Labor Day.
I work part time at a small grocery, mostly on the weekends just to help make ends meet. But this isn’t about me.
A co-worker of mine rides the bus to and from work everyday. Recently, thanks to budget cuts, the bus that used to stop about half a mile from her house, now stop about a full mile from her house. It also comes an hour earlier. This forces her to catch a buss that will put her at work before the business opens. She is forced to wait outside almost 45 minutes before the business owner arrives to open the doors. This business just happens to be in a high crime area, mostly theft related crimes. Last Friday this co-worker was waiting outside the locked business, in uniform when she was approached by members of a private security company. She was told that she could not stand outside the business while it was closed, because what she was doing was considered trespassing, despite being in full uniform.
So today, labor day, she once again arrived about a half hour before the business opened, but this time security was waiting for her. They again told her that she was not allowed to loiter outside the business while the business was closed. This co-worker walked off the property, but after a few minutes she came back and once again stood just outside the doors to the business. Fed up the security guards returned. One of the guards asked my co-worker “Are you deaf or just plain stupid.” After short stand off, the security guards called the police. Ten minutes later I arrived to work, but before I could get out of my car, a police officer shows up. The security guards explain to the police officer that this lady is trespassing and has refused to leave property, even after being told several times to do so. The police officer goes over and begins to speak to my co-worker. The security guards are standing off to the side, when one of them states just loud enough for the officer to hear, “I am so sick of having to deal with this garbage every day.”
The police officer turns around and unloads, verbally. I am paraphrasing, “You know what I am sick of dealing with, idiots. You have no idea what it’s like to deal with garbage. Fathers who beat their children, men who beat their pregnant wife’s so hard that they have a miscarriage. Yet what you find to be garbage is a woman who has half the advantages you have, an unfortunate disability and yet she shows up ready to work every day. She workers harder then most of the employees in this shopping center and never complains.” Just as the officer turns around to leave he states to both security guards, “And in case you can’t notice she is autistic.”
A special thank you to this police officer and a polite go fuck yourselves to these security guards.