Where I Stand 1975 — Hank Greenspun: Security guards’ use of force inexcusable

Friday, Dec. 29, 2000 | 10:31 a.m.

Only brutes use brute force.

Perhaps the most sordid spectacle of the recent heavyweight fight at the Las Vegas Convention Center was that of four armed security guards throwing a photographer of this newspaper from the ring following the Muhammad Ali-Ron Lyle fight.

Putting aside for the moment the grievous physical injury which has put our photographer in the hospital, which will not be condoned or forgiven, the inexcusable and sickening use of force cannot be permitted to go unchallenged.

While our man was being brutally assaulted inside the convention hall, another guard was chasing a young boy on the outside, beating him with a flashlight.

Witnesses to the scene inside the ring said the guards looked as if they were out for blood because photographer David Lee Waite had agreed to leave and was bending down to pick up his camera bag when he was charged.

What made the conduct of the guards doubly irresponsible and vicious is the threat made to Ruthe Deskin, who was present at the fight, and who sought out the head of the security guards in the corridor to complain of the treatment of Waite. She wanted to show him the bruises and the $1,300 camera that was broken during the incident.

Ruthe was told by John DeLuca, the chief of security, to "get the hell out or you'll get thrown out."

The resort to physical force has become an all-too-common phenomenon at all levels of society, to say nothing of the world at large. Put a gun or club in the hands of ill-trained and irresponsible persons cloaked with authority and you have a disaster in the making.

Assault and battery are crimes -- and no less so when perpetrated by so-called security officers exercising unreasonable force.

The right of a newspaper to cover events of public interest is inalienable. It was the very first of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

One thing is certain, this newspaper will not sit idly by while its reporters or photographers are interfered with or assaulted without just cause or reason. To do otherwise would be to condone intimidation and subversion of the press, which goes against all the principles of a free society.

No one can convince us that our photographer constituted the slightest threat to anyone in the ring following the fight. He was properly present in the legitimate pursuit of the newspaper's and people's business.

The conscienceless assault upon Waite must be condemned for what it is -- an act of supreme idiocy by overzealous clowns masquerading as security officers.

The Convention Hall Authority should be more selective in its choice of firms to protect those who pay good money to witness events in the belief of certainty of security from bodily harm.