NYT's reporter
Blackwater/xe , Wackenhut, Pinkertons, APF...
COMMENTS from trusted commenters:
I saw this coming back when I had first heard of Blackwater and Wackenhut. I started doing some investigative journalism (that is my day job) with the intention of writing a series of articles about these private mercenary security companies and what their ultimate purpose may be in the future here in the US. Needless to say some of the stuff I was able to dig up scared my editor away and the story was pigeonholed and that was the end of it. But one of my main points in the final installment of the series of articles I had written was that in the post 9-11 world we would at some point be told that our regular city police departments were no longer capable enough to deal with the 'new threats that we face,' and that they would soon be replaced by these private security companies and we would of course be told that it would be cheaper, more efficient and keep us much safer to privatize the police forces.
This is obviously right along those lines and it makes sense that they would start out somewhere like Montana, outside of the public eye and slowly work their way in to the larger US metro areas and of course the main concern I had with this was that these private police/security forces would be above all elected official and public oversight since they didnt work for the mayor and city councils and were private corporations which would allow them to really abuse their power much more than our current police forces are able to.
Its a scary development and I really do see it coming to a city near all of us in the very near future.
and another...
"And this would be such an easy sell to a public trained by the right-wing propaganda machine to believe that "government can't do anything right.""
w/apologies to Jello Biafra,
Bonus:
Becky Shay, Jezebel? ...lol
Update:
APF spokesperson holds emotional press conference; lawyer quits project
A sobbing spokeswoman for the secretive company occupying the Hardin jail welcomed an investigation by Montana's attorney general Friday and expressed concerns for her own safety amid rumors about her company.
Becky Shay, in a 45-minute, wide-ranging press conference during which she occasionally broke into tears, said the California-based American Police Force welcomed an information request made Thursday by Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock.
"A lot of work I've done has been to calm down or at least try to counteract comments from people I consider to be fear mongers," Shay said. "What has happened in the interim, however, is those people's friends around the nation have been in contact with me or tried to access me. I realize I'm being pretty vague so that we don't support or incite these people. I don't want my words to be taken out of context to further inflame the tensions that I'm working under."
At that point, Shay began to cry. She asked TV media at the conference to turn their cameras off because, she said, "it's important to me that I do not appear as vulnerable as I feel."
Gosh, the human part of me wants to have empathy for her, but I just can't muster it... as another said, This game truly is a meat grinder!
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