Google buses start using private security guards

Google has hired security guards to look out for the safety of its employees who ride buses from their homes in San Francisco’s Mission District to company headquarters in Mountain View, 35 miles away. Two men “dressed casually in jeans and wearing black ski hats” wearing tell-tale coily-corded earpieces and taking notes were spotted two days in a row standing near workers waiting for the shuttle bus, reports Reuters.

In previous weeks, Bay Area residents “angry over tech-boom gentrification” have broken a “Gbus” window, slashed its tires, and held protests in Oakland and San Francisco, reports SF Gate.

Some of the protests have been about Google’s use of public bus stops to pick up workers. The city of San Francisco said it will begin charging Google $1 per day per stop.

In this video, a small Gbus encounters a group of protestors near Dolores Park.

(Image: Google Bus Protest, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from cjmartin’s photostream)

(Thanks, Matthew!)