Posted on 06/10/2009 7:08:05 PM PDT by appleseed
Until yesterday afternoon, many of us probably thought of security guards as annoyances. That's if we thought of them at all.
They're ubiquitous in Washington -- checking our IDs, telling us to empty our pockets, directing us through the magnetometer -- such a constant presence that they can become invisible, just another extension of the security apparatus that's attached to nearly every aspect of public life these days.
And then suddenly something happens. A man tries to get into a museum. He has a weapon. There's shooting.
Yesterday, Stephen Tyrone Johns of Temple Hills died. He was shot at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was a security guard.
We'll no doubt find out more in the coming days about exactly what happened there, but what seems clear is that a job that might strike many of us as boring can, in a heartbeat, become anything but.
We tend to lump all security guards together. The industry prefers the title security officer, actually, and the jobs these officers do are varied. Some officers are uniformed receptionists -- armed with a badge but no gun, calling up to tell us our meeting participant has arrived. Some poke through our purses with a wooden stick before allowing us into the gallery. Some have guns as deadly-looking as anything you'd see on an Army post. Some guard Army posts.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What do you mean, "we", white Lib?
Amen. Very true. My heart goes out to him and his family. Who knows how many that evil vile man could’ve killed. He very conveniently did it at his advanced age b/c he knew it would be no sacrifice to die or even go to prison - how long will he live? Scum.
A shooting in a gun free zone. Who woulda thunk it?
Richard Jewell derangement syndrome
Dear Washington Post: Sometimes being a citizen can also be dangerous, but somehow you think it's ok for security guards to be armed but not citizens. Why is that?
If we were Jews it would be seen for what it is... ( Think was it would be like if every time a Jew committed a crime - no matter how rare - that the press highlighted it. It would be Hitler's Germany. )
Liberals are the haters.
How did you get a copy of tomorrow’s Washington Post?
Googled Stephen Tyrone Johns, I was trying to find out if he was ex-military. The article came up in the search.
The problem I have with the term “security officer” is that ‘officer’ generally implies working in a governmental capacity (police, military), though there are CFOs & CEOs and such, but they too have the responsibility/accountability of an official position within their organization.
IOW, these security people may tend to think that they are/know the law. I brought a black plastic sparring sword with me to the local tea party and was told by security that I shouldn’t bring it (and heavily implied wouldn’t be allowed) and needed to go put it back in my car. Now, there are several things that should be noted here:
1 — The tea party was taking place in a city-park outside the city library; obviously a public place.
2 — My state is an open carry state, its Constitution prohibits any county or municipality from restricting even firearms.
2b — That same right to keep and bear arms INCLUDES the phrase “and all legal purposes”, ie even the right to peaceably assemble.
3 — It was, technically speaking, not a weapon.
The security guy argued that “it looks like a weapon” and “we’re right across the street from a police station.”
>A shooting in a gun free zone. Who woulda thunk it?
I wish I had that one-panel cartoon with the VA Tech, Columbine, MAll, and another incident where the perps are thinking, as they carry their guns to the sites which have prominent “gun free zone” signs, ‘No one can shoot back!’.
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