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Video: JFK Airport Security Guards Caught Sleeping On The Job
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 10, 2013
Modified Jun 10, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 10, 2013
Modified Jun 10, 2013
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Getting fired is dreadful, but it has to happen sooner or later. How many rolls of office restroom toilet paper can you sell on eBay before your luck runs out, anyway? Therefore it's always smart to gather incriminating evidence on your coworkers before that fateful day, so when everything goes sideways you can get some sweet payback. This is the enviable position one Stephen Jackson finds himself in; the former supervisor at a private security company at JFK Airport has gone the NY Post with "exxxclusive" photos and video of security guards sawing wood while on the job.
FJC Security, which employs about 300 security guards at JFK Airport, is trying to shrug off Jackson as a disgruntled former supervisor who's an axe to grind because of his termination. A spokesman for the company says Jackson never shared the photos and video he gathered of security guards asleep on the job until after he was dismissed. “The first we heard about this was after he was disciplined,” the spokesman tells the Post.
But Jackson insists he did report the staffers' somnolence to his superiors, and they "gave him grief." He tells the tabloid, "If you fire someone, you have to do paperwork, hire someone new and place others on overtime until you can find somebody else, so a lot of managers wouldn’t want that placed on their shoulders. 'I’d be told, ‘Jackson, why do you have to make more work for us by exposing these people for sleeping? You should just wake them up and give them warnings.’ ”
In this video, Jackson says he caught security guard Suhas Harite, 68, sleeping in a vehicle 150 yards from the spot where, in August, a stranded Jamaica Bay jet skier infiltrated JFK property and made his way across two runways before finally getting caught (when he asked someone for help). Jackson says he caught Harite sleeping twice, but Harite was not fired, just suspended for a week.
Jackson also scored a photo of another FJC security guard sleeping in a company car; last week the Port Authority banned her, Harite, and another sleepy worker caught on camera from working at any PA facility. But the damage is done, and the bad press could cost jeopardize FJC's multimillion-dollar contracts with the PA at all three area airports, and at World Trade Center. If only airplane engines weren't so soothing FJC would never be in this mess!
Tagged
JFK
security
security theater
shame
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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