Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

minnesotareformer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 606 posts

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#151

Post by cool_dude85 »

lr4444lr wrote: post #73

I'm not here to shill for the police, but in my former city, it was not unusual for certain kinds of businesses which had a history of being the source of rowdy behavior to be required by the community board to take certain measures to prevent that. It didn't mean they had to hire former police, but they had to show preventative measures were taken above and beyond state level licenses requirements if the board, whic…

Let me guess - the honky tonk doesn't have to, but if you're booking rap acts....

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#152

Post by wolverine876 »

Eisenstein wrote: post #44
willcipriano wrote: post #28

You have to scroll far past the accusations of racism and outrage to reach the story here: > Here’s how the off-duty work program works: Some businesses — like large nightclubs — are required by the city to have security, which until 2020, sometimes had to be off-duty Minneapolis police officers. Nightclubs often are required to have security beacuse they are a nuisance to the surrounding area and the taxpayer should…

> Nightclubs often are required to have security beacuse they are a nuisance to the surrounding area How many night clubs are located in non-urban residential areas? The commercial properties near them would be closed because, you know, they operate during the day and night clubs don't. > the taxpayer shouldn't be picking up the tab because you decided to overserve your customers The solution to overserved customers…

I've been to community meeting with neighbors complaining about drunk bar customers urinating, sleeping, barfing on their lawns; making noise late into the night; fighting; etc.

About security specifically, bar fights are a cliche and alchohol makes people violent. Are we going to pretend that isn't an issue?

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#153

Post by MandieD »

avgcorrection wrote: post #127
shadowgovt wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's dangerous to extrapolate too much from the early 1900s because the US not being ground zero for two World Wars, therefore able to serve as an industrial core to help rebuild the destruction, created economic opportunity the likes of which one hopes we never see again. Lacking that destruction creating a huge market for American business, it's hard to predict what happens if America lets its domestic capitalism g…

> created economic opportunity the likes of which one hopes we never see again. What?

As a resident of Germany, I sincerely hope my neighbors paid attention in history class and won’t ever retry what produced that economic opportunity.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#154

Post by wolverine876 »

chasd00 wrote: post #15
shipscode wrote: post #5

Why not just train staff and carry guns?

I'm a 2A fan but if i were a worker and asked by my boss to do this i'd say no thanks. Going toe to toe with an armed criminal isn't in the job description, if it were i wouldn't be interested in the position.

If it was in the job description, you'd be a police officer.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#155

Post by wolverine876 »

oldpersonintx wrote: post #23
shipscode wrote: post #5

Why not just train staff and carry guns?

are you going to risk ten years in prison to defend your employer's inventory in exchange for minimum wage?

Yes, and even your own inventory: Are you really going to kill another human being over a TV?

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#156

Post by kemayo »

This is a pretty shady looking protection racket -- "nice business you've got here, be a shame if something were to happen to it". With the difference from traditional gang/mafia activity just being that they'll get the government to remove your business license, rather than burning the place down.

Similarly, I once got a speeding ticket while driving through Kansas, and was instructed by the ticketing officer on how to send a "donation" to the "Sheriff's Benevolent Society" to make it go away without any points on my license...

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#157

Post by FuriouslyAdrift »

nanidin wrote: post #137
Ajedi32 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, and that's where the crime angle to this comes into play. Are the businesses really the "source of rowdy behavior", or is it actually the people who frequent those particular establishments? And if the latter, shouldn't that be the city's responsibility to deal with those people to make sure they aren't able to continue to repeatedly act in a disruptive manner requiring a police response? Why are they making th…

There is a Walmart in my metro area that is responsible for like 80% of all police calls within their municipality. This is the same Walmart that leeches off society in other ways like paying sub-living wages so that employees need to rely on social safety nets to survive. I'm not sure if they have to hire private security, but this is a prime example of a business that should be securing itself or changing location.

Walmarts are the epicenter of crime in many small towns.

They are experimenting with putting police stations INSIDE the store, now.

https://www.grocerydive.com/news/Atlanta-Walmart-reopen-stor...

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#158

Post by hunter2_ »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #142
nanidin wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a Walmart in my metro area that is responsible for like 80% of all police calls within their municipality. This is the same Walmart that leeches off society in other ways like paying sub-living wages so that employees need to rely on social safety nets to survive. I'm not sure if they have to hire private security, but this is a prime example of a business that should be securing itself or changing location.

To me that actually sounds like a clear example of a business that shouldn't have to hire private security. At least with bars you can claim that the bar is indirectly responsible for instigating the distributive behavior by serving people alcohol. I don't know how you make that argument for a Walmart.

I suppose an argument is that if they stop undercutting the prices of smaller businesses, then the rowdy behavior wouldn't gravitate toward them, it would be more evenly distributed. But letting the police focus 80% of such efforts there (instead of forcing some sort of change that blurs their focus) might not be a bad thing.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#159

Post by tomwhipple »

I lived in Minneapolis in the late 90s/early 2000s. As I look back, I think the MPD is one of the most corrupt of all the places I've lived or worked.

The sheer number of off duty "security" was surprising. As was the fact that cops never waited at stop lights. Instead, they'd roll up, flick on their lights for a second, then just roll through and keep driving.

I've never seen anything like it since.

Re: Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty cops for security

#160

Post by SubiculumCode »

montagg wrote: post #101

Vultures picking what away at parts of a corpse they can. You see so many examples of this, just straight parasitical behavior, in at least American society. I don’t think the U.S. is economically where the Soviet Union was when it fell, but it’s rapidly approaching the civic dysfunction and deep corruption. You have to wonder, is this the fall of an empire or something like the corruption of the late 1800s and early…

I hope the latter. Many people are sick of corruption, but often they react to imaginary conpiratorial instances and ignore the corruption that is in plain sight.
Post reply on HN