CHAPTER THREE - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

One day I had a caller that said that a woman was standing in our fountain taking her clothes off. It was a hot summer day around noon. Upon arrival I found a homeless woman, about 35 years old standing in the middle of the fountain. She was soaked to the skin and wearing only a bra and jogging pants. When I asked her what she was doing she said it was so hot she was just cooling off. Being homeless she was probably trying to steal the coins out of the fountain. We had an officer who at the time he was working the midnight shift and he was very good at catching people stealing money out of the fountain. Many days I would come into the security office and there would be cups of coins that he had confiscated from people trying to steal money. One night he was lurking in the shadows watching two heavy set black ladies who were stealing coins. They had removed their pants and panties so they could wade around in the fountain. He jumped from his hiding place and scared them so badly that they ran buck naked through the parking lot toward Home Depot.

 This officer was not scared of anything. One weekend I asked him to work for me while I drove to Tampa Florida for an America's Got Talent audition. On Saturday night things got out of hand at one of our restaurants. White patrons in one group got into a fight with black patrons in another. The police were called and several of the trouble makers were hauled off to jail. For much of the time that they were in the restaurant he had to keep the peace. After the mall closed that night he moved over to center court in order to finish up his paperwork. Suddenly he heard someone banging on the glass doors near the south parking lot. When he got to the doors a lady told him that four men were about to fight in the parking lot. There were two Black men about to fight two White men. 

 The white men appeared to be white supremacists because they had Nazi swastika's tattooed on their neck. It appeared that the altercation was the result of the earlier disturbance in the restaurant. Our officer told them that he was calling the police and they needed to leave. The two black men complied and left with no problem. The white men on the other hand began cursing him and calling him a nigger lover. One of the men took a swing at our officer, which was a big mistake, and with one blow he knocked the man out cold in the parking lot, along with three of his teeth. His buddy didn't want any part of our officer after that and commenced to load the unconscious man into his car. About that time a police officer arrived on scene. He had seen our officer punch the man's lights out. As the men were driving away the police officer pushed the mans teeth into a pile with his foot and shouted "Don't forget these".

On Saturday December 15, 2012 I was walking near the Food Court when I heard a commotion. Two women were in a violent argument. They were in each others faces shouting as they walked toward the food court. I quickly walked in their direction hoping to find out why they were arguing with each other. There was a man standing by the kiddie rides who motioned for me to come over to him. In a low voice the man told me that the women weren't the problem as he was pointing toward the massage chairs where a man was sitting with his back to me. All I could see was his head sticking up over the back of the chair. The man told me to look at his tee shirt. I walked over to him and he was wearing a shirt that read " Did Your Gun Killed A Kindergartner"? This was just one day after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. At that time we had a kiosk that made tee shirts to order. You could get pretty much anything printed on a tee shirt that you wanted. He had put on the first tee shirt as soon as it was ready and was sitting there waiting for two more to be made.

 Mall policy is that clothing with profanity or obscenity written on them are not allowed. Controversial messages on the other hand were a horse of a different color. Something like a I hate Jesus, or I hate Mohammad shirts, for example. Or a Confederate flag shirt, or a Black Lives Matter shirt, might cause problems. Although this was before the Black Lives Matter movement was very well known, it would still be a good example of a controversial shirt. Our policy was that you could wear clothing with controversial messages on them as long as nobody complained. Or the clothing did not cause a disturbance, as in this situation. 

 Politely I told him that his shirt was causing a disturbance and he had several options. He could go into the closest restroom and turn the shirt inside out or wear a jacket over it. If these two options were not acceptable to him he would have to leave. He replied that it was his 1st Amendment right to wear it and he would not cover it up, and nor would he leave mall property. I responded that the mall was private property and I would have to ask him to leave. Again, he refused to leave. I then called my supervisor and explained to him what was going on. He told the man everything I had already told him and he still refused to comply. Finally, my supervisor told him if he didn't leave he was going to call the police. The man said that he wouldn't leave until his other shirts were finished. My supervisor then called the police.

 When he realized that we weren't playing around with him, he slowly began walking toward the west side of the mall. He was arguing with us the whole way out. As we exited the door the police were driving by and didn't see us. My supervisor flagged them down while I stayed with the man. The man and I walked clear across the parking lot next to a restaurant when the police finally caught up with us. They asked the man how he got to the mall and he said that a friend dropped him off. This turned out to be a lie because he had driven his car to the mall on a suspended drivers license. The police charged him with several crimes. Lying to the police, driving on a suspended drivers license and criminal trespassing. The man later represented himself in court. My supervisor and myself had to appear in court several times but in the end he was not successful. Private property rights always prevail.