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Author Topic: Security Guards with Metal Detector Wands? Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-11-2003 07:08 AM                  So Paul, I noticed you posted that at 2:42 AM PST.... Couldn't sleep? >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-11-2003 02:41 PM                     Although I don't usually discuss my sleeping hours, I generally get to bed between the hours of 0001 to 0300. Someimes later.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-11-2003 04:22 PM                     Let's really fuck with these people! How about getting a whole bunch of people to put balls of aluminum foil in their pockets and go through the "security lines" en masse? After about the 10th person in a row went through the lines, the rest of the folks in line behind them would be about ready to stage a revolt! With several coordinated attacks all across the country I bet the studios would be shitting their pants!  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-12-2003 10:09 AM                        Frank The link was deleted by the mods, but it wasn't a "HE" it was a "SHE".  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-12-2003 11:18 AM                       quote: But there's no need to bad-mouth the security officers. They're just doing what they were hired to do. Most security guards I've dealt with are cop wannabes. They couldn't pass the test or whatever, who knows? Many start their days thinking, 'This could be the day I get to shoot somebody'.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-13-2003 02:22 PM                     I would simply not let them search me. Waving a metal-detection wand over my body is a search. I would stand there, holding up the line until they either A) Let me into the movie without further harassment or 2) Call the police to have me arrested, at which time they can be free to search me, afterwards hitting the theater, distributor, AND police department with a lawsuit for false arrest after they found nothing. Even when the stupid door buzzers go off at Best Buy (almost EVERY time I bought something there) and some minimum-wage zit-faced "security personnell" want to look in my bags, I tell them to call the cops if they want to search me. Then they let me go. I'm not going to have someone with a double-digit IQ rooting through my bags because the one with the single-digit IQ at the register didn't do their job. People have become so "ready and willing" to let anyone with a badge and a uniform them in the name of "security." Security is an illusion. Gothika(1of2).avi is proof. Rant over for now. =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Ian Price Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1714 From: Denver, CO Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-13-2003 02:28 PM                     They don't have to search you and they don't have to let you in to see the film either.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-13-2003 11:56 PM                     They don't have to look through all of your posessions even IF the alarm goes off! If you go through the "gate" and the alarm goes off, they can simply hold your bag(s) while you walk through again. If the alarm doesn't go off when your hands are empty the "guard" knows that one or more of the bags they are holding in their hands has the item with the security tag in it. All the guy has to do is pass each bag he is holding through the gate, one at a time, until he finds the one that makes the alarm go off. He only has to look through any bag that makes the alarm go off. If the alarm goes off when you pass through the gate and you are NOT holding any bags the guard can ask you to take off your coat and wave it through the gate. If the coat makes the alarm sound he should ask you to take things out of the pockets and repeat the test until the object that caused the alarm is found. If you are not wearing a coat or holding any bags the guy only has to ask you to empty your pockets and repeat the test until the object that caused the alarm is found. If, by this time, no object has been found the guard has two options: 1) Let you go. 2) Ask you to accompany him/her to the store office where the matter can be sorted out in private. IF the guard elects to take option #2 and you try to refuse he has the right to suspect you of doing something you shouldn't be. However, if he doesn't find anything to prove that you were doing something you shouldn't have been doing his (and the company's) ass could be in hot water! At this point the guard has two more options: A) Call the cops. B) Issue you a written apology and let you go. If he calls the cops and they decide to let you go it's almost certain that you could sue for false arrest! The guard must have a documentable reason why he should have suspected you. If he doesn't the company has little or no defense. If at any time the company had reasond to believe you are innocent they should have defaulted to solution "B". It would probably be a good idea for the company to give you something in return for your trouble... A gift certificate, A refund for your purchase or better still CASH MONEY! Whether the incident takes place in a retail store or a theater the situation is similar. Ian is right, up to a point. The company doesn't have to let customers in who don't obey the rules but they DO have to take reasonable precautions to make sure they don't incriminate law abiding citizens in public. If people at the theater (or studios) suspect some of the customers may be breaking some rule they can take steps to prevent it. Are they looking for weapons? They had better be able to justify why they are looking for weapons at THIS particular show and not others. (eg: Midnite shows have a higher incidence of violence OR violence has erupted at showings of this or similarly themed features before.) Furthermore, they had better be prepared to search for weapons at all similar events in the future. (AND pay for the security guards!) Are they looking for recording equipment? Well, then. They had better think. A 100 pound pimple-faced kid wearing nothing but a T-shirt and short pants has little chance of smuggling in electronic equipment. Searching somebody like that is pretty unreasonable. If the kid is wearing a bulky jacket which COULD hide some equipment the guards had better think of something they could do beside a full search. Maybe they could have simply asked him to take off his jacket and searched IT? Businesses have the right to protect their assets. Stores have the right to guard against shoplifting to protect their property. By extension, a theater's property is the movie. A theater has the right to take all reasonable means to protect that property just as a store does. However, that store or theater had DAMN WELL BETTER have a policy in place that details when and how to search people. It ALSO needs to detail what is to happen in the event somebody is found to be breaking the rules. If they don't have a set (written) policy and a problem occurs they COULD be getting themselves into hot watter! This is why I said that a whole bunch of people should go through the lines with balls of aluminum foil in their pockets. It's a harmless act that will make it VERY inconvenient for the studios to justify themselves. It IS conceivable that 5,000 people all around the country could be walking into theaters with foil in their pockets all at the same time! (Unlikely but conceivable.) It's perfectly legal to walk into theaters with foil in your pockets! If those people who go into theaters with foil in their pockets don't cause a lot of commotion on their own, there's nothing the studios can do to stop them. The guards would be FORCED to go through a procedure like I listed above each and every time their alarms go off or else open themselves up to liability. All the other customers would be complaining. If the lines were held up long enough to delay the movie (in several locations all around the country) the idiots who came up with the idea to search customers would be forced to see the stupidity of the whole thing. The down side to this idea is that it won't work unless a whole bunch of people do it all at the same time and they can't back down when the guard tries to search them. It has to be a large scale, coordinated act of passive resistance. If only one person (or only a few) people did it they could be simply thrown out of the theater for being "unruly" or "disturbing the peace". If that one person was too aggressive they could find themselves being banned from the theater or end up in jail. In essence, this is all a gedanken experiment but it IS a logical solution to the problem... albeit a mean-spirited one.  |  IP: Logged Travis Hubrig Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Minot ND, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 12-14-2003 12:49 AM                     I think if you walk out of a store, and the alarm goes off, you should stop and cooperate. As long as your not a thief, that is. They will straighten out the problem and send you on your way. I think it would be arrogant to start whining about getting searched, or your 'rights' If they are rude, than you have more of an argument. But that still doesn't make it ok to be rude yourself, or not cooperate. Edit: Sorry, about the topic: I do like the idea of the foil balls in the pockets. And the whole idea of searching people at a movie theatre with wands is poor. There are better ways to do it.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-14-2003 01:19 AM                  JFC Randy...that sure is a "book" you wrote...got it published yet? I personally agree with Tom. It IS an invasion of one's person and personal rights. If they want you to submit, get a real cop! If false, sue the bastards! Also, if I happen to be wearing a "cockring" or a "Prince Albert", will they want me to ***SHOW*** them? How f*cking ridiculous! >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-14-2003 10:50 AM                     Well, Phil, if an alarm goes off as you exit the store because some idiot didn't neutralize a security tag you are being publicly incriminated. If you go into a theater and a guard's security wand beeps because of the car keys in your pocket you are also being publicly incriminated. If I go into a store and the alarm goes off I MAKE the door person go through the steps I listed above. Law abiding people who are subjected to this kind of treatment really need to stand up for themselves and politely refuse to tolerate it. If we don't we'll only be subjected to more of it in the future. We all have to teach these idots that they can't get away with it.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-14-2003 03:17 PM                        If I'm ever in the situation where a door buzzer goes off (primarily at Wal-Mart), I keep walking. They have yet to come try and stop me and woa the day they do.. I will NOT allow them to search me or my possessions, and, after paying for them, they are, in fact, my possessions . AT this point, they have one option in my book, call the police and we'll sort it out with them. It's never happened to me, but if it did....  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-14-2003 03:19 PM                     Ian -- I could understand not letting someone into the movie IF, at the time of ticket purchase they were notified that there would be a screening/search. And like Randy said, why THIS particular show? And what if all I have is the clothes on myself, a large popcorn, drink and some candy? Actually, that gave me a better idea than the foil. Find a small videocamera like those handheld ones and put it in a ziplock bag. Then, go get the largest popcorn the theater has. Go in the bathroom and hide the camera in the popcorn. (The bag will protect it from the grease) Then when they catch you with it, they will have to initiate some crazy new policy of searching everyone's popcorn... just in case... =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-14-2003 03:26 PM                     Since a store is essentially private property all they would have to do is post a sign to the effect that upon entering this store you agrree to the possibility of being searched should an alarm go off  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-14-2003 04:06 PM                     Every time you walk through those gates you are being searched. It is a very non-intrusive, subtile search but it is a search no matter how you candy coat it. Yes, stores have the right to search but they also have the responsibility to make sure that innocent people aren't incriminated. Every time an alarm goes off because somebody in the store goofed they incriminate somebody! What a wonderful way for theaters to do business! Incriminate every customer! Oh, Yeah! THAT'S a good way to make money! Maybe next time they want to see a movie, instead of going to a theater, they'll steal a video from Wal-Mart! Hell! Nobody will chase you if the alarm goes off!  |  IP: Logged

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