Posted on 02/11/2010 10:29:26 AM PST by anonsquared
King County Metro Transit will change its security policy in the Downtown Transit Tunnel after a surveillance video showed a 15-year-old girl beaten in front of three security guards who didn't intervene to help her, an agency official said Wednesday.
In the meantime, county officials have called for a full review of tunnel security practices. A law enforcement officer, however, says Metro should go further and revisit a decision that greatly reduced the number of commissioned police officers working in the tunnel and replaced them with private security guards.
Metro contracts with Olympic Security Services, a private firm in Tukwila, for security officers inside the downtown tunnel. Guidelines in the contract say the guards, who are unarmed, should "observe and report" assaults and suspicious activity to police, but not try to physically intervene. On Wednesday, Metro's General Manager Kevin Desmond said the policy would be changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.com ...
Cameras can "observe and report". Cancel the contract and save taxpayers the money. Allow all law abiding citizens a carry permit with the right to shoot to kill lawbreakers.
I wonder if they will replace the assault victim’s iPod, cell phone and purse.
Keyword Seattle
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/seattle/index
quite a few threads on the assault for those who missed earlier reports.
SEIU rears its ugly head again. $11.10 per hour is still too much for doing nothing. This was obviously just a way to give jobs to the unemployable, particularly since it has recently been revealed that several of these "security guards" have criminal records themselves.
Let’s see if I understand this.
The security guards did exactly what they were instructed to do, but that’s a problem for the folks who hired and instructed them.
I like your carry permit idea better.
If the police have no legal obligation to ensure your safety, why should a private security-guard?
Carry permit is obviously needed as per this article the victim tried to get the POLICE to help her and they refused!
Four charged in transit tunnel beating
Four youths have been charged with robbery as Metro Transit Police continue to investigate the beating of a 15-year-old girl in the transit tunnel at Westlake Center.
As surveillance cameras rolled, three unarmed security guards stood by during the Jan. 28 assault. The guards, who are trained not to get involved in physical confrontations, stood by as the girl was beaten, kicked and robbed.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed first-degree robbery charges in King County Superior Court against Latroy Demarcus Hayman, 20, Tyrone Jamez Watson, 18, and Dominique Lee Whitaker, 18. A 15-year-old girl was also charged in juvenile court,
Investigators believe the assault followed incidents at both Macy’s and Nordstrom, where a group of teenagers and young adults created a disturbance, according to a statement from the King County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the Metro Transit Police.
Describing the incident to King County sheriff’s detectives, the 15-year-old girl who was attacked said her assailants confronted her in Macy’s, according to charging documents.
Egged on by Whitaker and others, the female suspect in the attack threatened the girl repeatedly, the victim told detectives. Seattle police officers interceded, forcing both the girl and the group that had confronted her outside the store.
The girl told detectives she was immediately confronted by the female suspect after stepping onto Third Avenue outside the downtown Macy’s. She rushed back into the store, she said, where she again encountered the Seattle officers who’d ejected her moments before.
“I asked them to take me to the tunnel and they said they couldn’t because they didn’t have time for kids who started trouble,” the girl told sheriff’s detectives.
The officers eventually led the other group away, and the girl went to the transit tunnel to wait for her bus home. While she waited, her assailants returned, she said, and the other girl attacked her.
The 15-year-old girl who was with the large group attacked the victim from behind on the station platform. The victim was shoved into the right of way, then knocked to the ground and kicked in the head.
In addition to being beaten, prosecutors claim she was robbed; her purse, book bag, cellphone and iPod were stolen.
Security officers saw the assault, but didn’t stop it. The suspects fled by the time Seattle police officers responded.
The Sheriff’s Office gave this explanation for the guards’ inaction:
“They did not intercede as they are unarmed, civilian employees of Olympic Security Services. They are trained to not become involved in violent confrontations or fights, but are directed to call 911, which they did via the tunnel communications center.
“In addition, they were significantly outnumbered by the group.”
Speaking with detectives, the girl said she’d expected the guards to come to her aid.
“I thought the security guards would defend me if (the 15-year-old) tried anything,” the girl said, according to court documents.
Following the attack, the girl said the same Seattle police officers who’d contacted her previously refused to take action.
Admittedly agitated, the girl said she tried to tell the officers she’d been assaulted, according to court documents. When they did not assist her, she called her mother.
Her mother arrived at the scene, the girl told detectives, and contacted the officers on her daughter’s behalf.
“They told my mom that they were tired of all these kids downtown causing trouble,” the girl told police.
“It seemed like (one) officer put us all in one category,” the girl continued. “We were fed up with Seattle police but we wanted to press charges. It didn’t seem like the officers were (ever) interested in hearing my side of what happened.”
The incident has prompted King County Executive Dow Constantine to order a review of Metro security.
“Public safety is our top priority,” Constantine said. “I am appalled by the sight of uniformed guards standing by while a person was kicked and beaten. ... People have an expectation of safety when riding public transit, and we must take every measure we can to assure that.”
The 15-year-old girl who delivered the beating was arrested over the weekend and was booked into juvenile detention, according to the Sheriff’s Office statement. In addition to the four suspects charged Wednesday, a 17-year-old male suspect is still at large.
During the incidents leading to the attack, the 15-year-old defendant claimed to be a member of the Deuce 8 street gang based in the Central District, according to court documents.
Asking that Hayman, Watson and Whitaker be jailed pending the case’s resolution, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cindi Port noted the gang-like character of the attack.
“The facts of this case are of great concern given the gang mentality of all the defendants involved in which a female member of their group is sent in to attack the victim and the rest of the defendants swarm in and grab the victim’s belongings,” Port told the court.
The juvenile defendant remains in detention pending arraignment Thursday in juvenile court. The three adult defendants are being held in the King County Jail on $100,000 bail and will be arraigned on Feb. 24.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/415247_tunnel10.html
Seattle?
Figures.
Those so-called “security guards” are as useless as tits on a nun. They are a perfect reflection of the government in general.
So she'll get the right prosecutor and judge?
Thanks Norm!
Those three male security guards sure weren’t MEN.
They were yellow POS cowards, worthless skin bags and a waste of oxygen.
It’s not an issue of legal authority at its core.
It’s a moral issue of protecting a girl being stomped in the head, which is a murderous assault.
Any male human who would move OUT OF THE WAY of thugs stomping a girl on the head, is not a MAN.
ANd I don’t give a damn what his security guard contract says. IT’s far beyond that.
Those pesky Amish are at it again......Oh wait! They were black teens & assailants? Never mind, it’s whitey’s fault.
SOUC.
Same old union crap. Like the Police up here would have lifted a finger.
Carry permit is easier than carrying a cop in your pocket.
That’s why I carry. ANd it’s not just to protect myself only. If I see an attack like that, with fatal intent (head stomping is), there will be a gun presentation minimum. After that, it depends on how things go. But I WOULD stop a homicidal attack.
From "observe then report" to "observe, get out of Dodge, THEN report." This way there won't be embarrassing camera footage of uniformed watchers.
The tunnel assaulted her?!?
Sparks debate....Really?!! Sparks debate?!!! How about sparks arrest? How about sparks dismissals of worthless security staff and all of their supervisors?
Disgraceful.
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