Hardin

[oladub]

An odd story is playing out in Hardin Montana. Some years ago, the Town was talked into building a prison because of the jobs it would bring. The prison was built but the prisoners and jobs never came. This slice of post-industrial America takes place on an Indian reservation although only one third of the Town's residents are Indian.

A couple of weeks ago the 'American Police Force' rolled into Town with three Mercedes SUV squad cars with City of Hardin's Police Department logo on their side door. There is controversy over if the APF is going to just manage the prison or also police the Town. Captain Michael, a.k.a. Miodrag A. Dokovich, is in charge of the APF. He has some felony charges against him. "Details remain sketchy about "American Police Force"; however, in an article in the Helenair newspaper, a source from APF revealed that his boss was retired U.S. Army colonel Richard Culver. ... he is an executive with the security firm International SOS out of Trevose, PA." with ties to Blackwater.
-Hardin, Montana, tip of the iceberg?

The American Police Force site is a creepy thing that looks like a Blackwater [[Xe) wannabe. One of the issues with this story is the concept of privatized prison forces or even privitized local ploice forces. Where is this taking us and is this legal?

American Police Force website - so creepy it looks like a parody but it could be our future.

American Police Force Corporation Takes Over Small Town Police Force and Prisoner-Less Jail -CBS

[ejames01]

I skimmed through that story this morning. It does sound pretty freaky.

An odd story is playing out in Hardin Montana. Some years ago, the Town was talked into building a prison because of the jobs it would bring. The prison was built but the prisoners and jobs never came. This slice of post-industrial America takes place on an Indian reservation although only one third of the Town's residents are Indian.

A couple of weeks ago the 'American Police Force' rolled into Town with three Mercedes SUV squad cars with City of Hardin's Police Department logo on their side door. There is controversy over if the APF is going to just manage the prison or also police the Town. Captain Michael, a.k.a. Miodrag A. Dokovich, is in charge of the APF. He has some felony charges against him. "Details remain sketchy about "American Police Force"; however, in an article in the Helenair newspaper, a source from APF revealed that his boss was retired U.S. Army colonel Richard Culver. ... he is an executive with the security firm International SOS out of Trevose, PA." with ties to Blackwater.
-Hardin, Montana, tip of the iceberg?

The American Police Force site is a creepy thing that looks like a Blackwater [[Xe) wannabe. One of the issues with this story is the concept of privatized prison forces or even privitized local ploice forces. Where is this taking us and is this legal?

American Police Force website - so creepy it looks like a parody but it could be our future.

American Police Force Corporation Takes Over Small Town Police Force and Prisoner-Less Jail -CBS

[Detroitej72]

You mention Blackwater[[Xe) in the post. I read in the past that one of their long-term goals was to contract out and run police forces, starting in small, rural towns and moving on from there.

If that is truly their goal, it could get pretty scary, a private, for profit company controlling towns across America.

[elganned]

oladub, isn't this a Libertarian Holy Grail, to privitize public services? Let "the Invisible Hand" perform its magic to give us maximum service for minimum cost?

Or is that the Objectivists? Sometimes they're so close, I can't tell which is which...

[elganned]

So, who has the jing to spring for a lot of very expensive weapons and military hardware like Cobra gunships and such? Especially if the force was only organized last March and hasn't actually had any paying customers, yet?

Sounds like a paramilitary force to me... aren't there laws on the books prohibiting private armies?

[jiminnm]

Sounds like George Bush is preparing to steal even more of our rights. Oh wait, he's not Prez any longer.

[elganned]

Sounds more like Montana's version of the Michigan Militia to me...

[oladub]

oladub, isn't this a Libertarian Holy Grail, to privitize public services? Let "the Invisible Hand" perform its magic to give us maximum service for minimum cost?

Or is that the Objectivists? Sometimes they're so close, I can't tell which is which...

Libertarians wouldn't be putting people in prisons for deciding for themselves what to put into their own bodies so the prison attraction wouldn't have been an option in Hardin. Immediately,we could reduce the number of our prisons. Hardin's prison could be used for other things, though, like caging Guantanamo inmates. Again, libertarians wouldn't be fighting wars of empire or aggrevating these people into attacking us so there wouldn't be a need for that either. Neither would libertarians support the federalization of local police forces.

Detroitej72 makes a good point about "private, for profit company controlling towns across America." Considering that Obama now has more private contractors in Iraq than soldiers, this could be a problem if the federalization of local police begun under Bush is also expanded under Obama. I was puzzled by the following Obama remark although I don't know if the American Police Force and the situation is a prototype related to it.

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." -B. Obama 7/2/08

[elganned]

Um, oladub, there is nothing in any of the articles that says anything about federalizing local police forces. This is a private operation, moving into a town that had no police force of their own; they're covered by the county sherriff.

I don't know where this "federalization" idea of yours came from, but it's not suggested or supported by any of the information we currently have in hand.

So isn't the privatizing of public services a Libertarian tenet, or am I mistaken?

[rb336]

Considering that Obama now has more private contractors in Iraq than soldiers,

actually, from the get go, there were more private contractors in Iraq

[ccbatson]

Missing the 800 pound gorilla...this is what happens to our taxdollars in the form of earmarks...wasteful...like the Senator Dodd airport.

[oladub]

Um, oladub, there is nothing in any of the articles that says anything about federalizing local police forces. This is a private operation, moving into a town that had no police force of their own; they're covered by the county sherriff.

I don't know where this "federalization" idea of yours came from, but it's not suggested or supported by any of the information we currently have in hand.

So isn't the privatizing of public services a Libertarian tenet, or am I mistaken?

You are correct that nothing in the article specifically said the Hardin police force was federalized. Nor did I say it was.

The OP, however, specifically mentions ties the APF has with a retired Army Colonel with ties to federal contracts and Blackwater. Captain Michael has been to bankruptcy court and doesn't seem to have more than $50,000 although the ATF is sporting Mercedes police cars and taking on a big contract to run a prison as well as train local police forces in sniper fire and administering a medical test. Maybe you can't see any possible connection but it makes me wonder. I haven't figured out where the money came from to allow the ATF to pull this off. There is a sugar daddy somewhere. I don't know that it's the federal government but notice interesting links and patterns. The prison wasn't built for locals. So the money has to come from State or Federal sources. If Hardin's police work is taken over by ATF, where will that money come from? I don't know the answer. It might be the same source as Balckwater's money.

You have a sort of cardboard cutout understanding of libertarianism. It is the opposite of authoritarianism. You seem uncomfortable with the libertarian end of the spectrum. Constitutional libertarians are much more concerned with keeping the federal government small but I've never heard them complain about public municiple trash pick-up or police. However, if you are thinking about anarcho-libertarians, you have a point. There are degrees.

This isn't a Montana version of the Michigan militia either. Captain Michael lives in California, people in town said a lot of these guys had foreign [[Serbian?) accents, the Colonel's address is PA, and the APF's phony web address is Washington, D.C.. The ATF doesn't seem to have any links to Montana.

Hardin Police Department sign on APF car

[elganned]

I'm sure that all of those references in your post to "ATF" were intended to be "APF". The Dept. of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms isn't involved in any way--that we know of.

I don't have a problem with Libertarianism. I'm just asking questions based on what I've heard from some Libertarians I know and what I've read here and elsewhere.

So privatizing police services is not a plank in the Libertarian platform? Glad to hear it.

As for who's the "sugar daddy", I vote for Rupert Murdoch.

[Lorax]

Missing the 800 pound gorilla...this is what happens to our taxdollars in the form of earmarks...wasteful...like the Senator Dodd airport.

Here's the Rethuglican's 800 lb. gorilla. Gee, don't we have a Reagan Airport? That was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

[oladub]

The American Police Force has hired a PR person. She seems like a nice lady and is seen standing next to Captain Michael in this youtube video. However, she doesn't want to discuss where the APF gets its money. This just keeps getting more bizzare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OjWtnFhIRI

[jiminnm]

oladub, that person worked for a local newspaper, quit on a Friday, and was APF's PR flack on Saturday.

[ccbatson]

Police is a branch of defense...domestic defense and therefore a cardinal constitutionally prescribed and valid role of government. Now, what the police enforce [[ie laws), now that is another matter in recent times.

[elganned]

But what if it's the government that contracts out the police function to a private firm? Doesn't that still fit the letter of the constitution? There's nothing in the document that says they have to employ law enforcement directly, is there?

[ccbatson]

Good question...here is the answer, government, AND ONLY GOVERNMENT, is granted [[by the people), the right to use force in fulfilling its' duties for defense [[foreign and domestic) and arbitrating just contractual relations. This can't be delegated and be consistent with this core principle.

[elganned]

Hair-splitting.

Hiring a privat security firm to fulfill its defense obligations is functionally identical to hiring individuals for that same purpose. The entity writing the checks is the same. If service is unacceptable or insufficient, the private firm can be fired just as the individuals can be fired. As you have implied with your "socialism" arguments, control of a resource is tatamount to ownership.

Or are you of the opinion that the mayor of a town should personally oversee the individual efforts of every police officer? If not, then delegation is the norm rather than the exception.

Besides, I thought privatization of service was the most efficient method of delivery, according to Objectivist Catechism.

[Lorax]

Private police forces, such as Blackwater [[Xe) are popping up, recruited from state militias, former military, and survivalist cults which have seen great expansion through the Bush years due to a complicity by the administration/nationalist fervor, and since Obama became president due to fear and racism.

The idea from the wealthy, well-funded Reich is to make it an issue of "socialism", pitting police forces paid for through tax collection versus volunteer militias formed through well-funded fascist corporate donations.

This is a very scary subject, and those in legitimate law enforcement should take notice and be wary of recruitment from these cult organizations who are really domestic anarchists as bad as Timothy McVeigh or the Christofascists from Blackwater.

[ccbatson]

I have always responded to the question of privatizing military or police services in the negative...it should not be done IMO.

[elganned]

I can't say I think it's a good idea, either, but there's nothing in the Constitution that prevents or prohibits it. As long as the obligation is met, it isn't spelled out specifically how government should meet it.

[Lorax]

Keeping control of police services has historically been the responsibility of municipalities.

At least the people [[taxpayers) should continue to have oversight over this very important part of our society. Communities routinely fund, defund, initiate new programs, end old ones through their control over the finances. This is much more in keeping with the spirit of the constitution.

[ccbatson]

Authorizing the use of force by nongovernmental entities, when that is the prime tool and authority of a government is a usurpation of the trust that free individuals/citizens have in their government. If this boundary is breached, then the faith of the constitution is likewise breached.