Reaction mixed to Taser-toting security guard's dismissal - New York News | NYC Breaking News

An influential business organization is happy a Taser-toting private security guard is on his way out from his post at an Atlanta shopping center.

Darien Long told FOX 5 on Wednesday that he is being laid off from his position at Metro Mall in downtown Atlanta for financial reasons.

Long gained worldwide notoriety after videos of him Tasing mall occupants that he deemed rowdy spread on the Internet.

Long claims his tough style of enforcement is necessary to control customers who won't comply with his orders or get in his face.

Some people said they are sorry to see Long go.

"They're going really probably get buck wild and do anything up in there, shoplifting and everything," Gregory Moss.

But Dave Wardell of Central Atlanta Progress and the Downtown Improvement District says the problem with Long's way of providing security is that his enforcements gets carried out into the streets.

"Conduct like that is not allowed in the public streets. You are not allowed to use profane language. You are not allowed to use fighting words, to be disorderly. And there is activity like that in the public space that is just not unacceptable," Wardell said.

Richard Miller, the owner of Miller's Rexall Drugs on the same block, says he has known Long a long time and believes his enforcement is necessary.

"He is tough, but we need it down here. The only people complaining about him are the drug dealers inside the malls that want to do business there and he keeps them out," Miller said.

Long defends the job he has done.

"There is less stolen merchandise coming through here because of the things I have done. There may be even a little less drug trafficking because there are more police down here in general because of the things I have done," Long said.

Long's last day is scheduled to be March 31.