askchapo

They can be class traitors, for sure.

I wouldn't put them into the same category as cops because security is usually just about protecting specific individuals/property and their powers with regards to enforcement are very limited compared to cops.

Do they uphold the current class system? I mean, yeah and they're at the pointier end of it but I'm also upholding the class system by not being on a permanent strike and instead creating value for capitalism and purchasing commodities and shit.

Some dude looking at surveillance cameras all day or who stationed at a festival or patrolling some factory at night or whatever isn't really upholding/enforcing the state, a white supremacist system, and acting as the attack dogs of the government and all of that shit.

They can definitely use their position of power to do that and, in that case, fuck that particular person. But to me it's a bit like asking if all unions are good - what they do and how they do it is more important than the general label that they fall under.

I don't have a special place in my heart for security guards but most of them are getting paid to be the fall-guy for when shit goes down and otherwise just to provide a sense of surveillance and enforcement, like the human version of a fake camera dome or those signs people put up at the front of their houses that say that there's a security system installed there. They are basically just a glorified doorperson who dresses up in a costume that skirts the line of impersonating a police officer, at least most of the time anyway.

Edit: I'm not an American (small mercies I guess?) and I live in a developed country so security guards here are very rarely cops who moonlight, nor do we have security guards who get stationed outside of places like banks that are armed with assault rifles who are very much ready to start gunning people down like you can often find in developing countries. What this means is that this comment is probably more reflective of the role and function that security guards perform in my country than it is a genuine assessment of the entire span of security guards globally.