So this video reared its head on my Facebook news-feed several times today. Always the curious cat, I checked it out. It's a video filmed by a pedestrian of several security guards (they call themselves marshals) wrestling a Caucasian man to the ground so they can handcuff him. The title of the video says it happened inside Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
Watching the video without any context as to what happened prior, it's easy to take the side of the man being manhandled and direct our spite at the uniformed men. This seems to be what's happening as evidenced by the rather angry comments I see on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Someone provided a backstory to the incident via a comment posted on the YouTube video. The gist of said comment is: The two men (foreigners) were skating at a park somewhere within BGC. A lady marshal calls them out that they can't skate there. The two men insisted that they can because they were told by a policewoman that they are allowed to skate at the park, not on the streets. Argument ensued. Then the thing caught on video happened. To instantly believe this story would of course be unwise as it was posted by an anonymous person. The story does seem to check out but anybody can make up a story and post it online. So take it with grains of salt.
Other reports on the incident say that the guards confiscated the two men's skateboards. And when they tried to take their boards back, the altercation ensued. At one point in the video, one of the men can be heard shouting "Help me. Help me."
Someone provided a backstory to the incident via a comment posted on the YouTube video. The gist of said comment is: The two men (foreigners) were skating at a park somewhere within BGC. A lady marshal calls them out that they can't skate there. The two men insisted that they can because they were told by a policewoman that they are allowed to skate at the park, not on the streets. Argument ensued. Then the thing caught on video happened. To instantly believe this story would of course be unwise as it was posted by an anonymous person. The story does seem to check out but anybody can make up a story and post it online. So take it with grains of salt.
Other reports on the incident say that the guards confiscated the two men's skateboards. And when they tried to take their boards back, the altercation ensued. At one point in the video, one of the men can be heard shouting "Help me. Help me."
Something must have angered the marshals to be acting the way they did. Half a dozen marshals wouldn't run up to you to push you to the ground when one marshal is all it needed to put you on cuffs and bring you to a police station. However, BGC marshals do seem to have a rather ugly reputation. There's even a Facebook page dedicated to the bad apples among them. The page is called WE HATE BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY'S ABUSIVE SECURITY GUARDS!
The video has come to the attention of BGC and they posted a statement on their Facebook page. The statement goes:
"Regarding a video showing an incident involving BGC’s Marshals: We have reviewed the video and it indicates that certain members of our security personnel resorted to inappropriate behavior and we are currently conducting a full investigation of this incident. Meanwhile, we also filed formal charges against the two foreigners who had hit and hurt our lady marshal and another male marshal when their attention was called to certain violations of BGC's community rules, and before their apprehension was captured in the video."
The video has come to the attention of BGC and they posted a statement on their Facebook page. The statement goes:
"Regarding a video showing an incident involving BGC’s Marshals: We have reviewed the video and it indicates that certain members of our security personnel resorted to inappropriate behavior and we are currently conducting a full investigation of this incident. Meanwhile, we also filed formal charges against the two foreigners who had hit and hurt our lady marshal and another male marshal when their attention was called to certain violations of BGC's community rules, and before their apprehension was captured in the video."
