by Judd Legum
September 6, 2015
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A black man was recently beaten to unconsciousness by a Whole Foods private security guard apparently because the customer had a nonviolent dispute with a cashier. When will this violence end?
A private security guard working at Whole Foods in Oakland beat a black man unconscious on Thursday evening, according to witness accounts.
One witness, Zoe Marks, told the Oakland Tribune that she “watched as the guard slammed the man against a concrete pillar, put him in a chokehold until he passed out, and threw him out of the store.” According to Marks, the man was in a verbal argument with a cashier but was not violent before being assaulted by the security officer. “He wasn’t shouting at anyone. He wasn’t violent or disruptive,” Marks said.
Marks also posted an account of the incident — along with graphic photos of the victim — on Facebook.
Zoe Marks
Georgetown
Yesterday at 12:00 am
In Oakland less than four hours and I just saw a young man violently assaulted by an armed security guard at Whole Foods - slammed repeatedly against concrete pillars, put in a chokehold, restrained, and suffocated until he was thrown face down on the pavement unconscious. The guard locked him out of the store despite the fact he was immobile. Not a single employee called the paramedics. He was trying to buy groceries with his EBT card and ended up in a stretcher.
We spent ... [See More]
Whole Foods said they have fired the guard involved and the security firm that employed him.
Zoe Marks@z_marks
@WholeFoods SHOCKING. Get rid of armed guards NOW. Apologise to customers. Prioritize restitution for this victim. twitter.com/everflymsq/sta...
Whole Foods Market @ WholeFoods
@z_marks We take this very serious. We are investigating this immediately. 8:02 AM - 4 Sep 2015
The Oakland police are investigating.
In the United States, private security guards outnumber actual police officers 5 to 1. Security expert Bruce Schneier notes that they “often receive minimal training, if any. They don’t graduate from police academies.” As a result “[a]buses of power, brutality, and illegal behavior are much more common among private security guards.”