Investigators: Guards stand by during brutal attack (Video; Seattle bus tunnel attack )

KING TV ^ | February 9, 2010 | SUSANNAH FRAME

[Stoat]

SEATTLE - The KING 5 Investigators have uncovered a disturbing video-tape captured on five different security cameras underneath downtown Seattle.

 It shows the graphic beating of a teenage girl in Seattle's Metro bus tunnel, while uniformed security guards simply look on.

(edit)

The video shows the two girls hitting each other for a few seconds. Then, the scene gets vicious. The young attacker punches the victim in the head and face 10 times.

"It looks like a very egregious assault, which in fact it was," said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the case along with Metro Transit Police. "The two were acquaintances, and there probably is some teenage stuff going on (before the attack) but it certainly doesn’t warrant an assault like this by any stretch of the imagination."

The video clearly shows that all of this is taking place right in front of three security guards. They are well marked with bright yellow jackets that have SECURITY written on the back. While the victim is on the ground getting punched, the guards immediately reach for their radios and call for help, but they do little else.

(edit)

When the beating is over, you see on the tape that not one guard bends down to see if the victim is breathing or needs help.

(edit)

According to their contract, the guards are to "observe and report" problems, not to get involved. Metro Transit General Manager Kevin Desmond says that policy is now out of date.

(edit)

Police say that amazingly the victim is going to be OK.

[Venturer]

Ossifer! Ossifer!! I needs some hep.

Dont look at me kid I just watch and observe. hey, Tyrone maybe you should call this in.

OK Leeroy I got’s my radio right here. Meanwhile enjoy the fight.

After the fight is over..

Hey-—Lady-— you cant lay there you are blocking the sidewalk.

[DennisR]

Only in the liberal bastion of Seattle. I assume these “security guards” are liberal girlie-men who always vote for Democrats. Would love to know for sure.

Note to the security guards: if you were really men, you would have helped the poor girl against these thugs regardless of whether or not you were following “company policy.” But were you too scared? Then you should find another job. Incredible.

[AD from SpringBay]

Their job is to observe and report? A camera will pay for itself in a month or so.

[4woodenboats]

Thanks for the ping, Stoat.

It's sad watching Seattle descend into the morass, and I feel for you, as you watch your city decay and listen to it's cries from the sanctuary of the Stoat Cave.

A year or so ago I read about Portland's rail problems, how their system had becom a mecca for gangs, and demands for security had been met with apathy. Looks like the same mindset is prevalent in Seattle's expensive experiment.

[TChris]

According to their contract, the guards are to "observe and report" problems, not to get involved.

Well, there you go.

Perhaps the citizens of Seattle had a bit of a different idea of the meaning of "security".

Their title and uniforms should be changed to reflect reality: Instead of "security" or "guard", they should simply read: Observer.

Now, don't you feel safer already?

[DakotaRed]

Contract or no contract, basic human decency says someone step in.

“Collective Bargaining” at its best?

And people wonder why America is so screwed up?

[oldvike]

I just watched the video. As suspected after reading the article, it was a group of afro-amurcins that did the group beating. That’s how they roll.

[Little Ray]

By current standards, it is not really their fault.
The guards would have been in violation of their contract if they tried to protect the girl. They would have probably been fired; certainly their employer would have refused to cover medical expenses if they were injured.

[Stoat]

As with most King 5 videos, this one will not play out. Does anyone by chance have a link to it from another source such as YouTube”?

____________________________________

I'm very sorry that you're having difficulties with the video....it plays fine on the stoatputer.  Here it is on YouTube, as supplied by the AP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZZdV3woM0

 

 

 

[Stoat]

Why were the county cops investigating? What happened to SPD?

___________________________

My guess would be that it's because of a jurisdiction issue.  Metro Transit's full name is actually King County Metro Transit....it's a County behemoth and not one of the tentacles of the City of Seattle, therefore I believe that crimes committed on properties controlled or owned by Metro would go to the King Co. Sheriff's Dept for investigation.

*******************************

By the way, SPD used to ride the buses as an OT detail.

______________________

Not any more? How sad.  I feel particularly sorry for the little old ladies who are easy prey for the trash that ride the buses.

I know a young lady who rides the bus every day.  She has been assaulted at least five times on the buses, including once in which she was knocked down the stairs onto the street as she was exiting the bus.  Yes, she continues to ride the bus every day and yes she's a liberal.

Thanks to the stoatmobile, I never ride the bus.  If I were forced into a position of having to, I would significantly upgrade the normal artillery that I carry when going downtown.  On the buses, criminals know that they have you trapped inside of a sealed metal container, that you have no escape and that the driver will do nothing.  A perfect environment for such as the trash that we see on the video here.

 

[Scotsman will be Free]

Thanks for the info.

[jonrick46]

I have heard on King 5 that the Seattle Police had instructed the Seattle Metro guards that they are only to “observe and report.” They are not to intervene in any public disturbance. So these bus tunnel “guards” could only watch. Otherwise, they would lose their jobs.

I would have the Police Chief’s head because of this ill-considered policy. I would sue the City of Seattle. They prove that government makes policy to their own benefit. In this case, they were putting Seattle Metro in a bind so that they would be pressured to hire Seattle Police Officers to guard the Metro Tunnel. Because Seattle Metro had insufficient budget for it, they operated with their hands behind their back at the jeopardy of every citizen who walked into that bus tunnel.

[Stoat]

Thanks for the info.

You're quite welcome :-)

 

[Shqipo]

How many Metro security guards does it take to stand around and do nothing..? Apparently, at least three.

[Stoat]

Although it's quite true that this 'observe and report' requirement was part of their contract, the issue remains profoundly disturbing for a wide variety of reasons. Among them:

• Their jackets said 'security' which to most resonable people means that they are charged with maintaining order in a public place, and in this context a potentially violent public place. The fact that they were specifically instructed 'not' to do this constitutes misleading the public.
• The body language and demeanor of the 'guards' was apalling...they projected an image of simply not caring at all while a young girl was being severely beaten right next to them. People can quite reasonably ask "what kind of a man are you? Are you any sort of a man at all?"
• After the beating was over, simply leaning down to check to see whether the girl was alive or breathing would have been part of 'observing', but they apparently weren't even interested in doing that. Did they think that they would be fired from their precious jobs if they simply leaned over to gather such information?
• At the end of the day, do they really want to work for an outfit that would fire them if the three of them simply surrounded the victim who had been trying to hide behind them?

The spectacle presented here is quite unnerving to people in Seattle because this sort of callousness is something that we tend to associate with 'other places'...this kind of 'it's not my job so I don't care if she dies' mentality hasn't been a part of the culture here....until now.

[jonrick46]

It also shows that society has lawyered itself away from its own security.

I think I’ll email King County Prosecutor Dan Satterburg to learn what I could have done as a private citizen if I saw such an incident happening while in the bus tunnel.

[Stoat]

Contract or no contract, basic human decency says someone step in.

That's the thing that is so unnerving about the video. People viewing it naturally place themselves in that position and ask themselves if they could just continue to casually saunter about with a seemingly lackadaisical and uncaring attitude while a young girl was HAVING HER HEAD STOMPED ON right next to them....and most people I think are going to say that there is a point where your own sense of humanity trumps a mere legal contract. If someone doesn't want to deal with it and walks away from it, that's one thing....but to just casually stand there while a GIRL is being beaten senseless, right next to you, is something that most men I know could never do.

If that isn't enough to get you to raise a finger, what is? How about if the attacker had pulled a Milwaukee Sawzall out of her purse and started sawing the girl's head off? Would they have become interested in her plight then? Or would they think that their employer would still fire them under such circumstances? Would they still care about their job so much more than this girl's life?

“Collective Bargaining” at its best?

pfft. Makes me sick.

And people wonder why America is so screwed up?

I would like to think that the best part of America is still here....you can see it here on Free Republic every day and in the Tea Party movement, to name just a couple of places.

[ezo4]

Seattle is a town with weak people. Wait until real crime hits there, like 300-400 dead a year by gangs and others, like back in Chicago and other cities with ghettos.

Its coming I thought it would be there sooner....

[nina0113]

People viewing it naturally place themselves in that position and ask themselves if they could just continue to casually saunter about with a seemingly lackadaisical and uncaring attitude while a young girl was HAVING HER HEAD STOMPED ON right next to them....and most people I think are going to say that there is a point where your own sense of humanity trumps a mere legal contract.

A million years ago, I stopped what I later realized was a pimp beating his prostitute in the Philly metro, just because as a teenage tourist idiot, I was too naive to realize that's what was going on, and when a man threw a woman out of an arriving subway car against a pillar and started whaling on her, I said 'what do you think you're doing?' And he looked at me like I was a moron (which of course was correct) but he did stop.

I'd like to think I would still intervene.