US Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police

[Orwellian_Ghost]

There are more than 2 million “private security” officers and guards on the streets of America and this number is growing by the day in Oakland and other cities.

By Jeremy Scahill

The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons, and certainly with the US military/national security/intelligence apparatus. There are almost 200,000 “private contractors” in Iraq (more than US soldiers) and Obama is continuing to use mercenaries there and in Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine. At present, 70 percent of the US intelligence budget is going to private companies.

This privatization trend is hardly new, but it is accelerating. While events such as the Nisour Square massacre committed in September 2007 by Blackwater operatives in Baghdad show the lethal danger of unleashing mercenary forces on foreign soil, one area with the potential for extreme abuses resulting from this privatization is in domestic law enforcement in the US. Many people may not be aware of this, but since the 1980s, private security guards have outnumbered police officers. “The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States,” according to The Washington Post. Some estimate that private security actually operate inside the US at a 5-to-1 ratio with police.

In New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of the city, private security poured in. Armed operatives from companies like Blackwater, Wackenhut, Intercon and DynCorp spread out in the city. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from 185 to 235. In New Orleans at the time, I interviewed Israeli commandos from a company called Instinctive Shooting International as they operated an armed checkpoint on Charles Street after having been hired by a wealthy businessman. I also interviewed private guards who bragged of shooting “black gangbangers.” The abuses by private security guards in New Orleans and elsewhere has not to this day been thoroughly investigated. Moreover, the legality and constitutionality of the deployment of these modern day Pinkertons needs to be seriously explained to the US public.

Now it seems that some cities think it is a great idea to expand the use of these private forces using tax-payer funds. The Wall Street Journal this week reported, “Facing pressure to crack down on crime amid a record budget deficit, Oakland is joining other U.S. cities that are turning over more law-enforcement duties to private armed guards. The City Council recently voted to hire International Services Inc., a private security agency, to patrol crime-plagued districts. While a few Oakland retail districts previously have pooled cash to pay for unarmed security services, using public funds to pay for private armed guards would mark a first for the city.”

<snip>

http://rebelreports.com/post/98982420/us-cities-increasing-use-of-armed-mercenaries-to

[Historic NY]

1. If you think the cops are bad, wait until these guys take over...

Where do you think wanna-bee's and fired disfunctional cops go when they are rejected? The sad thing is public money is paying them.

[kristopher]

2. Did you watch Jon Stewart's show last night?

He had a new segment called "Shit that isn't going to happen".

Private security guards have always been a part of the landscape and always will be. This thread is paranoia on a level with the wingnuts.

[msongs]

3. ongoing and real privatization of "law enforcement" is hardly paranoia. Coroporate parasites are

getting their nasty tentacles into many city functions around here. contracts specify return on investment and suddenly, voila, more "offenders" are being rounded up because that increases the profits for these private parasites. hardly paranoia at all.

Msongs

[Telly Savalas]

17. Where besides Oakland is the municpal govt. considering replacing police with private security?

The article repeatedly states that it's an increasing trend, but doesn't cite any other cities where this is happening.

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Smacked of psyops to me. Maybe Rob Wriggle wrote that bit.

Because this is in fact real.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. did you read the article?

It is already happening. It is not a projected paranoid fantasy - it is facts on the ground.

And the comment above is right - those who couldn't cut it, rejects from the military and the police, wind up in these private security firms. Of course, not everyone is the loser wannabe but a large, if minority, segment of them are. And it was not the police that were confiscating weapons (never to be seen again) in New Orleans - it was Blackwater.

In the modern context, these are not 'security firms' like Brinks or even the Pinkertons - these are private militaries.

[kristopher]

7. What do you think the Pinkertons are famous for???

There is ALWAYS a difference between the security that the public is willing to pay for and the security that people with an abundance of money think they need. That gap is filled by private security personnel. Like any other failed system, this and other aspects of the free market ideology have been rejected by the people. That was a result of the dramatic tilt in the ideological playing field that resulted in widespread civil systems failures. Those types of failures are an inevitable result of extremism, and always self correct.

I stand by the position that this thread represents exactly the type of "shit" Stewart is trying to highlight in our thinking. If you think such thinking isn't as common here as it is in freeperville, you aren't paying attention.

[blindpig]

10. What are Pinkerton's famous for?

Why, for breaking strikes, protecting scabs and murdering workers. They are the scum of the earth, the muscle of the rich. And of course we have seen how they behave in Iraq. To have these thugs patrolling the steets is not an 'o hum' moment.

[kristopher]

20. And has society substantially changed because of their existence?

Blackwater is the new Pinkerton, and they aren't changing the face of our culture any more than the Pinkertons did.

The problem is much more related to income distribution and the accepted concepts of what constitutes social justice.

[Thothmes]

23. Their biggest impact

was to provide General George McClellan with grossly exaggerated estimates of the strength of the Confederate army facing him.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Not the same thing at all --

“Facing pressure to crack down on crime amid a record budget deficit, Oakland is joining other U.S. cities that are turning over more law-enforcement duties to private armed guards. The City Council recently voted to hire International Services Inc., a private security agency, to patrol crime-plagued districts. While a few Oakland retail districts previously have pooled cash to pay for unarmed security services, using public funds to pay for private armed guards would mark a first for the city.”

Even in its murderous, union busting heyday, the Pinkertons were not employed by municipal governments - they were hired by wealthy corporations, the mine owners and railroad owners.

And there is a higher PERCENTAGE of private security now than ever before. As the disparity in wealth surpasses even the gilded age of the robber barons, it becomes even more necessary for the wealthy to protect their asses - er, assets - and the same drive to de-fund municipal law enforcement while funding contracted security parallels the privatization of the prison industry (there was a time when saying "prison industry" would only get you black stares or 'you talking about work farms?').

I may not be young, but I ain't old either and I remember when 'private security' in this country meant retired cops working as night watchmen, Brinks or Pinkertons providing armored car guards, and companies that patrolled specific (usually industrial) sites. You NEVER saw 'private security' patrolling city streets, schools (except sometimes college campuses), or other public venues. That was the job of the POLICE.

We are seeing the beginning of a cultural shift as dramatic as, and I suspect less beneficent than, the original formation of municipal police forces in the early 1800s.

[robinlynne]

11. Jeremy Schahill is one excellent journalist. Sad to see your contempt for good reporting.

[nichomachus]

14. There are people on liberal blogs whose role is to steer people away from the truth

Some of them are true believers, some are just self-appointed contrarians who will say "black" if you say "white," and some of them are actually paid operatives whose job it is to blunt important discussions on certain topics.

What's interesting is that you'll find the same people showing up time and time again to ridicule anyone who points to ongoing actions of the corporatists.

And, they have their talking points, just like the wingers do.

[robinlynne]

22. you said it well!

[nichomachus]

13. Yeah -- but it's happening as we speak

[Echo In Light]

6. I'm guessing there's little if any intent to back off on the phony "war on drugs" tactics

[kristopher]

8. See Sen. Jim Webb's statement on the front page video section.

He is leading the effort to reform the justice system - an effort that is at the top of my personal list of priorities.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Can't watch videos here -

is there a transcription?

EDIT: Nevermind - went to the link and saw it was not all video (something which never fails to irritate me) and got the gist of it.

Notably, there is a THIRD reason for the prison population being what it is - the privatization of the prisons. The more prisoners there are, the more profit for the corporation. Part and parcel to the problems I have with privatizing law enforcement. Just as prisons are paid by the head, are we going to see private cops paid by the arrest? The higher the arrest rate (a simple numerical indicator) the more the corporation charges - because they are obviously working harder. That couldn't cause any problems, could it.

[Echo In Light]

18. Yes! The the privatization of prisons has MUCH to do w/the phony "war on drugs"

Absolutely. It's not about "cleaning up crime," and "keeping the streets safe," it's about creating a large slave labor pool, and ensuring an ever increasing segment of the surplus populace can contribute to society.

Ugh

[maryf]

21. In NY

Rocky's drug laws have been reduced drastically of late, many prisons will have room to rent, for whom I wonder...

[Vidar]

9. We're wandering back to the days of the Wild West when law was

irrelevant and only money & power mattered.

[MindPilot]

16. The red light cameras & photo radar that some of you think is so cool

was the foot in the door for this.

Monetarily incentivized for-profit extra-judicial law enforcement.

The authoritarians gotta be lovin' it!

[TBF]

19. Here is a site that monitors Blackwater -

http://www.blackwaterwatch.com/