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

minnesotareformer.com

191–200 of 606 posts

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

#191

Friend of mine runs a drone photography business (think instagram people on vacation or house photography for real estate). The city requires he hire an off duty cop for $100/hr to “manage the set” and the minimum time per engagement for this rent-a-racketeer service is four hours. The shoots are usually about 30 minutes.

(roughly) where is that at?

Florida of course.

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

#192
If you find these corruption allegations hard to believe, I lived on the South Side of Chicago in the late 90s, and cops there expected to eat for free wherever they went and blew through stop signs and red lights like they weren't even there. (I have never seen this kind of police behavior anywhere else I've lived, which includes downtown Seattle.)

Oh, and I had a detective tell me once (after they'd found the guy who stole my laptop) not to worry because they had ways of making people talk. Shortly afterward I found out that detectives in that precinct had been sticking unloaded shotgun muzzles into suspects' mouths and pulling the trigger. I declined to press charges after I learned that.

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

#193

Friend of mine runs a drone photography business (think instagram people on vacation or house photography for real estate). The city requires he hire an off duty cop for $100/hr to “manage the set” and the minimum time per engagement for this rent-a-racketeer service is four hours. The shoots are usually about 30 minutes.

That sounds so far from the realm of being in anyway necessary, and not just outright racketeering that you/your friend should contact local media, the DOJ or both.

That’s a good way to get your business license paperwork lost.

Edit: not sure why the downvotes here. If you’re a small business owner you are trying to get through your day and your day gets a lot longer if you piss off casually corrupt city officials who can shut your business down by slow walking needed paperwork. This is a group that happily added 200% to your operating costs via ransoming your business license for a thinly disguised bribe. You think they won’t retaliate if you put them on the spot publicly?

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

#194
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefighter arson is a relatively well known phenomenon. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fires-set-by-firefigh... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefighter_arson

Oh my goodness, that FBI behavioural profile on the second link. "We're looking for a suspect who's depressed... alcoholic... and HOMOSEXUAL"

> Oh my goodness, that FBI behavioural profile on the second link. "We're looking for a suspect who's depressed... alcoholic... and HOMOSEXUAL"

I count a total of 14 traits that they looked at[1]. Why is that one, and only that one, significant in your opinion?

[1] Including the trait of being white. And male.

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

#195

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.

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...

Seems inevitable when it replaced all the other retail stores with merchandise you can steal. Where else would I go to steal something in a small town with a Walmart?

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

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's all they do, who is arresting the murders?

Detectives, or tactical teams at the direction of detectives. Street cops are as bad as the parent describes in most areas.

And, for the record, this embodies what most people meant when they said, "Defund the police." Not, "Get rid of the institution of law enforcement." Instead, "Lower funding so that the remainder is forced to be put towards necessary tasks which the police are actually effective at," reducing their ability to engage in the kind of paid apathy or harassment the GGP describes, and freeing up funding for preventative social programs. If you believed it was the former, well, you are not immune to propaganda. And no one in their right mind, even on the ACAB side, wants police to go away entirely. You don't delete a containment board.

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

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of society are you envisioning that can address antisocial behavior without detaining or investigating anyone?

I am not envisioning any society in particular. Instead, I would ask you a question. It's a little contrived, so bear with me. Imagine a situation that you could plausibly find yourself in where you would feel the need to contact the police. It need not be a 911 call, though those are fine too. Imagine how that would go down... the time of day you contact them. Where you would be when it happened. How you would descr…

May I assume you don't live in the US midwest Bible belt?

A friendly officer drove 10 minutes to pull out a slim jim and unlock my car for me. I thanked him. Normal stuff.

A lady's car broke down in an intersection. A police car put their lights on to keep us safe while 3 or 4 random people pushed the car to safety.

I often call dispatch to report accidents, debris on the road, or anything else that would warrant police help.

I have friends who have been tied up in the legal system with drugs and similar crimes around here. When they sober up, they admit that the cops have a hard job and treated them respectfully.

They protect. They serve.. it's honestly very simple. Not all police are lazy/corrupt/ego-driven maniacs. Not around here anyway.

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

#198

Already, police do this exact shakedown on cities. There are numerous incidents (anecdotal) of US police threatening city officials to reduce enforcement during election cycles, demanding increases in police force budget. Broadly, the US needs to eliminate corruption. There are many broken feedback loops right now from the grand (lobbying and campaign finance) to the minuscule (niche price fixing, bribery, police-ran…

The US has extremely low rates of corruption, because everything that would normally be considered corruption is legalized.

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

#199
post #52
post #49

> Santamaria was later required to come up with security plans outlining the number of officers needed per night. The officers insisted on getting paid cash, she said. She feared if she didn’t oblige, she’d lose her license. > Eventually, another officer helped schedule off-duty work: Derek Chauvin. He worked security at her club for 17 years. > ... > She sold the club in 2019. When Santamaria saw Chauvin pinning Geo…

>I didn't know that they worked together. Surprising. It came out fairly shortly after the incident that they were at least known to one another on some level through that security job.

When I learned that I was suspicious that Chauvin was settling some personal score (and that explained why Floyd seemed to believe that Chauvin was going to kill him), but I don't know if any evidence for that came to light. Possibly an under-investigated angle, I'm not sure.

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

#200
post #189
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the US was like the most advanced nation in the world? And businesses are supposed to pay for their own security instead of relying on police? What next? Families of murder victims should cover the cost of the investigation?

In many of the places Wal-Mart has the most problems, both police and private security are sharply limited in what actions they can take against shoplifters. And places like California, Oregon, and Washington won’t prosecute for crimes under about $950. What do you propose Wal-Mart do in these localities?

A lot of people are under the impression that these stores can just eat the cost with insurance, which is, of course, an absurd notion because then the insurance company is losing too much money and will raise the premiums. Then Walmart, etc. can't afford the insurance unless they close their most problematic locations.

People engage in a lot of magical thinking to justify theft since it seems like a harmless act. Thieves are just trying to feed their families! Insurance will cover it! Etc.! It's really unfortunate, they're going to learn the hard way as not only Walmart but other retail stores in their areas flee.

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