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Unarmed security guard murdered
A university posts unarmed security guards, and one of them winds up murdered. Story here.
"Wally's family thinks he might still be alive if he had a gun.
"My brother-in-law is supposed to be protecting campus and everything," said Lori Swan. "How can he if he can't protect himself?" "
Unarmed security guard sounds a little like a contradiction ... at best a deterrence to the more stupid or minor criminals (don't steal that bike -- there's a guy in uniform), at worst, a man put in an impossible situation, charged with protecting others, but having nothing but a radio to call for help, and maybe his fists.
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Having spent most of my professional life in academia, the only possible solution they'll ever allow themselves to consider, when confronted by a wolf with teeth, is to pass stronger laws prohibiting the possession of teeth (other than for narrowly-defined sporting purposes, of course) by any canine. Once the press conferences and the self-congratulation are over, as with all the previous such laws, only the watchdogs will pay the slightest attention.
Are you sure about this general contradiction?
I live in Canada, and while I assure you that I am vastly more sympathetic to arms-bearing than my average countryman up here, I also know that in Canada, pretty much the only private guards permitted to carry are armored car personnel. The permitted weapons for the average guard are the uniform, the radio, and a Maglite.
The guard prevents a considerable amount of minor crime and is a bulwark in the broken-windows fight simply by being a set of watchful eyes and a visible presence of authority.
Admittedly, this is in a context where there are far fewer gun crimes than in the US, but the guards I have talked to don't feel useless, as far as I can tell.
Unarmed "guard" is an oxymoron. A disarmed watchperson is more like it. VERY limited in what he can do becuase of fear. I know I have been a private security officer for 5 years!
I WORKED FOR SEVERAL UNARMED SECURITY COMPANIES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. GHG INS, BURNS, AND SECURTAS.I STARTED WORKING FOR SECURITY COMPANIES AFTER RETIRING FROM HUGHES AIR CRAFT COMPANY. FROM MAY 2000 TO 2004
An unarmed security guard is about as useful as laws to people who would not murder, steal, cheat or lie in the first place. That is they prevent only what would not be done in the first place.
The guard is unarmed because that way he is seen as less threatening to the bulk of the people who pass through the campus, but if he is in uniform (as a college "rent-a-cop said to me once) he needs the gun. Without it he is no different than any other non-LEO on campus; he observes and runs to call for help. If he had arrest powers, how could he enforce them against any but the smallest and weakest.
This business of unarmed security is yet another residum from the '60's campus unrest, and it fits the Leftist University administration fantasy about like the "Big Rock Candy Mountain" where the cops have wooden legs, the railroad bulls (cops again) are blind, and the bulldogs all have rubber teeth.
God help the university when they need a watchdog with teeth.