F
flameburns623
Guest
This question arose because of a comment made on a program on EWTN several weeks ago. Tried to get the “Ask An Apologist” folks to respond but they’ve ignored two attempts. So now I will just have to sift through the chaff of the emotion-laden responses I’ll get in order to possibly get one or two decent answers. My question will be more lengthy than the one I addressed to the apologists, just to try to stave off some of the responses I may otherwise get.
I’ve worked for several contract security firms over the past 20-plus years or so. These companies assign employees to various clients, and there is usually a policy in the company rulebook which requires employees to accept any and all assignments, on pain of termination. (At the time I was not aware that in practice this rule is seldom strictly applied–if someone has real problems with accepting an assignment–not just for moral reasons but any other valid reason–most security companies have a number of assignments available and will work with the individual rather than terminating them).
I should note also: licensed security officers in this area have the general standing of law enforcement officers on their assigned posts. They can effect arrests, often carry firearms and handcuffs and such things. And they are required to be absolutely impartial in how they enforce laws. There are some differences in what a security officer actually does as opposed to what a law enforcement officer would do, but for the purposes here these are not significant.
So, for a few weeks, in the late 80’s or early 90’s, I was assigned to an abortion clinic. ( I was at the time a practicing Mormon–my LDS bishop at the time suggested that while I was not doing anything the LDS Church specifically forbids it’s members to do, I might want to seek a reassignment at my earliest convencience, or failing that, eventually seek another job entirely. That answer might have changed later in the 1990’s when iti is my understanding that Mormon leadership sent down guidelines which asked it’s members not to accept work at bars or casinos or other places out of keeping with the moral standards of the LDS Church).
The clinic housed a number of medical facilities, not just the abortion clinic, but of course my company was retained by the abortion clinic itself, or at least by the property owners who leased space to the clinic. My primary job was to keep pro-life protesters off of the clinic property. However, I was there to keep the peace in any and all respects. Prior to my assignment there, according to the rumor mill, there had been some sort of incident between an abortion ‘escort’ and a protester, and an earlier security officer had intervened in favor of the pro-life protester.
This speaks to what I saw my role to be: essentially, an impartial keeper of the peace and a protector of property rights, no matter how I felt about the issues at stake. I have subsequently done security at other sites where public controversy was at issue: strikes, demonstrations by environmentalists, even a fund-raising event for homosexual activists. My role was not as an advocate of any of these events, nor as a partisan. I was there to prevent acts of violence against people or property, on the limited area of the scope of my assignment, primarily the parking lot and entrances to the property. Something that even pro-life partisans vigorously oppose. (No: violence against the unborn infants doesn’t count, at least in part because the areas where abortions were actually being performed would have been outside the scope of my jurisdiction).
The speaker on the EWTN program several weeks ago suggested that any person who did security or law enforcement work at an abortion clinic would be guilty of a sin. (specifically because they are ‘cooperating’ or ‘giving implicit consent’ to the moral evil of abortion). Given the normative role of security and/or law enforcement in such places, I cannot see quite how that could be true.
If a member of the abortion staff were to assault a pro-life protester, I would be obliged by my role to take the assailant into custody and detain them for the police. If I were a witness to the assault, I would be obliged to speak to what I had seen without favoritism towards the clinic or it’s employees. If a clinic worker claimed falsely that they had been assaulted by a protester, and I had observed the worker approach the clinic property without any apparent incident–I could not do other than to testify to what I had actually seen.
Of course, my role cut the other way as well: if protesters illegally blocked the entrance to the clinic, I had to protect the property rights of the clinic. (It should be noted that the clinic did not only house abortion facilities but other medical offices, including dental offices, and some other offices. There was even a sandwich shop annexed to the building, although not part of the clinic area proper).
BTW–I made it known in quiet conversation one day with the workers that I was myself an opponent of abortion. This was after some sort of angry comment by one of the abortion escorts about the protesters. Within about two weeks, I was suddenly and without explanation removed from the assignment. I suspect the reason to have been related to my comments to the escort, probably magnified and exaggerated as they worked their way up to the property manager.
Anyhow: what, seriously, would be someone’s role in an assignment of this sort? Thanks in advance for whatever respectful and informative answers I hope to receive.
I’ve worked for several contract security firms over the past 20-plus years or so. These companies assign employees to various clients, and there is usually a policy in the company rulebook which requires employees to accept any and all assignments, on pain of termination. (At the time I was not aware that in practice this rule is seldom strictly applied–if someone has real problems with accepting an assignment–not just for moral reasons but any other valid reason–most security companies have a number of assignments available and will work with the individual rather than terminating them).
I should note also: licensed security officers in this area have the general standing of law enforcement officers on their assigned posts. They can effect arrests, often carry firearms and handcuffs and such things. And they are required to be absolutely impartial in how they enforce laws. There are some differences in what a security officer actually does as opposed to what a law enforcement officer would do, but for the purposes here these are not significant.
So, for a few weeks, in the late 80’s or early 90’s, I was assigned to an abortion clinic. ( I was at the time a practicing Mormon–my LDS bishop at the time suggested that while I was not doing anything the LDS Church specifically forbids it’s members to do, I might want to seek a reassignment at my earliest convencience, or failing that, eventually seek another job entirely. That answer might have changed later in the 1990’s when iti is my understanding that Mormon leadership sent down guidelines which asked it’s members not to accept work at bars or casinos or other places out of keeping with the moral standards of the LDS Church).
The clinic housed a number of medical facilities, not just the abortion clinic, but of course my company was retained by the abortion clinic itself, or at least by the property owners who leased space to the clinic. My primary job was to keep pro-life protesters off of the clinic property. However, I was there to keep the peace in any and all respects. Prior to my assignment there, according to the rumor mill, there had been some sort of incident between an abortion ‘escort’ and a protester, and an earlier security officer had intervened in favor of the pro-life protester.
This speaks to what I saw my role to be: essentially, an impartial keeper of the peace and a protector of property rights, no matter how I felt about the issues at stake. I have subsequently done security at other sites where public controversy was at issue: strikes, demonstrations by environmentalists, even a fund-raising event for homosexual activists. My role was not as an advocate of any of these events, nor as a partisan. I was there to prevent acts of violence against people or property, on the limited area of the scope of my assignment, primarily the parking lot and entrances to the property. Something that even pro-life partisans vigorously oppose. (No: violence against the unborn infants doesn’t count, at least in part because the areas where abortions were actually being performed would have been outside the scope of my jurisdiction).
The speaker on the EWTN program several weeks ago suggested that any person who did security or law enforcement work at an abortion clinic would be guilty of a sin. (specifically because they are ‘cooperating’ or ‘giving implicit consent’ to the moral evil of abortion). Given the normative role of security and/or law enforcement in such places, I cannot see quite how that could be true.
If a member of the abortion staff were to assault a pro-life protester, I would be obliged by my role to take the assailant into custody and detain them for the police. If I were a witness to the assault, I would be obliged to speak to what I had seen without favoritism towards the clinic or it’s employees. If a clinic worker claimed falsely that they had been assaulted by a protester, and I had observed the worker approach the clinic property without any apparent incident–I could not do other than to testify to what I had actually seen.
Of course, my role cut the other way as well: if protesters illegally blocked the entrance to the clinic, I had to protect the property rights of the clinic. (It should be noted that the clinic did not only house abortion facilities but other medical offices, including dental offices, and some other offices. There was even a sandwich shop annexed to the building, although not part of the clinic area proper).
BTW–I made it known in quiet conversation one day with the workers that I was myself an opponent of abortion. This was after some sort of angry comment by one of the abortion escorts about the protesters. Within about two weeks, I was suddenly and without explanation removed from the assignment. I suspect the reason to have been related to my comments to the escort, probably magnified and exaggerated as they worked their way up to the property manager.
Anyhow: what, seriously, would be someone’s role in an assignment of this sort? Thanks in advance for whatever respectful and informative answers I hope to receive.
Either way, you’re no longer at the clinic, so that’s a major plus. Just being there is injurious to the soul…It’s better not to stand at the edge of the cliff if you can avoid it.