You might just be a Mall Ninja if:

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Tourist, I couldn't agree more with your post.

You are Absolutely Right, we are not cops. And if there are those of us that think otherwise, they deserve every joke, barb, lampoon, general dislike, and a smack upside the head, to boot.

And, sadly, those jokes impugn all of us, and most of us just want to do our job and go home.

We aren't cops. I don't give a damn if you're driving 65 in a 55. I couldn't care less if you've got a knife. Or a gun, as long as you aren't waving it at anybody in an area I'm supposed to be guarding. I'm no man's keeper, and I don't enforce law; as a security guard, I protect people and property.

So I don't have delusions of security grandeur, and I pity those in my trade who do. But cops who look down on everybody whose uniform doesn't come with a badge and a mandate to write tickets disgust me.
 
i had a roomate who was security at cardoza high school in dc. he was armed witha walkie talkie. and he worked with folks who were friends/kin to the kids in school and would let their cousin slide on the metal detector
 
Erik F-

I appreciate your reply. Maybe you're right, and the slight isn't intentional. I don't know. But I understand what you're getting at. Reno 911 is a good example. The problem is, people don't generally think that Reno 911 is how cops really act. And there are far more shows about cops doing Heroic Things than about them goofing off.

I can think of two or three movies centering on security guards, all of which are slapstick comedies that mock the trade unmercifully. That's fine, it's just comedy. And a movie about real security guards would be pretty boring. That's not what I want. But I suspect that people think, minus the slapstick comedy routines, that this is how security guards really act. There is no counter-balance to our bad press. It's universally acceptable to crap all over us, because "What the hell, nobody loves a rent-a-cop".


I can accept that we have our bad apples. And I can accept that there will be humor about that, especially, as you put it, since it also represents a segment of the gun culture. I don't mind that, in itself.

I just take offense at being lumped in with such morons, with having my job crapped on as being worthless and with the stereotype that we're all fat, officious morons.
 
FourNineFoxtrot said:
as a security guard, I protect people and property
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And that's not going to happen. You guys don't even scare my wife when she's out with her friends shopping.

If there is a real, true, palpable threat to visitors of a mall, then the owners should employ off-duty sworn officers. At present, the only danger a mall guard is to me is if he blocks my path to safety if real shooting starts.

Frankly, an "eye-in-the-sky" akin to Vegas security is more observant, and can provide real evidence in case of a crime.

And to be fair, if my wife is in danger when shopping, I'd want someone qualified to protect her.
 
By all means, let the cops in on that. If I ever work again as a security guard, I pray I stay home the day the shooting starts. I'm no hero. I did a job, and I did it as well as I could.

And while I would have liked to see a little civility and respect on The High Road, I can tell that trying to defend my job and my brethren from the unthinking disdain of people on this forum is a task that's beyond me.

Well then, gentlemen, you're welcome to it. I hope that if you're ever in a situation where a security guard is the only thing between you and a man with a gun, that his performance is good enough to make you ashamed of the things you've said. You may not like them, you may not trust them, but they're trying to help. And they aren't writing you tickets, either. You'd think we could get a little credit for that... ah, well.

This is why I quit the job. Piss-poor pay, and being a big target with no ability to defend yourself, but most of all, everybody hates us.

So be it.
 
You seem to take this a little too personally. If you really didn't care about this thread, you wouldn't be writing back so often. If you feel self-conscious about your job, get another one. Or stay in the security game - maybe you'll luck out like a friend of mine did. He did small security jobs for years until he got a job doing security for the FAA in airports. Now he makes more than any cop he knows (and doesn't have to do side jobs either) and doesn't have to deal with paperwork, perps, or any crap really. When the SHTF, he's directed by the FAA to call local cops to deal with it. Thats a pretty sweet gig.
 
You are Absolutely Right, we are not cops. And if there are those of us that think otherwise, they deserve every joke, barb, lampoon, general dislike, and a smack upside the head, to boot.

And, sadly, those jokes impugn all of us, and most of us just want to do our job and go home.
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welcome to the world of gun owners... every time some nutjob with a chip on his shoulder decides that he wants to make a statement by killing half his classmates, we all get branded as psychopathic killers...

as for doing security work, ive done my share... mostly for clubs... i worked for a teen night club in one of the worst black neighborhoods in central florida... basically i got paid to fight with 14 year olds all night...

i worked at an after hours (after 2am) bring your own bottle club in the oldest black community in central florida... again i got paid about $9 a hour to fight every night...

i also worked for a club that had gay nights on saturday nights... 2200 gay men paying $10 a piece to walk through the door... basically i got paid to confiscate cocaine, ketamine and other drugs, as well as get hit on by trannies all night...

unfortunately that same club started doing hip hop nights on Thursday nights and about 6 weeks into it, there was a shooting at the club during closing... $10 a hour is not enough to stand anywhere near where a 12ga is pointing, and i was one of the first ones under a car when the **** hit the fan...

the only bright side to the job was that we also contracted out to a limo company as armed escorts... so we got to go to Disney, universal, and dinners with NBA players and movie stars...

i have seen some of the hardest security jobs, as well as some of the easiest... ive gotten paid crap, and ive gotten paid very well... in all, its a crappy job and a very boring one most of the time... that said, i never once forgot that i was just a normal guy doing a job... i never tried to act like a cop or a swat team member... i was just a body that was willing to step into the middle of a fight long enough to stop it, or a guy that wasnt afraid to use physical force to stop someone from harming my employers business... i largely didnt care what happened after the people were thrown out of the club... just that they got out...
 
lanternlad1-

If I take it personally, it's because I feel like a set of people whom I respect do not respect me or my work.

I don't work as a security guard anymore, and I don't intend to in the future. But it was my first job, and I was proud to do it, and proud that I did it well.

I never said I didn't care about this thread. I said there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it, since people are taking my posts about as seriously as they take my job.

I do care. I care a lot. I've known a lot of good men and women who do or have done this job, and what do they get? They work for peanuts, and they get no respect. They get to be the butt of jokes. I'm tired of it, and I'm angry about it.
 
Four-Nine,
If you think you have it bad, imagine how cops feel. The thin blue line and all that. I'm not a cop or military or ever have been, but my cousin is both. First military MP then cop for 20 years. The stories he told would turn your hair gray. No one is saying you don't have it bad as a security guard, but cops have it worse. Thats why they don't respect sec guards. In their eyes, you haven't "paid your dues." Speaking strictly for myself, security guards I have dealt with have been second-rate power hungry washouts who couldn't toe the military or police line so they took what they could get. There are so many its sickening. I'm sure thats the reason sec guards don't get the respect they crave. Respect is earned by deeds, not a uniform, and many of those guys just don't get that. If one respects oneself, no one else's opinion matters. I'm not bashing you, just trying to clue you in. I bear you no ill will.
 
i did it for a couple of years... but that was long enough for me to know that i didnt want any part of it... but i damn sure learned a lot...

i can tell you that the quickest way to stop a fight between two people in a crowd is to run full force into one of them, pushing that person back into the crowd... of course that is provided you have other people backing you...

i can tell you that twisting someones arm behind their back is an effective way to get them to listen to reason...

i can tell you that bouncing someones head off a wall is a good way to calm them down...

what i cant tell you is how to use tactical tools, weapons or gadgets... all of my work was physical, most of it involved the FL state rule that allowed holders of a liquor license to use any and all force up to but not including deadly force to remove someone from the premises... we never called the cops unless there was a weapon involved, cops sitting in front of a club are bad for business...

i do occasionally see mall security guys that think that they are the Alpha and the Omega of everything in the mall... and those guys are fuc**ng morons... most of them would duck and run in a fight, but they love to talk and brag about how bad ass they are... and those guys are so easy to spot its pathetic... they are usually the ones that still have creases in the patches on their uniform... the hardest thing they have ever done is take the stairs because the elevator broke...
 
Maybe you're right, lanternlad1. Maybe we don't get respect because we haven't "paid our dues". I don't know. But a lot of cops never draw their weapon in the line of duty... do we disdain them, too? No...

I won't say your reasoning is faulty; it isn't. I'm sure you're right, and that is why things are as they are. But I don't think that makes it a good reason.

I have enormous respect for cops. I also have a healthy wariness of them, and an intuitive dislike of what they do. Nobody loves a cop, just as nobody loves a security guard. But people respect cops. I'm not asking that people think of us as cops. I'm not asking for the same kind of respect. All I'm asking, is for a modicum of basic human respect and civility that I would try to give those who work any job, from janitor to astrophysicist. We have a job to do, and I'd like it if we could be accepted for that, instead of dismissed and reviled. This is The High Road; I expected to be, and was, spat on during my job. But I thought that here, of all places, I could at least expect some courtesy for security guards. It's the fact that I was wrong... about THR... that really disturbs me.


And Mekender, I see those idiot mall ninjas too, and I don't like them any more than you do. But you know even better than I do that we aren't all mall ninjas.
 
I used to be a rent-a-cop, and yes I called myself a rent-a-cop. I dont see any point in not having a sence of humor about it. I used to want to be a cop but couldnt be due to failing a color blind test. I can tell you what color cars are or the color of the clothes someone is wearing but when it comes to seeing something in a group of colored dots I dont see anything but a bunch of dots. But, being a guard got me the job I have now, and the job i have now pays alot more than what cops make and I dont have to put up with peoples **** all day. So yeah cops and other forms of LEO's might treat you like crap and think that you are the lowest of the low when it comes to LE. Just wait for the time when they need something out of you. We had a bunch of FBI activity one week while I was working as a guard. One of the agents parked outside of one of our buildings with the motor running for about 3 hours. We went out there and asked him what he was going sitting in a private parking lot at 11pm with his motor running. He pulled out his ID and said there was a local investigation going on and he was sitting in our parking lot because of the fact that it was a lit parking lot and he needed to be able to read maps and other things. He was nice and seemed to respect us enough to not be a dick to us. We let him stay there and then he left about an hour later.

One week goes by then we actually get two more agents that come in this time. They want to see our CCTV tapes and treat us like crap. We tell our boss ( that is ex FBI ) what they wanted and he talks to them for awhile and he told them to pretty much kick rocks until they had a warrent.


the whole point of this is, just wait till they want something from you. You can be a dick right back. Show them about as much respect as they show you.
 
we actually had the local DEA agent in charge hold a meeting to congratulate us on throwing 2 of his undercover agents out of our club one week... course it wasn't but a few weeks later that several of the other clubs in the area got raided by full on SWAT style raids... so i guess we got lucky
 
Look, training standards and pay are clearly not the same for security guards (in general) as they are for LEO's but they serve a purpose. In fact many security guards go on to become LEO's and the first place that many LEO's go when they retire is the security industry.
Any LEO worth his salt has better things to do than cut down folks trying to make a living. If they overstep their bounds or violate the law, they need to get spanked, but you are really overstating the case to assume that all security guards are buffoons.
 
the whole point of this is, just wait till they want something from you. You can be a **** right back. Show them about as much respect as they show you.
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It is not profitable to stoop to their level.

-Sans Authoritas
 
It is not profitable to stoop to their level.
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Good point. I didnt and neither did my boss. I was just saying it in the since that if its going to make you feel better about yourself then do it.


One of the funnest things that ever happened when I was a guard was the CEO of the company walked in and I told him I needed to check his bag before he came in. He then said, " Do you know who I am? " I came back with a yes i know who you are and I still need to check your bag.


The reason why SG's have other forms of LE looking down on them so bad is because there are many companies out that will hire ANYONE! Some of the guards they would send us were either crazier than all hell or on drugs or fresh off the boat. One of the funniest things that ever happened to one of our guards happened only happened because she was crazy. Her husband and son "disappered" for a few days. She was freaking out and called the cops and had them looking for them and everything. Turned out that they had gone camping. And she was told that they were going camping and just forgot. How the hell do you forget that your husband and son are going to be gone for 3 days because they went camping? Not to mention the fact that she looked like a bird lady. Seriously looked like a family of doves or something could have been nesting in her hair.
 
Every security guard I've seen seemed to be there to deter shoplifters. I don't see the connection to cops other than maybe the uniforms at a quick glance. The guy above who said security guards are there to protect people is full of it. Read my sig line. Cops don't even have a legal duty to protect an individual. A security guard can't have a duty higher than that of cops.
 
Not all guards work at shops.
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very true, hell most of the guards ive ever met were there to make the corporate insurance policy prices lower... but there is a huge difference between corporate, retail, residential, club/bar and other guards... the vast majority of security guards are either corporate or retail and they would be the first ones running in a shooting, and who could blame them? unfortunately they are the ones most likely to try to represent themselves as rambo
 
Now I really wished I had snapped a photo at school yesterday. My college pays the Local PD for 5 officers. They get all the medical people or problem children. I was going to class and walked through the Garvey Fine Arts building and sitting behind a desk was a female officer in full uniform drooling on the desk. I was so tempted to remove her sidearm and take it to the security desk but I was cutting it close as usual so I just kept moving. I am kicking myself for not snapping a photo with my phone. It would have been a doozy for this discussion.
The only guard duty I ever performed was for an armorred car service. While buying breakfast at the local choke-n-puke an officer comes quick stepping over after seeing my sidearm. I flashed my credentials at him and he nearly fell on his face in front of me. To make matters worse his partner walks over and says "you might wanna be careful, a man with only one gun might just know how to use it." I laugh every time I see that posted on here.
 
the vast majority of security guards are either corporate or retail and they would be the first ones running in a shooting, and who could blame them?
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I couldnt blame them. Its not worth it. If your going to be in that kind of situation and not have be armed then you shouldnt be there.

unfortunately they are the ones most likely to try to represent themselves as rambo
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I had some of those too. Its fun to just sit back and laugh at that though.
 
This has certainly been entertaining and educational. I've been wondering for a long time what a "mall ninja" is. My last trip to a mall was about 6 or 7 years ago and my only experience with ninjas is TV and movies.

I live near a rural Western town. If we saw anyone dressed as described here we'd just shoot them out of general principles. "Don't know what he was up to but couldn't have been any good."

My heart goes out to all the city dwellers who have actually seen one of these mutants. The temptation must be overwhelming.

Reckon next time we go to a city we're going to have to visit a mall just so I can try and scare up one of these critters.

There's a mall in Vegas and it's only two hours away. Wife would love a short road trip. Got to be home by dark or the livestock will get rambunctious.

I've got a Pygmy goat that scares me a lot more than one of these critters would. He's got big horns and thinks my crotch is a POA. I'd never shoot my goat, but an aggressive city dude totin' a Desert Eagle...

Swing low...
 
My sense of humor works fine when my job isn't the butt of thoughtless, insulting jokes.
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You can't get upset about that. Everybody's job gets made fun of.

I'm a city worker, how much crap do you think I get for that? Everybody sees the public works helpers standing around leaning on shovels. But I'm a carpenter. Nobody sees me outside day in and day out busting my ass on roofs so hot the shingles are smudging when I walk on them or ankle-deep in mud building a fence or soaking wet on a roof in a rainstorm trying to unplug a drain.

At the end of the day, your job should be to provide for yourself and your family and if you do a good job you should take pride in that. You should also know that there are other people in similar employment making your job a punchline.
 
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