Original post, 12:40pm:
Video emerged today on the Food Fight! blog of an incident alleged to have happened outside the Scamps pet store in the Lloyd Center yesterday. From Food Fight:
“The Radical Cheerleaders for Animal Rights performed today in front of Scamps store inside Lloyd Center Mall to bring attention to scamps history of selling puppies from puppy mills. After “the performance, an activist is aggressively detained by mall security resulting in angry shoppers expressing their disgust with the security guards. “
The video, which we’ve clipped to focus on the alleged incident, shows a security guard in conversation with an activist who strongly resembles Matt Rossell from Portland’s In Defense of Animals—although it should be made clear that Rossell is yet to return a call seeking confirmation on whether the man in the video is him, so it could well be another person. The man is taken to the ground by two Lloyd Center security guards, and then hauled off in restraints.
INCIDENT: Excessive force?
Lloyd Center security manager Mark Hansen is yet to return a call seeking comment.
Update, 5:03pm: According to jail records, Rossell was indeed arrested yesterday for disorderly conduct and trespass in the second degree.
ROSSELL: Focuses on ‘outreach and education’ in his activism…
Update, 7:38 pm. Rossell speaks:
“This was an education and outreach opportunity for the radical cheerleaders,” says Rossell. “They wanted to try out a new cheer. But the mall security have been a little out of control. I did nothing more than just talk to customers, or even just people at the mall, people standing there by the puppy, I was having a conversation with them.”
“Actually the first time that this happened, it was because the person who was bottom-lining the demo didn’t bring signs, so we decided to walk inside the mall, and KGW did an investigative report on Scamps earlier that week, interviewing some families who were devastated by buying sick or genetically defective puppies there. There’s a huge long history that we have with Scamps including whistle blowers, puppies dropping like flies, and their having this reputation of selling puppy mill puppies,” Rossell alleges.
“I was just standing there talking to people in the mall saying did you see the recent KGW story, and the security guard came up to me saying I can’t protest, and I said I’m not protesting, but I left very quickly and complied. Another time I was outside at a protest, and I walk through the mall with my two-year old, because it was cold, and the security guards, apparently, had identified me, because they were following. And the one security guard who tackled me, in particular, seemed to have a problem with me, and so I had my daughter on my shoulders, and I went up to the window, and I said, literally, ‘hey, look at that puppy mill puppy in the window,’ and that one guard in particular just jumped out of nowhere and yelled ‘you need to leave the mall!’. So this one guy has been super-aggressive.”
“This time, I said, do you realize that Scamps sells puppy mill puppies?” Rossell continues. “And then I walked over to where my wife and daughter were, and then that supervisor came up to me and said ‘we’re going to arrest you,’ and he never asked me to leave or gave me an opportunity to leave, he said we excluded you, we told you that if you ever came back here again you’d be arrested, and I said, you never said any such thing at all, he didn’t give me an opportunity to leave, and the next thing I know I’m being tackled.”
“And I get wrestled to the ground, my back is still hurting from it, I’m going to the doctor tomorrow, but the most upsetting thing to me was the fact that my daughter witnessed the whole thing, because she was just traumatized. I fully expected the security to behave the way they had before. If they wanted to exclude me, they had every opportunity to put it in writing. They’re now saying that I was excluded verbally. But I would have very long conversations with the security at the protests in the past, very civil conversations, and they had every opportunity to write out an exclusion if they wanted to, and I certainly would have obeyed it if they had. But I would never have invited my daughter into a situation where I felt I was risking arrest, I certainly don’t feel I deserved to be treated that way, and I’m going to challenge it in court.”
“There are situations where activists choose to get arrested,” he says. “But this wasn’t one of them.”
“The police officer who took me down to the situation was totally sympathetic with me,” Rossell continues. “When I got down to the sheriff’s office, I said I wanted to see the nurse because my back was in pain, and the officer said I didn’t shoplift, and at the end of that conversation, the cop was like, ‘I think I’m kind of on this guy’s side,’,” says Rossell. “He was a really nice guy and I thanked him, and said, you know, it’s security guards like that who need role models like you, because you act so professionally.”
“I’ve spent some of my life as a security guard,” Rossell continues. “And I know what it’s like to be a security guard, and I know that there are types of security like this guy who are in it for the wrong reasons and have a chip on their shoulder, and he definitely has a chip on his shoulder for me, because he made it pretty clear that he didn’t like me, when we were out of sight of the cameras.”
Rossell feels the security guard who tackled him should be fired.
Matt, if I showed up at your dinner party (on private property) and then proceeded to flagrantly break the rules (the really obvious ones, “like don’t grab Susan’s while you’re getting me seconds”), you would punch me in the face.
Explain to me how this is different, and why I should be indignant about it.
(blogtowwn commentifier totally ate the “ass” in my post and moved a quotation mark. either that, or i’m not awake yet). apologies to all…
Leaving behind whether I support puppy mills (I don’t), malls are NOT public property, contrary to what was being shouted in that clip. They are private property, and as such, you are the mall’s guests. They can decide to kick you out on your hinder if you’re not toeing their line.
If only Matt was enough of an “investigative reporter” to check out MCSO’s online inmate data for confirmation of Rossell’s arrest. Excessive force is always what you hippies with authority problems claim as soon as you have to accept a consequence to your action. How is protesting at freakin’ Lloyd Center cutting-edge, important and a spur of social change, anyway? What is security supposed to do, walk up and ask in their most ginger tone if you could please tone it down or please move elsewhere? Create a scene on private property and get pummeled by security. Seems like logical action/reaction to me.
Lynn S., you are quite right about the legality, but I have to say that the guards’ behavior looks a little excessive to me. The guy didn’t appear to be violent or a threat to anyone’s safety, but they wrestled him to the ground and zip-tied his hands? Vote with your dollars, people.
Matt,
I’ll ask again. If I were to gather enough money to get you a one way plane ticket back to England, which would not be hard to do, would you go and not come back?
Matt,
I’ll ask again. If I were to gather enough money to get you a one way plane ticket back to England, which would not be hard to do, would you go and not come back?
It would be so awesome if Matt actually responded to coherent criticism. I remember him trying it a couple times last year. It’s too bad he doesn’t seem to care about improving his work at all.
It didn’t look excessive to me. Then again, I live in San Francisco where people get shot by security guards while waiting for the Bart.
[my last post seems to have been eaten, apologies if this registers as a double post]
Thanks for the update, Matt. Do you have anything to say about this new “data”? It seems that most readers find that people deliberately breaking rules on private property and then being detained isn’t all that outrageous. Do you disagree? Do you have any thoughts in your head that you’d like to share with us, or does Steve just pay you to be a slow and shitty human-RSS-feed?
The mercury video is a short. Actually the guy was just hanging out and it doesn’t even look like he had any reason to be approached in the first place. The cheerleaders instigated the event (never thought I would write that!).
They should give ’em tazers. That’d crack me up.
Is there a way to request being excluded from the mall? I never want to shop there, and an exclusion would clearly send that message.
If someone has a good pic of that security guard, post it. I think I recognized him from an earlier job
Dale, pic on here
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/386180.shtml?discuss
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. While a mall has every “right” to exclude people from its premises, arresting someone without proper warning is excessive in and of itself, let alone using force on someone who would respond to a verbal command.
Not to mention that it’s sickening that we aren’t allowed to engage in political discussions in a mall. It makes it a great “safe haven” for irresponsible and despicable businesses which have no regard for the feelings of animals or the people who have unwittingly purchased a sick animal. This is a place where animal rights and human interests clearly intersect. No one who loves dogs wants to buy a dog from a place where they are treated cruelly and arrive sickened and hurt, to potentially die early.
And in a culture where so much of our political action is now achieved with our pocketbook rather than our votes, protest like this is essential for a healthy democracy and a healthy world. I wonder where people get the idea that corporate protestors are the enemy? When’s the last time a corporate protestor destroyed a forest, injured a pet, robbed a pension fund or ignored food safety causing sickness or death? Corporate protestors are on the side of the people. How is it they’ve been painted so black?
Honestly, I can’t believe their protesting was any more disturbing to shoppers than those Verizon kiosk salesguys.
I’m really happy the security finally got the intimate male on male contact he desires.
fags!
I’m still waiting to hear the end of the drunk chick tased story about excessive force.
And the dude who broke the windows after getting off the bus story.
Oh – that’s right, I forgot. They’re NOT NEWS and NO ONE CARES.
I believe this is called “Troll Editing.”
I love the woman in the video chanting, “The whole world is watching!”
Not to sidetrack things, but I’m with Will here, except on one point: They should give EVERYONE tasers.
Then, instead of hearing about protesters and the mentally handicapped being zapped, we’ll have Old West-style showdowns with gnarled old Lightning Fighters (that’s what I’m callin’ em) drawing on each other at high noon.
The alternate future is so much radder inside my head.
Mr. Rossell, the security guard in the picture is the same one that used to work at Riteaid on SW 6th and Alder. At that time, he was playing mr policeman and enforcing the SAFE (shit) ordinance on poor little street kids, even though he had no authority to do so. See, what affects one of us affects all of us.
not a single paul blart joke?
Wrong thread, Ben. Look up.
There is a reason that Scamps is inside of malls. So they can hide their dirty wares and they think they are safe from protesters. Hurray for the brave cheerleaders who spoke the truth about where Scamps makes their money! Off the torture of innocent animals and the tears of people who find out too late the misery they have supported by buying ANYTHING from that store!
Holy Crap! I can’t believe they would tackle this guy. He wasn’t even one of the people chanting and yelling and protesting! They attacked him just because he’s a well known animal activist. Dumb asses just went for what was easy pickins, without using their admittedly dim little heads first.
I’d just like to say that Malls Suck!!!
Everything in them is dead and dying….I guess even the puppies.
I 100% support any and all protests in Malls to free puppies. It’s freakin American and if you don’t like protests go move to China.
Tired of all you non-freedom loving dead souls. Freedom is more than private property rights.
Shopping Malls are private property where the public is invited – Is Matt not a member of the public?
Certainly if Matt, or anyone else, is doing something dangerous or illegal, he should be asked to leave. But Matt was not asked to leave, he was arrested in an overly aggressive manner.
Further, Matt was performing a public service by informing shoppers that they were being offered diseased and defective merchandise… something the Mall owners should never permit to occur.
I’m not sure a mall would be considered “private” property for 1st Amendment purposes. It is a public thoroughfare, a public walkway serving a public purpose. In addition, a person has the right to say what they want to say. Roselle was not disturbing the peace. He was just standing there speaking or not. The security guard clearly abused his power and violatd Roselle’s constitutional rights in the bargain.
This is really a shocking story if you think about it. Here’s a guy, with his wife and 2 year old, in a PUBLIC mall that is on private property, doing nothing offensive or illegal or dangerous to society, who is physically assaulted by private security guards as if he were a dangerous terrorist of some sort. My god people, what is this country coming to? Have we no self-restraint and respect in treating other human beings (not to mention animals). It’s time for overly-testosteroned people like this guard to be called on the table for this type of dangerous behavior that is what is truly harmful to our democratic society. I hope this gentleman sues the guard and the mall for this illegal assault and his physical pain, suffering, humiliation, and illegal detention.
PROTEST NORTHWEST SECURITY SERVICES!! THEY SUCK!!
Wow, when I saw this I just HAD to comment….that particular “security” contract company in the Lloyd mall is the ever-useless and pathetic Northwest Security Services that is just about the cheapest and crappiest outfit in the area! They ALSO are at the OHSU Primate Center on 185th out at Hillsboro and they hate the IDA because they protest on the sidewalk there! That company is literally infamous for having mental wackos working for them out there. They advocate sexual harrassment and discriminatory treatment against female employees like no other company. The pathetic ‘wanna-be’s” that work for them are bigtime losers that try to act like they are something great or cops or whatever. They need to get a clue, go to school, and GET A REAL JOB!
Matt Rossell needs to SUE THE SHIT OUT OF NW SECURITY SERVICES! He has a GREAT CASE! He was doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to warrant him being physically assaulted and thrown down and falsely arrested. That stupid hero-wanna-be ‘guard’ is a HUGE liability for his company and probably just cost them a lawsuit!
It’s idiots like him that give the very few decent security personel a bad name. Look how many more there are out there just like that guy with huge insecurity problems trying to make up for it by working in a ‘security’ position, and using his position to get back at literally everyone just because NO ONE LIKES HIM! GET RID OF HIM! HE’S DANGEROUS!
Thank you for your thoughtful comments, BillyB. You are right: protesters against “legal” wrongdoing by muscle-flexing corporations ARE on the side of the public, and it is sad that the public, often too timid to assert their own rights, not to mention the rights of voiceless puppies, is blind to that fact.
I also appreciate what “A cat” said, though I do believe you meant to say “ANY ONE” instead of “ANYTHING,” right? Puppies are not things! 🙂
Kudos for your thoughts, cottoncrown, Darfur, CarolineP and GetReal. Darfur, you are right on when you say: “Freedom is more than private property rights.” Freedom to speak our minds is equally sacred.
By the way, I do not consider animals to be “property” in the way that, say, guns are. Someday animals will be legally put in a different class of property, with their right to autonomy, life, and limb — and happiness — protected.
It’s pretty damned clear at this point that people like “A cat(not a cat?)” & “deportmattdavis” are cheerleaders for animal torture/slavery & the gestapo tactics of mall security. What possible purpose do “mall cops” even serve, accept to protect useless property & consumerist comodities?
B/c that’s all a shopping mall is, anyways.
is this the mall in Portland, Oregon?
killed it.