Free Republic

Concerned parents calling themselves SafeBears have raised $40,000 to pay for security guards or “safety ambassadors” to patrol the UC Berkeley campus area for a few weeks in early March. UC Berkeley may be one of America’s most prestigious schools, but its location in the California Bay Area has parents and students both wary of safety on campus. A group called SafeBears, that touts itself as comprising “1,300+ Cal parents and community allies working to improve safety for UC Berkeley students,” has worked to solve the problem themselves, hoping their prototypical program of patrols around campus will inspire the college...

Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of eBay, is one of the most generous patrons of activist groups seeking to defund, or in some cases, even abolish police. Foundations connected to Omidyar have lavished financial support on anti-police activists in recent years. In June 2020, in response to protests over the police killing of George Floyd, funds tied to Omidyar’s philanthropic network announced donations of $500,000 to organizations supporting the protest movement. The Movement for Black Lives, an “abolitionist” coalition of activists seeking to eradicate public policing, was one of the recipients of Omidyar money that year. Disclosures show that the...

A group of wealthy celebrities requesting the abolition of something they donÂ’t even need is disingenuous at best, callous at worst. The Black Lives Matter movement seeks to counter the systemic racism they believe is foundational in American culture with a systemic solution: defunding the police. The calls to defund the police have reached the ears of every elected official, from local levels up to the federal executive. Now, the cries from the street are being echoed by celebrities.A group of some of the most notable black artists in America have penned a letter to studios and Hollywood executives demanding...

Do you want to understand what defunding the police really means? Just look at the looting and violence that happened when police were ordered to stand down during recent riots. Liberal Democrat council members voted unanimously on Friday to defund the police and have opposed private citizens carrying guns for protection. But perhaps Minneapolis City Council members actually do understand the safety concerns of their city’s citizens. After all, they have a solution when it comes to protecting themselves: private security guards.Indeed, the council has spent $63,000 over the last three weeks to provide security for three members. That...

Several Minneapolis City Council members who have received death threats following their calls to defund the police after the death of George Floyd have been assigned private security details — reportedly costing the city $4,500 a day in taxpayer dollars. According to information obtained by Fox News, the city has spent $63,000 on private security over the last three weeks. “The names of the people getting security details are not public,” a city spokesperson told Fox News Saturday. The names of three council members who are receiving private security detail have already been made public, two of whom interviewed with...

File this one under karma, baby. The rich and famous are all about protesting and declaring themselves down with the struggle until protesters forget their place and invade residential areas of Beverly Hills. Then the masks drop. It’s the ultimate Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) – the City of Beverly Hills issued an emergency order Saturday night that bans public gatherings of more than 10 people in residential areas between 9 PM and 8 AM. What brought this on? Well, it seems a group calling themselves “Occupy” disrupted the beauty sleep of locals in their posh neighborhood on June...

Seattle’s taking a page from the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. When half of the New Orleans Police Department walked off the job before and after Katrina, private security firms answered the call. Today, Seattle’s swells, who cheered on anti-police protesters from their high-rises and Madrona manses, are doing the same thing. With apologies to “Top Gun,” the Seattle elite’s egos are writing checks the rest of us poor schmucks have to pay.Business owners, afraid that Mayor Jenny Durkan will continue to let the rioters go buck wild while simultaneously standing down the cops, are hiring private security at a...

Nationwide hysteria has given many liberals in positions of power nationwide the green-light to enact a handful of radical policies they’ve long wanted a catalyst for. In Los Angeles, city council president Nury Martinez introduced a motion instructing the City Administrative Officer and Chief Legislative Analyst to find upwards of $150 million in cuts to the LAPD budget. Ironically, Martinez benefits from the LAPD to an extent the citizens unfortunate enough to live under her leadership don’t. As Spectrum News noted: A Los Angeles Police Department unit, often staffed by two officers, was ordered to stand watch outside L.A. City...

The deadly fight between Somali pirates and a Private security guard on board a cargo ship, when pirates were trying to board the ship. Security guards fire dozens more rounds at the vessel which eventually retreats. It has come to prominence again following an attack on an oil tanker. See the firefight between security and Somali pirates here.

US Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy wants to set the record straight about President-elect Donald Trump’s private security team and whether it’s causing conflict with his agents. In an exclusive interview with CNN — his first since Trump’s election — Clancy also offered a wide-ranging look at the unique logistical challenges of providing security for the President-elect’s large family and securing his New York residence. Most of all, however, he wanted to push back against suggestions that there were conflicts between the Secret Service and the private security team that’s protected Trump for years. Politico reported last month that Trump’s...

Rather than degenerate into a lawless land where criminals rule the streets, a Texas town that fired its entire police department has seen a 61% decrease is crime. In 2012, Sharpstown, a community of 66,000 located just southwest of Houston, declined to renew its contract with the constable’s office, essentially dismissing its cops. Instead, the Sharpstown Civic Association hired SEAL Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets. “Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61% in just 20 months," James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL,...

Scott Renfroe's proposal has bipartisan support. Red light cameras and photo radar vans are hot button issues in Colorado. Police say they make intersections and roadways safer, but many motorists insist that the cameras and radar vans are used mainly to generate revenue. Today, Republican Senator Scott Refroe, of Greeley, introduced a bill to ban red light cameras and photo radar vans in Colorado. It’s his second attempt. The first one in 2012 went nowhere. This time, he has the backing of several prominent Democratic lawmakers ... Refroe’s bill will be heard next week in the Senate State, Veterans and...

Manned by a pair of high trained officers, a large private security jeep moves slowly past the high walls lining a residential street in the suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.

A French security contractor shot dead near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya was working against the country's revolution, the rebel leadership has said. Private contracting company Secopex said it had turned down work with Gaddafi. An ex-French paratrooper shot dead by police in the rebel-held Libyan city Benghazi, and four compatriots in custody here, were working to undermine the anti-Kadhafi revolution, rebels said Friday. "On the evening of 11 May, local security forces in Benghazi were instructed to arrest a group of five Frenchmen for illicit activities that jeopardised the security of free Libya," the rebel National...

KABUL - The Afghan government has accused several prominent private security companies, including some that work with the U.S. government, of committing "major offenses," a move that U.S. officials fear could hasten their departure from the country. A list compiled by Afghan officials cites 16 companies, including several American and British firms, for unspecified serious violations and seven others for having links to high-ranking Afghan officials, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. A decision to ban the major violators and those that have relationships with senior Afghan officials would affect firms that provide about 800 guards for...

Can Private Security Guards Act As Cops? That's Exactly What They May Soon Be Doing On The Far South Side . . . private security cars patrol Michigan Avenue between 100th and 116th streets, and a proposed city ordinance would give them many police powers. CBS They're private security guards, already on patrol, but they may soon have the powers of Chicago Police officers. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the private security officers now on patrol on the city's Far South Side are expected to have their powers expanded as part of a citywide ordinance now being...

RED LIGHT CAMERA SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND PLACEMENT FOR INTERSECTION SAFETY WEB SEMINAR Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Time: 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Eastern Credit: 1.5 PDH/.15 IACET CEU Background: Red light running is a serious safety issue at many intersections in the US and other countries. Cameras that automatically record red light violators and provide the means for issuing citations by mail have been shown to reduce the collision toll under some circumstances over the past few years. However, the success of a camera program depends upon many good decisions being made by the responsible jurisdiction and engineers. This course will...

A judge on Thursday dropped nearly half the charges against "private eye to the stars" Anthony Pellicano and a co-defendant at the request of prosecutors, who were preparing to rest their case in the wiretapping and bribery trial. The 28 counts against Pellicano and ex-Los Angeles police sergeant Mark Arneson were dismissed by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer after federal prosecutors said that witnesses required to prove them could not be brought to court. Both men still face 35 counts in the case, which centers on accusations that Pellicano wiretapped telephones and bribed police and telephone company officials to run...

Bhutto 'blocked from hiring US bodyguards' By Philip Sherwell in New York Last Updated: 12:46am GMT 31/12/2007 Benazir Bhutto was so fearful for her life that she tried to hire British and American security experts to protect her, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. But the plans collapsed because President Pervez Musharraf refused to allow the foreign contractors to operate in Pakistan, according to senior aides. "She asked to bring in trained security personnel from abroad," said Mark Siegel, her US representative. "In fact she and her husband repeatedly tried to get visas for such protection, but they were denied by...

BAGHDAD, Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. security firm Blackwater remains in Iraq under a State Department contract while a joint commission investigates a shooting incident in Baghdad on Sunday that left 11 Iraqis dead, the U.S. embassy said on Thursday. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the personnel involved in the incident would not leave Iraq before the investigation yielded results. "(Blackwater) are still here and still under contract from the State Department," she said. "Since they support chief personnel movement and we are not moving, there is no activity from Blackwater at the moment." Nantongo said the joint Iraqi-U.S. commission...