I’m puzzled by why the story about the shadowy mercenary group called the American Private Police Force, which signed a contract to take over not only the jail but local law enforcement in the town of Hardin, MT, isn’t getting more play.
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I’m puzzled by why the story about the shadowy mercenary group called the American Private Police Force, which signed a contract to take over not only the jail but local law enforcement in the town of Hardin, MT, isn’t getting more play.
This story was broken by the dogged investigative journalism of Alex Friedmann, the Associate Editor of Prison Legal News, and Vice President of its affiliated Private Corrections Institute. PLN is the fearless, independent, nonprofit news source on prisons that began as a prisoner-run newsletter inside a Washington State penitentiary. The AP story based on their work can be found here. Could it be that the “major media” are afraid of admitting they were scooped by a couple of ex-cons with great “shoe-leather” skills and impeccable integrity who are highly skeptical of the privatization of law enforcement and other traditional governmental functions?
IMO, it’s not getting more play because it’s just case of a bunch of desperate and rather dim local yokels being conned by a not-so-slick operator. That, and the fact that Hardin, Montana is a small town in the middle of nowhere. All that said, it’s a hilarious story of a local government hopelessly out of it’s depth.
Maybe because many of the luminaries of The Village live in nicely gated communities or condos with their own private police forces, and they feel just fine about it.
Another consideration: apparently the founder of APPF has his own <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/american_police_force_leaders_long_criminal_record.php"lengthy criminal record, mostly involving fraud.
You’d think that a local government, even a small rural one out in the sticks, would do a basic background check on the guy they planned on turning over their police forces to.