4 ms·

Here's the problem - who watches the watchmen? There is a large, complex, troubled, oft-comprised, well-meaning bureaucracy in place to vet police, police train

Here's the problem - who watches the watchmen? There is a large, complex, troubled, oft-comprised, well-meaning bureaucracy in place to vet police, police training and police actions. Security guards ... not so much. Civic crowd-funding is an interesting concept, but I'm almost certain those that engage in it, over time, will find it deeply flawed.

allochthon 13y ago
I think these kinds of questions should be handled on a case-by-case basis. There's an incident with private security personnel, and this gives rise to an oversight board, etc. I am not at all convinced that the large, complex, troubled, oft-compromised, well-meaning bureaucracy that you mention is directing its resources towards the right things. Just as likely to my mind, it is engaging in a thousand small acts of self-preservation and defense of turf, because of all of the overlapping jurisdictions and poorly delineated lines of authority.
- stickhandle 13y ago
  >>engaging in a thousand small acts of self-preservation and defense of turf, because of all of the overlapping jurisdictions and poorly delineated lines of authority. Agreed - troubled, oft-compromised. I think you may be overestimating the power of an oversight board ... in the end, I guess I seriously question the training and motivation held by those in the security guard profession.
  - dnautics 13y ago
    I'm not going to defend security guards, as we can see in the case of George Zimmermann, things can get unhinged, but, is there any reason why you don't seriously question the training and motivation of those who wear a police badge? Because there's a lot of police abuse out there. As bad as it gets, no private security has ever bombed a neighborhood it was supposed to protect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing Sure, that's an outlier, but then there's also the Jose Guerena case. Or the Cheye Calvo case. These are more well known ones. In "The Rise of the Warrior Cop" Radley Balko lists literally hundreds of cases piling up over the past decade where egregious abuse of force occurred because of lack of police oversight.
dnautics 13y ago
Don't the police watch the security guards? If they commit a crime, they'll go to jail, just like anyone else on this side of the thin blue line.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  ... So your backstop is the exact thing you are casting a vote of no confidence against?

allochthon 13y ago

I think these kinds of questions should be handled on a case-by-case basis. There's an incident with private security personnel, and this gives rise to an oversight board, etc. I am not at all convinced that the large, complex, troubled, oft-compromised, well-meaning bureaucracy that you mention is directing its resources towards the right things. Just as likely to my mind, it is engaging in a thousand small acts of self-preservation and defense of turf, because of all of the overlapping jurisdictions and poorly delineated lines of authority.

stickhandle 13y ago
>>engaging in a thousand small acts of self-preservation and defense of turf, because of all of the overlapping jurisdictions and poorly delineated lines of authority. Agreed - troubled, oft-compromised. I think you may be overestimating the power of an oversight board ... in the end, I guess I seriously question the training and motivation held by those in the security guard profession.
- dnautics 13y ago
  I'm not going to defend security guards, as we can see in the case of George Zimmermann, things can get unhinged, but, is there any reason why you don't seriously question the training and motivation of those who wear a police badge? Because there's a lot of police abuse out there. As bad as it gets, no private security has ever bombed a neighborhood it was supposed to protect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing Sure, that's an outlier, but then there's also the Jose Guerena case. Or the Cheye Calvo case. These are more well known ones. In "The Rise of the Warrior Cop" Radley Balko lists literally hundreds of cases piling up over the past decade where egregious abuse of force occurred because of lack of police oversight.

dnautics 13y ago

Don't the police watch the security guards? If they commit a crime, they'll go to jail, just like anyone else on this side of the thin blue line.

sliverstorm 13y ago
... So your backstop is the exact thing you are casting a vote of no confidence against?