Westernskies
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- May 5, 2008
- Messages
- 3,864
Didn't Barney Fife have to roust Otis Campbell off a park bench now and then?
My previous post was sarcasm, but I'd have needed to be shown the "No Slouching on Bench" sign before I'd have put up with him. My sitting habits, clothing, personal phone conversations, etc are not available for comment by a security guard in a mall. If he'd have pushed it I'd have demanded to see the mall manager, and made the guard bring him to me. This is not a group of punks skateboarding through the stores, it's an adult sitting on a bench. And you can sermonize all you want, but I doubt most of you would have handled it any better than Rusty did, although probably better than I would. So there.
And if the guard was a UFC champ I'd probably done the same. I don't watch that stuff, and am mostly comfortable in my ability to defend my self. I've been wrong before. And I'm sure I've been thrown out of better malls than that one.
Don't taz me bro!
Seriously, years ago a mall security guy came up to me and, very apologetically asked me not to sit on the edge of the planter box. He explained that kids (code word for mall rats, I suppose) hang out and sit there and he has been instructed to shoo them away (shoo is my word). He explained that he couldn't ask them to leave without doing the same with (somehow he said this politely) older folks too. I was happy to comply with such a gentleman who was just doing what he was required to do.
How differently Notmuchlonger might have reacted had he been treated with such respect. "I'm so sorry sir, but we've had complaints about kids loitering on the benches. As you can see we don't have kids here today, but I'm required to request all our guests to either sit or stand. I hope you understand."
How difficult would it be to make a polite 'request' instead of a brusque command. All mall employees should be as customer friendly as possible. After all, their j*b depends upon customers returning.
My suggestion to NML is simply not to return to that mall. When it closes (as such malls have been doing lately) that $9/hr super-cop will be pounding the pavement for real - looking for another j*b!
As he's walking away, I say on the phone "just some idiot mall guy".
He comes back and says "did you say 'idiot' ?", I say "yes", and he asks
me to leave the mall, which I do. Please note that I addressed my
remark to the person on the other end of the cell phone,
I guess the real question for me is why anyone would want to hang out in a mall. The less I see of those places the better.
For some reason this reminds me of when I was about 9 yrs old and would hold my hand about an inch in front of my sisters face, then taunt her with "can't get mad at me, I'm not touching you"
I do think the guard was overzealous. I'm not sure he had to approach Rusty at all and he could have ignored the idiot comment as he was already walking away. I will even acknowledge Rusty's point about a direct vs indirect comment (it's still a foul if the guard heard it) but Rusty says he is an adult.
As I read all this I keep thinking back to my days as a cub scout about 8 years old singing Christmas songs and my Den Leader singles me out and says that I'm not singing I tell her that I am and point to the kid next to me as my witness. She persisted and had me go to her kitchen for a one on one with her telling me I was not singing and me telling her that she is a liar (hey I was 8) Den mother calls my mom to come get me. Mom hauls me out very embarrassed. I receive the wrath of mom. Dad get's home and I get a spanking (pretty rare from dad but this qualified). Hey I was in the right I was singing, but I got the spanking, I embarrassed my parents and I had the same Den mother for several more years all the time with a strained relationship.
Sadly over the last 35+ years my vocabulary and social skills have not progressed as much as I would have hoped, but I did learn that sometimes discretion can be the better part of valor. It's okay to let it go.
I would have done the reshuffling as slow as possible, standing the whole time, and feigning ignorance. Much more fun to watch their impatience over the enforcement of an arbitrary rule.A few minutes later rent a cop comes over and says we will have to sit in the correct numbered seat so I tell him to hold on and we all reshuffle our tickets so we have the correct ticket in hand.
I would have done the reshuffling as slow as possible, standing the whole time, and feigning ignorance. Much more fun to watch their impatience over the enforcement of an arbitrary rule.
I would have done the reshuffling as slow as possible, standing the whole time, and feigning ignorance. Much more fun to watch their impatience over the enforcement of an arbitrary rule.
He didn't need to approach me. Furthermore, he should not have.I do think the guard was overzealous. I'm not sure he had to approach Rusty at all ...
As he's walking away, I say on the phone "just some idiot mall guy".
He comes back and says "did you say 'idiot' ?", I say "yes", and he asks
me to leave the mall, which I do. Please note that I addressed my
remark to the person on the other end of the cell phone, did not say
it loudly, and used no profanity (or anything approaching), and promptly
complied with all the security guy's requests.
I'm wondering what to think of this. This is a pretty small mall, full
of boutique/niche type stores that are struggling (a good friend works
at one, so I know). The last thing in the world these businesses need
is a jerk like this guy chasing people away. (As a matter of fact, one of
my purposes at the mall was researching a ~$200 purchase). Maybe
I am over-reacting, but the guy strikes me as probably a police-officer
wannabee and was bored (the mall was empty, as usual) and looking
for anything to spice up his day, and throwing his weight around like
this was just the ticket. Not to be mean-spirited, by frankly, I want to
now throw MY weight around and make some sort of complaint against
this guy; to the mall owners, the store owners, the local paper ?
No doubt some of you think I should have been led away in handcuffs,
but I'd be interested in hearing anyone's thoughts ...
If I talk to the guard again, I shall tell him "I believe that you approached
me inappropriately, since I was breaking no rules, but I also believe
that I behaved poorly [the idiot remark] and so I'm not going to
write the letter that I was tempted to write".
WADR Rusty, haven't you already wasted too much of your valuable time worrying about this? Life is short and there are more pleasant ways to spend it than worrying about something like this.
What does WADR mean ?