Security situation.
They are everywhere!
I’m not talking about the homeless or the migrants dumped on the streets of our cities by immigration officials, or even the cannabis billboards.
No, I’m talking about the ever-present… security guard.
When I was a kid growing up in California in the 1970s, you MIGHT see a security guard at a bank.
In the 1990s, they began attending concerts, sporting events, and even street fairs. Often to intervene if things get “out of hand” (ie, drunks or gangs or drunken gangs start fighting).
Now they can appear not only everywhere, but also in unlikely places: library, supermarket, cinemas, parking lots, hotel lobbies.
Even more surprising, they seemed indispensable. Actually, like KQED reportedSan Francisco librarians are taking to the streets to demand more security guards.
“I’m a librarian(;) I’m a branch manager — I’m not a policeman(;) I’m not a security guard,” said Nicole Germain, president of the Library Guild.
He says that state libraries have become kindergartens for those who do not work. Jermen said he once had to intervene when a half-naked man threatened a group of preschoolers.
It’s not just the Main Library near the Civic Center (San Francisco’s Civic Center is a hotbed of dysfunction in the Golden State). Eight of the city’s 28 public libraries have at least one security guard. I can even guarantee that my library, located in a far away and supposedly civilized suburb of San Francisco, has a security guard.
The need for a security guard is partly economic. In many cases, they do the same jobs that a police officer used to do. It’s much cheaper to pay someone minimum wage to do more or less the same job. And there is no insulting pension. They also serve as ticket takers, directions, traffic controllers, and question-answerers.
Unfortunately, very few of them seem capable of handling any serious emergency. Like many other aspects of American life, they are just for show to provide the appearance of security. If there is a lawsuit, we have security (called “due diligence”).
It doesn’t take a particularly keen observer of the scene to conclude that this is not a sign of a healthy society. Decency, civility, and public order are so broken in California that the state is at the mercy of a few who have no real experience or ability to maintain some semblance of law.
I don’t know about you, but nothing makes me feel safer than having a security guard, some of whom feel intimidated.
California was a good place when the only banks had security guards and the worst thing that could happen in a library was a stern “Shosh!” from the librarian.
