Long live the good hearted folks at Reddit. Apparently, they have donated a sum of $22,000 to a guy named Darien Long; otherwise known as “The Kick Ass Mall Cop” at downtown Atlanta Metro Mall. According to the WSB TV respondents, Darien said, “What you need to do is clean up the neighborhood so other businesses can come in, and downtown Atlanta can prosper.”

Long has been on the job for over 4 years now. Day in; day out the guy carries a firearm, a Go Pro HD camera strapped to the front of his chest and a Taser Stun Gun. He also wears a bulletproof vest for added protection.

I’d say that for a property manager/ mall cop role, he has accessorized way too much. All that is left is a good old can of mace. But then again, the safety situation and crime rate in Downtown Atlanta has been escalating for a long time now. If he is armed for the sake of safety purposes, it is all good.

Anyhow, Reddit users lent a nice perspective on his life after he became viral all over the online community. Last week when Darien’s videos went viral at Reddit, a user named: “RyuKenya” set up a fundraiser campaign in his name. This campaign was launched after “RruKenya” and Darien Long met in real life.

Although, on a general scale, everyone is happy to see Long’s self-driven quest to maintain peace in the community, some people are not pleased. People say that he has been supporting the vigilante culture; something that is not encouraged by the law making authorities in the U.S of A.

As of last Monday afternoon stats, the fundraiser campaign raked in $22,000. This money will help Darien buy better gear in the coming time period. “I’m always concerned with my safety, but not to the point where I won’t act,” said Darien in an interview with Right This Minute.

I have also been getting a lot of hate mail saying that I am supporting a vigilante and that I should have spent my time campaigning for better causes and that he is a rogue mall cop on a power trip. Worse things have been said to me.

One of the videos shows him taking down a woman while the entire incident occurred in front of a few kids. In his defense, Long says that he gave her fair warning but she kept pushing it to the point of testing his limits.

The 2009 Atlanta Journal Constitution reports indicated a “beefed up police” activity which slightly contributed to abating the crime rate. I’m guessing it was Darien and other people like him, who are trying to make the community a better place to live in.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 at 2:09 PM and is filed under Crave o' Mania, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.