey man, that's cool <smoke> was going on.

 

[Jenna]

If you're honestly interested, read the first post in the thread and start act like a grownup.


Basically the point is that one of the side effects of intersectionality is that the most disadvantaged person is always assumed to be in the right. But it's a complex situation that differs quite a bit from what I'm guessing most of you reading this are used to.

If a guard files a report of a hate crime for having been called white trash by a person from the Middle East, the police are likely to drop the charges because the guard in question is blonde and light-skinned - even if he also happens to be of Romani descent, which was the reason for reporting the crime in the first place.
If a person says he's going to smash my face in if the police don't arrive soon, the charges will be dropped, but if he says that he's going to smash my face in because I'm an effing spick when I'm off duty, I get paid approximately 750 USD for the trouble.
If it's discovered that the police have been keeping secret lists and registries over suspected and/or convicted criminals as well as their families, all of whom have happened to be Romani, all hell breaks loose.
But if a black man and his infant son are thrown off a bridge after having been called the N word, and the perpetrators happen to be part of a Kurdish family no one dares to testify against, there's not a single word said about it being a hate crime.

All in all, it's a huge and complicated mess.

Yes, it is complicated, you find human interaction often has that characteristic! However when you begin to cite various creeds and races of people it just sounds like you cannot make sense of this complicated situation and seek simplicity which I do not believe is even there. Accept the complex, do not eke out simplicity because oversimplification results in prejudice. Also, I have noticed your tendency to emotionally reason. Just because thing is true in your head do not make it true per se.

 

[Tez3]

Do you have any idea how much racial profiling I'm regularly subjected to myself?

Ah playing the victim, good idea. Shall I get you some cheese?

go talking about me behind my back about how scary I look?

Paranoid much?

Or you could just keep away from this thread, which would probably be preferable.

So you can carry on with your stream of consciousness posting or whining as I like to call it? You post up in public you have to expect comments, that they are comments you don't like is frankly tough, if you don't like people commenting, post as a blog and curtail anyone expressing their opinion.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

Also, I have noticed your tendency to emotionally reason.

No you haven't.

 

[Transk53]

Well, then you didn't read the first post in this thread.

Just have done again, and tbh, I am still confused as to why you persist with a job that seems you hate? Strong word I know. Maybe it is just me not being able to comprehend where you are coming from, but I have worked with many Eastern Europeans, but yeah, not quite sure what ultimate message you are trying to convey here. Not so sure it is about security.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

Paranoid much?

Intellectually dishonest much? It's more a case of THEM being paranoid.

Just last week, this woman who was doing some sort of questionnaire at a place I worked a walked up to me after I'd had the police arrive there, and basically told me that she'd been walking around being afraid of me the whole day. And this in spite of the fact that I told her as soon as she walked up to me at the start of the day, that I couldn't talk right then because I was on the job. And the only thing she'd have to do to find out what I was doing there was to go have a chat with some manager or supervisor - which would have been the reasonable thing to do if you really thought someone was up to no good.

Instead, she chose to walk around all day feeling uncomfortable for no reason, instead of finding out the facts. That's the starting point of racism in a nutshell.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

Just have done again, and tbh, I am still confused as to why you persist with a job that seems you hate

Wouldn't say that I hate it per se, what I do hate is how staff and police act sometimes, which sadly has become more common.

not quite what ultimate message you are trying to convey here. Not so sure it is about security.

In a way it is, in a way it isn't.

 

[Transk53]

Wouldn't say that I hate it per se, what I do hate is how staff and police act sometimes, which sadly has become more common.



In a way it is, in a way it isn't.

Then what it is then, bear in mind also that in terms of policing, Tez is experienced with that and I am not, so I can't qualify any comment on the police where you are. As marina security, I and my colleagues built up a very good repore with Sussex Police, so again unless you are referring to undue committed violence from both sides, what you have put up here, is very disingenuous to me.

 

[Tez3]

Intellectually dishonest much? It's more a case of THEM being paranoid.

Just last week, this woman who was doing some sort of questionnaire at a place I worked a walked up to me after I'd had the police arrive there, and basically told me that she'd been walking around being afraid of me the whole day. And this in spite of the fact that I told her as soon as she walked up to me at the start of the day, that I couldn't talk right then because I was on the job. And the only thing she'd have to do to find out what I was doing there was to go have a chat with some manager or supervisor - which would have been the reasonable thing to do if you really thought someone was up to no good.

Instead, she chose to walk around all day feeling uncomfortable for no reason, instead of finding out the facts. That's the starting point of racism in a nutshell.

Ah but it's never you, it's always 'THEM'.

Perhaps you need to brush up on your communication skills and have a look at your body language, your brain is telling you one thing but your body and the way you say thing sis obviously telling people something else.

'Intellectually dishonest' what does that even mean in this context? You go on and on about how everyone is out to get you, how bad things are for you, how no one loves you, how you are racially profiled etc etc and we are supposed to go 'aw diddums'? Either have a good talk with yourself and make changes or get out of that job and go do something you enjoy. Everything you say shows the world from your point of view, how you see things, do you think the police officers and others see things the way you do or perhaps, just perhaps it's you that is wrong? It's something we all have to ask ourselves, are people reacting the way they do because of the way I have behaved, could I have handled it differently, done things better? Rather than just whinge about how awful everyone is, ( that attitude comes out in your body language btw) perhaps you should be looking to be the change rather than think it's everyone else who is the problem. Yes there are some complete dipsticks in any job and profession but when you start thinking everyone is except you then the problem may not be them.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

so again unless you are referring to undue committed violence from both sides, what you have put up here, is very disingenuous to me.

The good cops know that we serve an important function, and thankfully they're still in the majority.

However, there is a kind of mentality here among not just police, but the entire public administration that I believe (note - I believe) isn't that much of a problem in the States - that is, the important thing isn't to do the right thing, but rather to avoid doing the wrong thing. This can have some rather bizarre consequences at times.

 

[Grey Eyed Bandit]

Ah but it's never you, it's always 'THEM'.

That's exactly what I was thinking about you! What I write here is, in your opinion, morally reprehensible, whereas the racism directed towards myself is so insignificant that you find it appropriate to belittle it. So who's the one really differentiating between people here? That's intellectual dishonesty, strike #1.

Perhaps you need to brush up on your communication skills and have a look at your body language, your brain is telling you one thing but your body and the way you say thing sis obviously telling people something else.

Now you're ignoring the fact that I usually only have this problem with newly employed millennials. That's strike #2 for intellectual dishonesty.

You go on and on about how everyone is out to get you, how bad things are for you, how no one loves you, how you are racially profiled etc etc and we are supposed to go 'aw diddums'?

Strawman. Strike #3 for intellectual dishonesty,

Everything you say shows the world from your point of view, how you see things, do you think the police officers and others see things the way you do or perhaps, just perhaps it's you that is wrong?

I know what the laws say, and a big chunk of the trouble I get into comes from the police and/or staff being unfamiliar with said laws. But sure, that's my fault.
(You'll never hear me complaining about criminals being unfamiliar with or not caring about said laws though, that's part of the game)

Yes there are some complete dipsticks in any job and profession but when you start thinking everyone is except you then the problem may not be them.

Strawman again, strike #4 for intellectual dishonesty.