John Montgomery Presents This Week's	July 8, 2000	Creep Logo by Alan Fraser
	Dennis Richardson
	Lord & Wailer: Security Guys At Your Throat

Unlike some of the other players in this story, I'll be upfront about my prejudices: I don't like Security Guys. They're much worse than cops, who (for the most part) I don't like either. Oh sure, a cop might sexually assault you with a plunger or shoot you just because you're black, but at least he'll do those things intentionally. With Security Guys, you don't know what's going to happen. And neither do they.

Most Security Guys are cop wannabees in positions of power with little or no training on what to do with it. If you're big enough and (in many cases) stupid enough, you're in. Security Guys keep people out of places that other people don't want them in. They check IDs in bars. They walk around stores looking for shoplifters. They perform these trivial tasks with an air of belligerence and attitude. If anyone gives them any trouble, they kick ass. And get away with it. Because they're the Security Guys! Big, dumb and powerful with no accountability: a dangerous combination.

Which brings us to Dennis Richardson, a Security Guy at a Lord & Taylor department store in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Dennis and some of his Security Guy co-workers were watching surveillance cameras at the store a few weeks ago and saw some major criminal activity in action. An 11-year-old girl lifted a four dollar bracelet. "Nobody steals from Lord & Taylor on my watch," Dennis cried. "We're Security Guys, let's kick some ass!" He and his boys confronted the girl and her family in the parking lot.

According to the family, they didn't identify themselves as Security Guys. That's a little hard to believe because Security Guys like nothing better than to let everyone know that they are the grand, omnipotent Security Guys for whom everyone else better curtsy or else. In any event, the girl's stepfather, Frederick Finley, didn't curtsy. In fact, he punched one of the Security Guys. A bad move, as it turned out, because it initiated a Security Guy Ballistic Testosterone Eruption. "Nobody punches a Security Guy on my watch," Dennis cried, as he proceeded to kill Frederick by suffocating him in a Security Guy choke hold.

Where did Dennis learn a thing like that? In some Steven Seagal movie? Doesn't matter. Frederick is dead and the Security Guy did it. Dennis is now charged with involuntary manslaughter which carries a possible penalty of 15 years in prison, a place where they have real Security Guys. So lock this macho dickhead up for a good long time, put his picture on the cover of the Security Guy Manual and forget him. Right?

As you should know by now, nothing's that easy.

Complicating Factor #1: Frederick, the dead guy was black.

Complicating Factor #2: Dennis, the Security Guy, is also black.

Complicating Factor #3 (and this is where is gets really complicated): Al Sharpton, whose mission in life is to sniff racism from thousands of miles away, but who's also probably the biggest racist in America today, smelled the odor of a racist killing here. Al swept into town this week and led a protest (pictured above) in front of the store attended by 10,000 people chanting, "No justice, no profits, no justice, no peace!''

No smarts, either. Why is this a racial thing, Al? Isn't this just a matter of a hot-headed, out-of-control, ill-equipped, untrained, micro-brained Security Guy gone berserk?

"Racism can be black-on-black if white folk have staged this to be black-on-black. I know that if I'm a company with a white loss-prevention officer and if I apprehend a black individual and something happens, it looks far worse,'' says one of Al's henchmen, Rev. Horace Sheffield. "It takes racism to a new, clandestine level in corporate culture.''

If that didn't quite make sense to you, let me provide an (admittedly white) explanation: Store owners target black people to follow around because they are more likely to be shoplifters. In order to avoid looking like racist pigs, they hire black Security Guys to do the dirty work. It looks better to have black Security Guys kill black shoplifters.

If that still doesn't make sense, allow the Reverend Al to offer some of his oratory prowess to the situation: "I asked the chief of police, if I lay down in front of Lord & Taylor tonight, would he arrest me. He said, 'Absolutely.' But a man can be choked to death in front of Lord & Taylor, and we're waiting on what?''

Now where the hell are those Security Guys when you really need them?