Your Dolls and Security Officers-ever a problem?

Wow. Reading through this thread has me going...whoa. I've never been in a mall where security has gone all...super trooper, on anyone. o_O That's so nutso. (Though, I guess not so much for areas that have genuine security or crime issues. Just not something I've experienced.)

The few times I've take my boy to the mall (to meet up with BJD-friends) we've never been harassed by security, or had attack of the evil grabby hands. Just the usual mix of strange looks from those unfamiliar with the hobby and random "Ooooh, what are those?" comments.

Not that this makes the above any less true, because unfortunately it is - but that fact that so many like to "judge a book by its cover" is just so personally aggravating to me.

 

Indeed.
It isn't right, and it isn't fair... but it is the way of the world sometimes, and knowing that can save you some headaches.

It's one of those 'pick your battles' kind-of things. Sometimes it's worth it to stop and say, "Hey, wait just a minute there, buster. I'm not what you think I am-"... and sometimes it isn't.

 

I would never bring either of my boys to the local mall. We're not even allowed to have parties over 5. Even if it's a family, the security makes you split up. Security there has given me crap over a purse. Yes, a purse. I couldn't imagine what they would say over my boys...

 

Ok, no offense meant here, but that is EXACTLY why they were stopped and harrassed...What you said made absolutely no sense whatsoever...you said "He wasn't stopped because of how he was dressed, it was because there were 10 teenagers in a large group with strangely colored hair, leather, peircings and tattoos walking into a holister store for no apparant reason..."

Um, that means he stopped them for how they looked, and dressed. Sorry, but the fact that he caught one of them stealing does not change the fact that he went solely based on the fact that they looked different. By that logic, if an officer looks at a black man who is dressed relatively flashy, and he walks into a jewlery store, he clearly is there to steal, and he should follow him. THAT IS PROFILING. And just for the record, people (no matter how they dress) do not need a 'good reason' to enter a store. It's a public place. They can come and go as they see fit. I don't have to have a reason to go into Banana Republic, even tho i KNOW i would never buy anything in there. I get bored when my friends all want to go to the girlie stores, and i run out of intersting stores to go into...so i go into the uninteresting ones.

Basing your suspicion on someone because of how they look or dress is profiling. Now, if he were to watch someone because of their body language, and because they were acting suspiciously, then he had all the validity in the world. That is the difference between profiling someone, and stopping them because of their actions.

Sure, in your scenario, there was one of them stealing. That does not mean that every person who dresses that way deserves to be followed for any reason, or harrassed. But in all honesty, the fact that he caught one stealing and it was 'justified" profiling is like saying that the security guard caught a black man stealing, and said "See?? i told you they steal'. Its ridiculous, and quite honestly, if i were dressed in my normal garb, and soem security guard stopped me claiming i shoplifted, i swear to GOD i'd own the mall.......

 

I was more pointing out their reactions. They where so quick to call harrasment even when he did something wrong. I've found that offten when my friends tell me that police or security harrased them or stoped them for 'no reason' there was a reason. People exagurate that's their nature.

 

I understand, hon, but also, keep in mind, that even tho they DID do something wrong, it does not change that the officer in question DID use their looks, dress, piercings, tatts, etc, as the REASON that he determined that they did something wrong. What if he had been wrong? What if he had stopped them, and they had NOTHING on them? that has happened to me before in a store, (i got a nice, hefty 400 dollar giftcard for the mistake) and it's not cool. I had a security officer stop me in a target because he thought i had stolen something. He and two target employees had stopped me, and asked me to come with them. Wouldn't even tell me why, but i could tell by how they were acting that they were thinking i had taken something. He asked me to empty my pockets (i had black baggy jeans on, and a megadeth t-shirt). He had mistakenly assumed that i had taken something, and when they saw that i had nothing on me, the guy swore that I had put stuff in my pants pockets. He even went as far as to tell the manager that every time he's stopped someone with 'those pants' on, they had used them to steal. I ended up with a full blown apology in front of the staff, and my two friends, as well as a 400 dollar gift card. I was 20 at the time.

I'm only saying that yes, he was right, but he had chosen the wrong reasons to assume they were in the wrong.

I understand ur point, in saying that sometimes people USE the profiling excuse to get out of trouble, when in fact they were wrong, however, this doesn't change the fact that the officers methods were just as wrong. And if he uses this to catch people who ARE wrong, how often does he harrass people who have done nothing, and makes THEM uncomfortable? Profiling is wrong for a reason. It harrasses people, violates people's rights, and causes severe embarrassment. The young lady up above was talking about being profiled, just because she wore black, had baggy pants on, and she had done NOTHING wrong.

 

Alright, I do see your point about the profiling and I apologize. I just find it had to beleive people when they say they've done nothing wrong when I've seen people lieing about it so many times.

 

I haven't had any security problems as of yet. Then again I don't take my boy out anywhere but on campus and if I fly anywhere.

On all my flights i've taken him on he's just been cradled in my arms. Security wasnt bothered with him, though when i'd deposit him into the little buckets for his "x-ray" I may have gotten an odd look or two.

Though once at the Newark airport in NJ my friend and I were trying to get upstairs to our terminal and I had my boy cradled in my arm like always and a guard stopped us saying those certain escalators were closed. He then asked me about my doll and asked to see him.. [This was some big burly guy too] And he looked him over and said "If you let me keep this doll I'll let you up the escalator" I laughed nervously and took him back and say no way, that it would be the most expensive escalator ride ever.

I was so nervous, but the guy was nice enough.

 

(1) Any private retail space -- restaurants, stores, etc. -- can deny service to any individual for any reason, so long as they do not break discrimination laws (gender, race, religion, and age are the big ones). That means they are within their rights to throw you out because of how you are dressed.

(2) Racial profiling, in the US, is specifically "the law enforcement practice of the detention, interdiction, or other disparate treatment of an individual on the basis of the racial or ethnic status of such individual." This is illegal in some communities -- and still very legal in many other communities.

However, criminal profiling is a very accepted and common practice in law enforcement, and is perfect legal, to my knowledge, in all 50 states. Profiling, in and of itself, is not inherently "wrong" and is not considered a "violation of people's rights."

Officers have every right to judge someone based on their style of clothing and hair and, in fact, many security officers are trained to look for specific behaviors and styles of dress as "clues" as to who they should keep their eye on. After all, you OPT to dress the way you do, it's not inherent to you nor is it constitutionally protected, and your choices tell us something about you as a person. I'm not saying everyone who wears, say, baggy black pants is a criminal, but if experience shows that they're more likely to shoplift than someone wearing skinny jeans, it would not make sense to spend equal time watching the baggy-black-pants person and the skinny-jeans person.

I judge people on how they dress and I'm not afraid to admit that. I don't think it's wrong at all. What they decided to put on that morning tells me about them as a person, so of course I'm going to use that information when I interact with them.

 

A better/easier tactic than dumbing yourself down to Fit In by dressing up in somebody else's clothes: pick up your dolls & go elsewhere!
Beat the Profiling Game by refusing to play. That way, you get to keep both your dignity and your playtime.

(No upstanding red-blooded spookychick should have to dress up in Old-Navy-drag just to go play dollies in public. It's just sad.)

Ye gods. O_o And you say this is in Virginia, and not in Tehran? Doesn't even sound like much fun to SHOP there, let alone socialize.
Which only nails my point further: Fugeddabout the mall. It's only a pit of middleclass stupefication set to Muzak. Play dolls in the park, + shop online!

 

Agreed.

This goes both ways though. I have a high end corprate job. My work clothes are main-stream, pressed with my hair up and a natural color. Everyone thinks I'm the 'good girl' in my work clothes.

Imagine thier surprise when I forgot to put make up on my feet one morning and they all saw some of my tattoos that I have there. And even more shocked to discover that I had more on my back, legs, and sides.

People judge. It's in there nature. It's the reason I hid my tattoo's at work in the first place. It's going to be impossible to keep people from judging you.

 

Kiyakotari - "As I've mentioned before, I work in security (though not at a mall or store), and one of my main tools in evaluating the potential threat of suspicious persons (which, if you're a good security officer, is basically everyone until proven otherwise) is their appearance and their demeanor."

I'm not trying to be rude, I'm honestly curious so I can know if my rights are being violated or not: Can you judge strictly on appearance? Or must it be appearance and demeaner? I've been told I look like a trouble maker, though I'm anything but. And the people I hang out with aren't either. We have major variations in style, appearance, tastes, etc. so I doubt we'd appear to be a 'gang' or anthing. Would it be wrong for somebody to stop me for no apparent reason based on how I look?

I can understand if a person is being obnoxious or with a large group of people covered in tattoos or something, but if I was stopped simply because of how I dress...? I find that wrong. I mean, yeah, I wear black, spikes, chains, etc so I get stares sometimes. I've had people judge me on that, yet none of them seem to notice the puppy I'm walking, or that the shirt I'm wearing has ducks wearing sunglasses. Nope, it's just the dogtags on me and the black background.

Basically, I'm asking about people who appear different, but that's it. Their behavior is normal, as are the people they're with. (And before anyone says that just because someone acts normal, doesn't mean they are, I'd like you all to remember that that can work both ways.)

 

I agree with Kiyakotari. My petrol station is right beside a busy cinema and we have kids in and out all the time with their hands on our sweets I don't automatically assume every child/teen will steal when they come in, but if they hang around by the sweets for a very long time and have their hands ominously stuffed in their pockets, I think I have a right to question them. All missing stock is queried and I'd rather scare one child by cornering them, than have them repeatedly get away with small thefts and graduate to big ones. I had one man in his forties steal a can of Red Bull once! He came in to pay for his fuel, I tried to scan the can, but he lifted it out of my reach and just left!

In our main shop we have investigators who trail suspicious looking people to make sure they aren't stealing. Not a day goes by without someone trying to rip us off! If you are dressed in an 'alternative style' you won't automatically get followed in our shop, but if your demeanour is suspicious and if you are crowding around in a group, you will find yourself followed and possibly questioned if the security officer finds sufficient reason to stop you.

 

True enough, but taking your ball and going home works better in some circumstances than in others... Besides, I wouldn't call an intentional effort to slide in under The Normals' radar "dumbing down" so much as recognizing the usefulness of social camouflage.

 

Only place I was ever hassled was a museum. Have yet to try a mall but might not after reading these posts.

 

Ive not been hassled by security gaurds before, but i have had the police called on me and a group of friends before at a doll meet. We had all met up in a park in London when me and 2 others (all of the slightly older age group so we dont look like teenagers) had found a really cool tree to take pictures in/on. Mid picture taking session this police car rolls up...apparently someone phoned them and said that some people were creating a desturbance.....i mean how much desturbance can 3 ladies and 7 dolls create??? Its a public park fro pete's sake!

The officers looked very bemused at what we were doing, decided we wernt doing any harm, declined having their picture taken (i got a sneaky one anyway) and went on their way....

 

Don't be worried!

I work and have brought my dolls to Arizona Mills Mall.

I haven't had any problems with my dolls at all. Just be smart with them. People will stare, but I have never had security question me about them.

The one time security bugged me was when I didn't have my uniform on and was heading the food court for a soda. Told me that it was mall curfew. The weird thing was I've SEEN that security guard. HE KNOWS I WORK IN THE MALL. He hassled me. I told him that I was going to tell my manager, who would tell his boss, who would have to explain to my manager why I won't work weekends after 6pm.

He left me alone~

 

Quite a while ago, me and 4 other owners got together to see a movie with our dolls. After the movie, we were gathered around a lightpost out in the parking lot to take pictures (it was the middle of the day). Then an employee came out and told us we had to leave because we were distracting movie-goers 0_o