Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Proof Positive: Rent a Cop!

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Sans cool Segway, of course!


As a young man, I worked a variety of jobs before I settled into my current career.
One of them was as a security guard. Although I had received no formal training from them, I was issued a side arm on a couple of assignments. Both, coincidentally, were at sites where there were union problems.

At one site, the picketers engaged me in friendly conversation, another was on the night shift at a hospital ER where there had apparently been some dispute with their union. No picketers were in sight.

I remember showing up at my post at the entrance to the ER, where I was handed a .38 revolver and holster. In all my tenure with the guard company, I never had occasion to draw a weapon, but as the evening wore on, other guards from other posts around the hospital would wander by, and what they all had in common was that none of them were armed! Apparently, I was the first line of defense for any crazed, violent protesters who might take it upon themselves to storm the ER!

I had that job for about three months before the enticements of long, boring evenings and occasionally freezing my tail off succumbed to the allure of academia and a higher degree (at higher degrees) and I went away to college.

A comment on another website brought this recollection to mind. Rather than jack that thread with my reminiscences, I inflicted it on you.

2 comments:

  1. I too have been a rent a cop. At least I went through one day of firearms training.

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  2. I grew up around firearms, so I knew which end the round comes out. I didn't feel uncomfortable about carrying the gun. I was a bit apprehensive about the possibility of having to use it though.

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