oakland | April 23, 2009 | 5 comments

US Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police

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

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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.

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.
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5 comments // US Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police

  • Inofuilwell
    • 0
      Inofuilwell  

    • Even though the stats are misleading, (there are HUGE differences in most "rent-a-cops" and the Blackwater types) the trend is alarming.

      At the risk of offending the atypical "rent-a-cop", the danger is most likely enumerated in the future actions of those over-zealous Blackwater types AND the exorbitance of their no-bid salaries.

    • 2 years ago
  • pjacobs51
  • jh64487
    • 0
      jh64487  

    • yea, isn't that confusing bishop?

      heres the deal (i studied this). nothing is being nationalized. privatization was ramped up under bush and I can only assume Obama will ramp it down simply to reduce gov spending (seeing as we pay these mercs an assload more than the soldiers). private security companies really do have more personnel than the police forces but at the same time the majority of them are rent'a'cops, not fucking blackwater mercs.

      and finally, these people have no real authority to arrest, they have authority to detain people for very specific reasons and hold them until real police get there to make arrests. they normally enforce this with firearms of course.

      what happened in NO after Katrina is a VERY good example of what happens if you do actually just let mercs loose in the streets, but at the same time those were actual mercs, not rent'a'cops, and there are still few if any actual mercs working on US soil. perhaps simply because the pay isn't worth it.

      Finally, look, these people do not have authority outside their very limited jurisdiction (usually the grounds/trucks/etc they are guarding). if they fuck with you outside of that shoot'em in the head. But the reality is there aren't enough cops to be everywhere, these rent'a'cops play a crucial support role to the police and while I detest the police as individuals I can see the need for them as a whole to maintain order and a relative amount of public security.

      in other words...this story isn't really news, don't be scurred

    • 2 years ago
  • bishopobispo
  • dkincheloe
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