They are goons because they ALWAYS are the ones instigating the interaction with rude and disrespectful behavior

Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.

It is apparent that you have an issue with rude and disrespectful behavior – if for no other reason than you choose to label all ST security as “goons”.

Frankly – it doesn’t sound like you DESERVE their respectful treatment, so here’s hoping you receive what you dish out.

Like I said – those folks are regular folks trying to earn a living. They have partners, friends, families, kids and lives. What exactly do YOU do for a living that makes you so much better than them, by the way?

What is your profession, and who is your employer so that we might draw our own conclusions about your own character? That would be fun.

If you have some feedback for ST (seriously), you should contact them and tell them about your experiences – positive or negative. Maybe they’ll make changes? Call them up or e-mail them referring to ST station security as “goons” and I hope they simply hang up on you.

Slang Dictionary
goon [gun]

1. n.
a stupid person; a fool. : Todd is a silly goon, but he’s a lot of fun at parties.
2. n.
a hooligan; a thug or bodyguard. (Underworld.) : Call off your goons!

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.

ST hires them as a “bodyguard” because somehow ST cannot afford to hire real trained peace officers, or cannot firgure out how to get the WSP to patrol their facilities for free like WSP does for WashDOT and WSF.

With all the camera around the LINK system, one truly wonders what purpose the hired untrained security goons have since they do not assist customers and don’t seem to patrol the stations.

If security left you to take your photos without harassing you – why call them a “goon”?

Ya know – those folks are regular people. They have lives, kids, parents, families, and like the rest of us are out there trying to earn a living.

Here’s hoping they have more respect for you.

I didn’t get hassled when I was in the UK last year taking pictures, but that was because what I had heard about it had a chilling effect on my photography already. I only took one train station photo on the whole trip, because I was terrified of being reported, or having my camera card confiscated. And there were other places where I just didn’t take photos I wanted to take because of the well-publicized anti-photography attitude there.

Seriously, if terrorists want to attack trains/buses/Federal buildings/whatever, photographs aren’t necessary to plan the attack, and, additionally, if they want to take “terrorist photos” they can use a hidden camera, not a bloody obvious tourist point-and-shoot or SLR. This idea that photography is a terrorism risk needs to be quashed.

We’re not required to stop for passengers en route to terminal, and it can be time-prohibitive to do so as we’re given a very strict amount of time to get from base to our starting point. If a driver leaves a few minutes early or otherwise has time padding going for them – this may happen, but it shouldn’t be expected.

You *do* have to get off of a bus headed to base at the last stop before base – taking a passenger into base (knowingly or unknowingly) can result in a Personnel Report (PR) being issued, and is considered a pretty big (bad) deal, particularly at bases like North Base where there’s not a stop nearby for the errant passenger to grab an outgoing bus at.