Teen Girl Brutally Beaten While Security Guards Watched

A 15-year-old girl was beaten and robbed in a Seattle Bus tunnel as three unarmed security guards watched it happen. The girl told investigators that she thought the guards would protect her from her attackers, and she even ran near the guards to get away from her assailants. Instead, the guards simply called police and watched the girl get beaten and kicked in the head several times. The thieves stole the girl's purse, phone and iPod.

The young woman told detectives that the group followed her from a local department store in to the bus tunnel at Westlake Station on January 28. When incidents like these take place, guards are ordered to "observe and report" only, not to intervene. The guards are employed by Olympic Security Services, Inc.

"I went to the security and told them that these kids were trying to jump me," the girl said. "I know that I am about to get jumped, and I am hanging around the guards to try and get protection. ... I thought the security guards would defend me."

The perpetrators have been charged and arrested, but the girl is recovering from her injuries. Citing a potentially fatal heart condition, she said that she kept covering her chest as she was getting kicked by her attackers.

You want my take on the issue? OK, let me calm down first, because I am absolutely furious.

How in the *&^% can you call yourself a security company if you are not actually providing security? A young child is being beaten by a mob of attackers and your people are trained to simply watch it happen? If these individuals are not there to provide security, then the label "security guard" should probably be removed. Perhaps actual transit police should be in the area, since we know that crime happens in bus tunnels, as it does everywhere else.

The city of Seattle needs to find better "security guards" for their bus tunnels, since apparently, its citizens are not safe. What's fundamentally true in this case is that the guards would have been fired for intervening, so their behavior is almost understood. At that point, the company hiring the "guards" must be held accountable for its policies. We also have to remember, though, that it is the city of Seattle who ultimately controls the security within its bus tunnels, so the city should be the target of public outrage. They've got to do a better job of protecting the city's children.