Every bank, pawn shop, grocery store and gas station would be required to have at least one armed guard on premises during regular business hours under a bill introduced by Rep. Thaddeus Jones. HB-1231. Because the Mayor of Chicago has defunded the police to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, now comes Rep. Jones with the great idea “just make them hire armed guards.”
And who does this new regulatory tax impact?
Customers.
What happens when small shops are required to hire armed security? Well, if they cut corners, they get “armed security” alright. Even if they don’t cut corners, the company they hire might do just that in terms of the people they hire.
Like these:
A security guard who worked at high-profile events in Chicago shot and killed an unarmed man on the Red Line after stealing the victim’s can of Pepsi, authorities said Friday.
Issac Anderson, 26, was held without bail by Judge Charles Beach on charges of first-degree murder and murder during the commission of a forcible felony.
Prosecutors said that high-quality CTA surveillance footage caught the whole thing, starting when Anderson used his own Ventra card to enter the State-Lake station on the morning of October 15.
Anderson boarded a southbound train, and the 60-year-old male victim boarded the same train car a few minutes later.
After about 30 or 40 minutes, Anderson got up from his seat and sat down next to the victim. They talked for a few minutes before Anderson grabbed the man’s backpack and looked inside, prosecutors said. Video showed him taking a Pepsi from inside the backpack and then tossing the bag onto the seat next to the victim.
Prosecutors claim Anderson returned to his original seat, sipped the man’s Pepsi, then returned to the man and threw the rest of the soda on him.
When the victim stood up, unarmed and with both hands visible, Anderson pulled a revolver from his jacket pocket and shot him five times, prosecutors said.
Oh, it gets better. Even Walgreens apparently contracted with less-than-stellar security firm to provide armed security at their store in downtown Chicago.
Walgreens guard who allegedly shot a man in a dispute over gift cards gets 6 years
It isn’t just Walgreens, either. Add the CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY to the mix, too.
A CTA security contractor who allegedly shot himself and caused a 16-year-old girl to suffer a graze wound when a gun in his jacket pocket fired during a dust-up on a Red Line train near Belmont in 2020 has been sentenced to probation.
Prosecutors said Eric Camp, now 40, and his security partner ran away from the CTA station after the incident, but encountered police on the 3100 block of North Sheffield and reported that they were chasing a girl who had shot Camp.
In fact, the girl remained on the train platform and Camp didn’t tell officers that she was injured, according to cops. He came clean about what happened after officers found his gun in a nearby trash can, according to a CPD report.
Police said Camp and his partner, working for Digby’s Detective & Security Agency, were on a southbound train shortly before 4 a.m.on April 9, 2020, when they confronted the girl who was causing a disturbance.
Or how about the liquor store who contracted with a security company to hire a four-time convicted felon and registered child sex offender as a security guard… who then shot a customer three times and killed him because the customer refused to wear a COVID mask.
A liquor store security guard was acting in self defense when he shot a customer three times because the customer was “putting other’s lives at risk by not wearing a [COVID] mask,” the guard’s private defense attorney said during a bond court hearing Wednesday.
The argument did not sway cook County Judge Mary Marubio.
“The victim fled the store, fell outside, followed by the defendant [who], according to the surveillance video, shot a second time. The defendant then paces back and forth and shot a third time,” Marubio said before ordering 42-year-old Chester Holmes held without bail.
Holmes, who is barred from possessing a weapon because he is a four-time convicted felon and registered child sex offender, was working as an armed security guard at the store on the 6000 block of South Racine when a 28-year-old man walked in without a COVID mask around 9:53 am. Monday, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Darryl Auguste.
Or another security guard that shot and killed a woman downrange while cranking off upwards of 20 rounds at a suspect nearly a block away… about a block from Chicago Police HQ.
At least 20 shell casings in front of Liquor store at Michigan/ Indiana about a block from CPD headquarters. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/HffTgVupdL
— Charlie De Mar (@CharlieDeMar) February 1, 2022
CHICAGO (CBS) — A security guard for a Bronzeville liquor store has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a Chicago grandmother dead, accused of grabbing another security guard’s gun and recklessly firing 20 shots down the street after another man had shot him in the foot during an argument.
Victor Brown, 34, is facing one felony count of first-degree murder and one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon in Bobbye Johnson’s death. She was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon as she stepped out of the Chase Bank at 3500 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., about four blocks away from the liquor store where Brown was working.
And then there’s the Roman Catholic Church in Chicago.
Two guards who worked for a politically-connected security company have been charged with stealing up to $100,000 from Holy Name Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago located at 730 North Wabash.
Police said Artemio Calderon, 25, and Jarrell Patterson, 22, used a key to enter the church at 7:30 p.m. on April 15. Inside, the pair gained access to a safe and removed cash, according to a CPD press release.
Oh and can we forget a couple of “armed security” guards from Father Pfleger’s church.
Like the one who shot and killed a shoplifter.
Or the one pictured above who dropped his gun on the steps of Pfleger’s church in front of real police and was the arrested for carrying without a license.
So will the security companies let the gang-banger turned security guard keep his illegal Glock and full-auto switch for use ‘on the job’? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Chicago would be a much better reef at the bottom of Lake Michigan. It is a failed city, beyond all hope of redemption or repair. That goes for the scumbag politicians that inflict their stupidity upon the rest of us ‘downstaters’, too.
Boy I never thought I’d see this day when security companies hire convicted felons. And they want to make us criminals. Go figure.
Boch, you must have had a helluva time finding a picture of a professional looking security guard like that babe at HyVee. The ones I see at Walmart and Menards are sloppily dressed nincompoops on their phones. Talk about a joke.
Politicians do not trust the shop owner to carry a gun, but requiring them to hire an ex-convict is okay?