Good hospitals, especially larger hospitals, will have serious security. As in armed security. Why? Because danger lurks. When visiting a hospital, you should keep that in the back of your mind and keep your awareness on high.
Medical facilities are sometimes not located in the nicest of neighborhoods. Between the criminals and the crazies in and around the property, lots of opportunities exist for ordinary, unsuspecting people to become the victim of serious crime at hospitals and clinics. Maintain your situation awareness to avoid needing to punch someone’s ticket.
Hospital parking garages are particularly hazardous for good guys as they’re often poorly lit at night and offer lots of blind spots for bad guys to loiter while looking for a potential victim. Not only that, but they know that very few of the hospital staff or visitors will be armed and able to offer meaningful resistance to attack, thanks to the “gun free” zones at Land of Lincoln medical facilities.
A recent story we had featured a photo from Peoria’s OSF hospital emergency room showed just how dangerous ERs can be outside of the normal flora and fauna surrounding these facilities.
What spurred this massive police response (for downstate)? A flurry of gang-related shootings.
Cops and hospital personnel didn’t want gang member friends and scholarly families from bringing their beefs to the hospital, endangering innocent people.
Does that happen? Oh yeah. It doesn’t make the news because it is really bad publicity for the cities and the medical facilities, but it does happen.
Like in Birmingham, AL:
Two people are dead, and three wounded, following a shooting around 2 a.m. Labor Day in a Birmingham, Alabama, club followed by a drive-by attack at a hospital that appeared to again target the club shooting victims.
Live5News reported the first shots were fired “outside of Aria Restaurant and Lounge located in the 900 Block of 5th Avenue North” in Birmingham.
The shooting victims were transported to UAB Hospital and one or more occupants of another vehicle opened fire on the shooting victims near the hospital emergency room.
Keep your head on a swivel when going to or from a hospital. And if you’re in the ER with a patient, keep your eyes open as well for potential threats.
And don’t be alarmed if you see competent, squared-away armed security walking around the facility. If they have a K9, all the better.
Meanwhile, if security looks like the featured photo above, you’re probably on your own if something bad happens. Unarmed young ladies, absent special skill sets, are going to be nothing but good witnesses.
That was my initial thought when I saw the first photo of the four ladies. After watching many episodes of Cops, and seeing how ineffective they are are wrangling thugs, it inspires no confidence seeing them in the role of security.
Unless things have changed at OSF in Peoria the security are not armed.