In response to growing criticism and suspicion, American Police Force has changed its name, changed its logo and altered several areas of its website in an attempt to “diffuse tension” surrounding the private paramilitary organization that wants to take over law enforcement duties while bossing a $27 million dollar detention facility in Hardin, Montana.
Following threats of legal action on behalf of the government of Serbia against APF for using a near copy of the Serbian Coat of Arms, on Sunday the logo was changed although it still remains a double-headed eagle, which is widely accepted as signifying imperial power, not something many would be comfortable with for an organization that wants to provide law enforcement. In addition, the company has changed its name from American Police Force to American Private Police Force.
The organization has also changed the language on its website and altered the claim that it runs the U.S. Training Center, which is actually controlled by Blackwater. Why APF originally claimed that they already had a training center, whereas now they say it won’t even be ready until 2010, is just another one of the bizarre mysteries surrounding the organization. This attempt to shift the emphasis of the story has also served to distract from the core issue behind the whole saga – that Hardin is close to turning over a $27 million dollar detention camp as well as responsibility for policing the town, to a career criminal and a convicted fraudster who Wyoming authorities still have an arrest warrant out for. This fact alone should torpedo the whole deal and ensure APF never realize their agenda to implement similar schemes in dozens more towns and cities across America.
Ask yourself why this is not being reported in the so-called mainstream media.
Will Grigg’s already got the scoop:
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2009/10/hardin-saga-waiting-for-punchline.html
The move towards private police and detention in the US is a disturbing trend. Private forces are not subject to constitutional protections, and I can only hope that this is not the reason for this shift.
The movie, State of Play (2009) succinctly describes the dangers of the state abrogating responsibility for security, to mercenaries. And it’s a good movie.
#2 “Private forces are not subject to constitutional protections”
They are if they are working as agents of the state.
Why is there no BS meter on this? This all has to do with the $27 million dollar detention camp that Harding build. From what I have read the Detention Facility was not built to standards to be used as a modern jail that they were going to rent it for. So no Harding has $27 million to pay off. My understand this whole thing is a scam and now Harding is trying to cover there butts. Harding has no police force. They pay the County to do their policing.
There is a racial over tone though. From the Sig Forum on this topic @
http://tinyurl.com/yepcqfj
“Actually, the Crow Tribe was not behind the construction of the prison or the current negotiations with the American Police Farce. Hardin is just off the reservation and has long had a non-Indian city political power structure. As a former Hardin resident I can tell you the friction there between the races has always been intense. (The KKK was active there in the 1920s, and to this day there are virtually no houses or apartment advertised for rent in Hardin because landlords do not rent to Indians and they can avoid being sued under fair housing laws if they don’t adverise.)
The Hardin city officials behind this simply did not do their homework and the resulting facility does not meet any of the technical requirements for a secure facility and they had no customers locked in before they built. It’s a $28 million screw-up and they’ve no one to blame but themselves. (It’s got about a dozen cells and a big “common room,” not exactly the kind of place where you would put the Gitmo guys.)
The con artist they’ve been dealing with offered Hardin officials a police force, playing on their hatred of the fact that the county sheriff’s office (which contracts to provide city police services) is run by a Crow sheriff, since Crow and Northern Cheyenne make up 60 percent of the county’s population and that’s who elects the sheriff.
There’s plenty wrong and downright unAmerican about what goes on in Indian Country, but the Crows should not be blamed for this fiasco.”
Ill bet this guy will be the prison cszar in the Obama administration before its over.
@ #2 Li: The real problem with private policing is its done for profit. That opens a whole can of worms. More bodies, more money.
#7 Only if they are paid per arrest. If they are paid a flat per year fee then it would be much cheaper to have the cops sit around and do nothing.
The very idea of a private police force scares the living shit out of me … and the non-living shit as well.
Consider rival police forces competing for business. In an effort to show how much better each is than the other, they begin staging crimes on the turfs of other rival police forces.
Later, as each attempts to compete on price with the other, they begin helping drug-addicted high school drop outs to get their GEDs and the minimal training required so that they can higher their police officers for less than the competition from among this pool.
Soon, we begin having police who are only part time employees so that they do not qualify for health insurance benefits and must have three jobs, none of which pay a living wage. We get a poorly trained force armed with deadly weapons and at war with neighboring equally poorly trained officers.
I can’t wait.
Just imagine the day when you wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone breaking into your home. You reach for your phone and call……your bank to see if you can afford to keep your home after having to pay for the police to come and protect it.
Privatizing the police worked great in Chicago when OCP took over running the city. What could possibly go wrong.
Waiting for the libertarians to explain how private police forces are a great idea… 🙂
For the record, I’m with Misanthropic Scott. I think it would be an unmitigated disaster. In fact, if I recall my history correctly, there used to be private police forces in some parts of the U.S. in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and just this kind of thing happened.
Just put up a Donut Shop close buy, then they will congregate at their holy ground, so the public can be left alone… across from the donut shop we can have a Tazing target Practice Club… that ought to keep em busy most of the day…
What Next?… The next step will be instead of appoint a Czar for a position/duty the President can appoit himslef CZAR..then at leasat we know where we stand!!! Instead of Hiding the police state..let the world know what is really happening…
Failing Economy….More Police…someone is gearing up for something…
“Ask yourself why this is not being reported in the so-called mainstream media.”
Because the ones who own mainstream media also own a stake in blackwater?
“Ask yourself why this is not being reported in the so-called mainstream media.”
The common thread hear is MONEY
Blackwater has changed it’s name to Xe Services due to the bad reputation in regards to Iraq.
Arthur Andersen of Enron fame changed to Accenture.
AIG apparently going to change their name due to their role in the financial disaster.
Marketing makeover is the 21st century cover-up.
“It wasn’t me, because I don’t have the same name as the guy that committed the crime” is the new mantra.
What to do about it? Force companies to keep their names when they have committed wrongs? Or maybe just make sure everyone knows the new name?
#19 – whiterabbit13,
You’re on the right track but have gone slightly astray. The real idea is to stop talking about what corporations do (i.e. nothing) and start talking about what the people who run them do.
I’m told that here in the U.S., we say things like “Enron was negligent” where in the U.K., they say it more like “Enron were negligent.” The latter recognizes that the corporation is really just an agglomeration of people.
What we really need to do is actively publicize not the name of the corporation, but the actual name of the individual. And, if the action is criminal, as was the case of Union Carbide in Bhopal India for just one horrific example, prosecute the individual(s) responsible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
Corporate accountability can best be had by creating human accountability.
that website looks pretty amateuristic to me. Somehow i think this company is quite trivial.
I sure hope so anyway.
Someone should send that guy a ticket to Wyoming
As the crisis deepens criminality is sure to rise and the tax base is sure to shrink. These guys are sure to get business. Private security is going to be a growth sector.
One of the hallmarks of a third-world country is that the police force is unable to maintain order. Thus the rich end up hiring their own mercenary police forces to protect them.
Looks like we’re on our way. 🙁
#23 – Phydeau,
We’ve also got the religiosity stats, the health care stats, the literacy stats, the violent crime stats, and the income disparity stats that would be more representative of a developing nation than a developed one.
I’d say we’ve been well on our way for a while.
Ah the joys of privatization!
Thanks republicans! I love my free market!
Private Military is GREAT!
BUT we have to re do our laws so that this is feasible, we are not set up for freedom.
Governments should not be to provide, it should protect liberty.
Give the communities control, make oversight, create accountability.
Officers would have a better chance of employment, pay compensation, ect.
I bet you would find that the police serve and protect a little more.
You also in a free world, not only have the right to protect yourself but to resist any unlawful or unjust arrest.
You would find different communities would vary in amount of paid protection, just as today.
Private police forces are bad. This is the role of government, not private security firms.
Government police have the role of extracting retribution from the perpetrators.
This prevents vigilantism.
Fortunately, Libertarians know the proper role of government so they are against this as well.