Jury finds unlawful bias against one-armed security guard

“MIAMI – In a verdict in favor of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a jury has found that a licensed security guard with only one arm was unlawfully discriminated against based on his limb loss when his employer removed him from his post following a customer complaint about his disability, the federal agency announced today.” The agency said it was well-settled under federal anti-discrimination law that employers cannot act on the basis of discriminatory consumer preferences. [EEOC press release]

4 Comments

  • The guy was apparently guarding a “community association,” probably standing in a little booth at the front gate of a gated community in Florida. Seems like a job that can reasonably be done with one arm, and apparently the jury agreed.

  • Having worked as a security guard, I’d say that it would depend on what his assigned duties were. I started as a door greeter at a department store and finished up as an armed guard at a shelter for battered women who faced a severe threat from their abuser. I’d see no problem with an one armed person working several of the positions that I held, not so with some of the others.

  • Dumb crook might see one armed security guy as a push over.
    But in reality, one armed man who is armed with a gun will of necessity be much more likely to shoot early precisely because he cannot afford to get into a hand to hand tussle.

  • Doesn’t the weapon count as his second arm? or does he have to wear two guns for that?