Driver resigns

I just got a job where I'm working with the father of that kid who got robbed outside the bus station that one night when the guard refused to let him back inside. This might be old news now, but talking with that man got me watching the news broadcast on it again. At the time, I told my supervisor/Greyhound Dallas management's ear that it wasn't safe to let people wait outside for their rides after closing, but what they told me was to push everyone out after the last bus and lock the doors behind them. I explained that during my time there that I had had people come in during the night who had been assaulted, cut up with a knife in one case, mugged, and raped. I had even met a man who a driver had us pull off her bus because he was screaming out and kicking the seat in front of him. As it turned out, he was having a nightmare of his last bus experience that he had at the Edmonton Greyhound. Two years prior, he had asked to wait inside after closing but was kicked out until 5 a.m. opening. But before the bus station had opened, he was robbed by three men who were over by the Staples store across the parking lot from the bus station. He was stabbed in the eye socked, 4 times in his left leg and once in his right. He wore an eye patch and walked with a hobble. The nightmare on the bus was of him reliving this in a dream when he was doing a bicycle type kick to fight off the man with the knife. Allowing people to wait inside for their ride, or inside over night for their connecting bus safe and behind a locked door does absolutely no harm whatsoever. But when I reminded Greyhound of these things (security incidents get reported and faxed) what I got told back was that they are not responsible for what happens to people once they leave their doors after closing, and they made it very clear to me that the bus station had to be empty at night with absolutely no exceptions. They show concern for their passengers and are 'reviewing their security policies' to fix this problem as they stated in that news broadcast...that's a lie. I refused to kick people out at night unless they had a ride waiting for them outside, and if they were smokers I stood outside with them while they smoked. Which was another problem that Greyhound had with me, they didn't want me stepping outside at night...obviously because it's not safe and I'm sure that one of their guards getting hurt on their site while working alone at night would be a bad thing for them...lawsuit wise I'm guessing. I made it my job to keep those passengers safe at night and I lost my job there because I refused to stop doing this. I could not 'adapt to the new policies' as it was put to me. The only thing that surprised me about that kid getting mugged with the guard right on the other side of the window watching, but clueless as to what was going on (obviously knew his job well) is that it took so long for it to happen and come out in the media. Despite what Greyhound says, they do not seem to care about passenger safety in the slightest...unless of course it comes out in the news as being an issue.

Renee, in regards to what you said about security going through your guy's personal files. I never witnessed that myself, but I do believe you. After the security supervisors were let go on account of guards using handcuffs to detain a homeless lady until the police arrived (I think that she was homeless anyway) who threatened them by saying that she had a gun in her purse (which actually turned out to be a kitchen knife), I was very suspicious of our new supervisor. There's a camera in the security office that overlooks the security moniters. One shift, I spent my night watching the new supervisor on that camera from what it had recorded the previous morning. From about 0715 (shortly after I had left) until the next guard came in at 1230, that supervisor had spent his entire morning reviewing the cameras. Every so often he would make a 20-30 second phone call on his cell phone and then after hanging up, he would make a recording of what he was watching on the camera. He was so caught up in this that he lost track of the time and was caught off guard by the security guard who had come in for his shift. That security guard saw what he was doing and requested to be moved to a different job site that same day. When I saw this guard again 2 1/2 months later, he confirmed to me what I already knew. He told me that the security supervisor along with Dallas (who have access to the security cameras from their location) was watching the staff and making recordings of them. He said that he had refused to work in a place where the management was doing this. I wouldn't say that the security cameras are hidden in the bus station, but other then that Renee you were correct in your assumption. I did hear those rumors of hidden cameras though as well. I spent a bit of time looking for them out of curiosity on the upstairs floor, but I never found anything.

In addition to this, as I saw the security guards being let go one by one I knew that my turn was coming. It bothered me because I felt as though my job would no longer be done properly and as a result something bad was going to happen to not just one person, but many...I can be fairly damned sure that it wasn't just that one kid who had gotten mugged after closing...The only thing that I could think to do at the time was to write up a booklet that spelled out in detail the way that my shift worked there at night and what to be prepared for. This booklet contained information that a night guard who was new to the site would need to know about passenger safety as well as their own. I spelled out ways in which people could be observed and heard (the security cameras there don't pick up sound and some angles are hard to see) out on the street among other things without being seen. This information was meant to be used as a resource to help keep people from getting raped, mugged, cut up, and everything else that I had seen happen there at night. This booklet was taken by this supervisor, re-done and made to look like his own work. I didn't like that...obviously...and after I was gone, I was told by one of the baggage carriers that this supervisor had been seen spying on the staff during their smoke break. When I asked him how the security supervisor was doing this, I wasn't surprised to hear what was described to me. He was using a method that he had read in my booklet. He only got caught because he didn't realize that what works at night to effectively observe people doesn't always work during the day...moron...(Sorry, but I had to say it...he is)

Greyhound does not care about their passenger's safety or the safety of their staff (I was told to do something once that I felt jeopardized my safety on a job site where myself and other guards had been threatened with knives on numerous occasions...not to mention some of the weapons that we had intercepted while on their way up top of the bus in people's carry ons...two broken down sawed off shotguns along wt 29 shotgun shells that were in a lunchbox for example) ...uncaring bastards...they don't have any respect for their staff. For them to publically say otherwise, judging from what I have seen and have been told to do during my last two months there, is a lie.

I was the longest running guard there of everyone who I had worked with and met, and I was the only guard there who never in a position where I had to strike a trespasser in self defense. That's not to say that I never got into a struggle ever as I did have to subdue people at times, but I never had to hit anyone. I knew how to get people to leave in a civilized manner by talking to them and treating them with respect and understanding, and I did everything that I could to keep passengers safe while they were in that building and traveling on those buses. Not to sound full of myself here but yeah, I was someone to let go...excuse me for doing my fucking job well...I watched one of the guards in there after I left who was scanning with the metal detector while my brother was traveling one day. He didn't take his job seriously and the people who he poorly scanned could easily have boarded that bus with a weapon. He just didn't care to do it properly. I could tell. He was lazy with his job. It made me feel bad for the passengers, and even more so for the drivers who had to drive those sloppily screened passengers who were checked by this one guard. Preventing the drivers from getting into physical conflicts with problem passengers while on route was beyond my control, but I could make damn sure that they wouldn't be facing a weapon in the event of it happening. Thank you Greyhound so much for getting rid of guards like me and replacing us with guards like that...good job there Mr P...perhaps the next sawed off shotgun that goes through the security screening will find its way up top (That wasn't me who found those by the way, that was another guard. Stuff like that never slipped past her either.) And yup, she was let go to just like the rest of us. Did our jobs too well I suppose...couldn't adapt to the new policies of spying on the staff and pushing out the passengers in crackhead central at 1 o'clock in the morning...sorry granny (oh don't even get me started on that one)

I dunno, maybe after that news broadcast came out they changed certain things to an extent. I never went back there to find out. It's just that watching those news broadcasts again made me sick, and that is how it was when I worked there last going off. Preventing that kid from getting mugged would have been such a simple thing for them to do...just let him wait inside where it's safe until his sister came to pick him up, but no...because of Greyhound's management that guard was instructed to quite literally turn his back on someone who needed his help. And just because that guard didn't realize that this person was in trouble, doesn't make it excusable.