{"id":509,"date":"2011-01-30T20:44:56","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T04:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/?p=509"},"modified":"2013-05-13T09:27:16","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T17:27:16","slug":"deadly-forced-authorized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/?p=509","title":{"rendered":"Paramilitary Dude With Glock at AMC Van Ness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">By John Calder, Argonaut360 Correspondent<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While attending the 9:45pm showing on Friday January 28th of the of the excellent film, &#8220;True Grit&#8221; at the AMC 1000 on Van Ness, I found myself in a very uncomfortable position. Standing at the 7th Floor concession area was a paramilitary geared male, fully decked out with a Glock handgun, pepper spray and other miscellaneous military and security gear. He leaned over a counter &#8211; texting into his phone. I assume he is the Security service.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He had no visible name, company affiliation, military insignia, just a paramilitary blue\/gray jumpsuit and hobnail boots.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As an Air Force veteran, who worked on nuclear equipped Strategic Air Command bases in the 70&#8217;s, I&#8217;m well aware of military training, the security police and the necessity to post the sign below\u00a0 when weapon equipped security is protecting a secured area.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/argonaut360.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/deadlyforce.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-510 aligncenter\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"deadlyforce\" src=\"http:\/\/argonaut360.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/deadlyforce.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"229\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It means, &#8220;<strong><em>We have been given permission to shoot to kill in this area<\/em><\/strong>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I saw no such sign at the AMC 1000 Theater on Van Ness street. Not on my ticket, not at the box office, no where I could find.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now, frankly, I&#8217;m uncomfortable around guns, even cops having lunch in the same Diner as me, gives me the willies! You see, I have been shot at.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Shot at a lot!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I have been car jacked during the 89&#8243; Quake World Series and shot at, been bike jacked passing Valencia Gardens and shot at, I had a Naval Yard Security Guard pull a gun on me over a parking spot. Even my own Dad shot at me once!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And I&#8217;m a middle class Caucasian, father of 3, who lives in Noe Valley!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I don&#8217;t own guns, don&#8217;t like guns and prefer not be around them. Ever.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The thing is about the &#8220;Rooster Cogburn wanna -be&#8221; at AMC;\u00a0 I don&#8217;t know him, don&#8217;t know his background, his training, who he works for, his affiliations, or frankly the state of his mental health.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now I&#8217;m saying I do not have total faith in anyone with a handgun. I respect the SFPD and think they do a wonderful job and are a highly trained and respected organization.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But even SFPD are shooting old guys in wheel chairs, the Bart Police are shooting unarmed hooligans. But with both these esteemed agencies, we <strong>can <\/strong>and <strong>have <\/strong>to assume they have a level of training and public accountability and oversight. But even these professional agencies make personnel mistakes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Who is overseeing my &#8220;Rooster Cogburn wanna -be&#8221; at the AMC. Is he being tested for drugs on a regular basis? Has had a psychology review? Does he have a police record? Is he on methamphetamine&#8217;s? Does he carry a Pot Club card?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/argonaut360.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/amcnew.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-513 aligncenter\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"amcnew\" src=\"http:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/amcnew-220x300.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/amcnew-220x300.gif 220w, https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/amcnew.gif 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I know a bit about power, politics money and human nature.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I have what I call my &#8220;<strong>Two Rules of Power:<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rule One: &#8220;<em><strong>Power is no good unless you use it<\/strong><\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Rule Two: &#8220;<em><strong>People who seek power should not be allowed to have it<\/strong><\/em>&#8221; <em>Reason: See Rule Number One.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We all knew the half dim wit brother of an old girlfriend who wanted to be a Cop but never made it. He falls under these rules.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now I suspect my &#8220;Rooster Cogburn wanna &#8211; be&#8221; falls in here too. Turns out a Security Guard earns a fine working wage and are typically un-armed. Turns out that by carrying a licensed firearm that can earn an additional$10-12 per hour on top of that. I suspect he is a Security Guard because he did not make the grade to be a Policeman.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But <em>he can<\/em> have a Glock in his pocket, in public and make lethal decisions when to use it. When is that OK in San Francisco?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It&#8217;s not in the City I love, where my kids go to movies, where I assume they are safe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Are they?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I shudder at the thought of a shoot out during a movie because someone stole popcorn!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I would like to hear AMC&#8217;s position on this. I don&#8217;t believe that parents taking kids to the movies should have to worry about the safety of their family in an AMC Theater.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">John Calder<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">jcalder@well.com<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>UPDATE<\/strong>: As of 9:30am on Jan. 31, management at the Van Ness location had no comment about the &#8216;Para-military Guy&#8221;, neither confirming or denying. They did however admit to having armed guards on the premises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Calder, Argonaut360 Correspondent While attending the 9:45pm showing on Friday January 28th of the of the excellent film, &#8220;True Grit&#8221; at the AMC 1000 on Van Ness, I found myself in a very uncomfortable position. Standing at the 7th Floor concession area was a paramilitary geared male, fully decked out with a Glock [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.argonaut360.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}