Many times you see the following question in articles about Occupy:
Don’t the cops realize they are part of the 99%?
In the current political state of Republican affairs where everything is being de-unionized - privatized – profitized in the United States using the “model legislation” of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the cops and firefighters have appeared to be safe.
Well in the future – the cops may not be working “to serve the public” but to “serve the profits” of G4S.
A recent snip from the UK Guardian (my emphasis):
Private companies could take responsibility for investigating crimes, patrolling neighbourhoods and even detaining suspects under a radical privatisation plan being put forward by two of the largest police forces in the country.
West Midlands and Surrey have invited bids from G4S and other major security companies on behalf of all forces across England and Wales to take over the delivery of a wide range of services previously carried out by the police.
The contract is the largest on police privatisation so far, with a potential value of £1.5bn over seven years, rising to a possible £3.5bn depending on how many other forces get involved.
This scale dwarfs the recent £200m contract between Lincolnshire police and G4S, under which half the force's civilian staff are to join the private security
Which was followed up by the following commentary in
The Guardian:
If you haven't read Sir Ian Blair's Guardian article endorsing plans to privatise many of the functions of the police, you ought to. It reflects two iron rules of the relentless drive to outsource and marketise the parts of the state that have so far been left alone: first, that mindboggling policy extremes tend to be recast as matters of simple common sense; and second, that nothing suits those who would dissolve the barrier between state and market like a crisis, which is the essence of what Naomi Klein famously called the Shock Doctrine.
The article includes this caution to all people, in all countries (my emphasis):
This much is obvious. The growth of a huge shadow state, manned by private firms and built on monopoly contracts, has proceeded by increments. First came the utilities; then carefully chosen parts of health, then education, along with a ragbag of stuff usually grouped under "back office" and "support services". Then, slightly longer ago than you might think, the divide between the most elemental parts of the state and the private sector began to corrode.
The Companies Involved
A Little about G4S/Wacknhut
from Wiki
G4S Secure Solutions (USA) is a private security company. It was founded as The Wackenhut Corporation in 1954, in Coral Gables, Florida, by George Wackenhut and three partners (all former FBI agents).
In 2002 the company was acquired for $570 million by Danish corporation Group 4 Falck (itself then merged to form British company G4S in 2004).[1] In 2010, G4S Wackenhut changed its name to G4S Secure Solutions (USA) to reflect the new business model.[2] [3]
And then more background from the June 2011 report named Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies by
the Justice Policy Institute
Wackenhut was acquired by Group 4 Falck (now G4S) in 2002, and a year later repurchased all of its stock shares to become an independent company. In 2003 Wackenhut Corrections Corporation officially changed its name to The GEO Group, Inc. As of 2010, GEO contracts with 13 states, the Federal Bureau of Prison, the U.S. Marshals Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.36 In 2010, 66 percent ($842 million) of GEO’s $1.27 billion in revenue was from U.S. corrections contracts.37 Of the $842 million in revenue, 47 percent came from corrections contracts with 11 states.38
On August 12, 2010 the GEO Group acquired Cornell Companies—a for-profit private prison company with revenues of over $400 million in 200939—in a merger estimated at $730 million.40 The acquisition of Cornell by GEO signifies a change in the landscape of the private prison industry with the majority of private prisons now under the management of either GEO or CCA.
The GEO Group is a world leader in the delivery of private correctional and detention management, community residential re-entry services as well as behavioral and mental health services to federal, state and local government agencies. With operations in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom
Our world headquarters office is located in the United States in Boca Raton, Florida. We also have regional offices in Carlsbad, California; New Braunfels, Texas; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Our international offices are located in Sydney, Australia; Sandton, South Africa; and Reading, England. Our stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GEO.
Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, GEO U.K. Ltd., The GEO Group reentered the U.K. private correctional market, where it once had a dominant business presence. In 2005, GEO U.K. opened its Head Office outside London and became an active player in the second largest private correctional market in the world with the assumption of management services at the 215-bed Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre located in Kidlington, England.
From the G4S webpage:
In 2010, The Wackenhut Corporation officially changed its name to G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc.
Today, with more than 50,000 employees across the United States and Canada, G4S is a leading provider of security solutions.
Historically Wackenhut has been very active with ALEC as shown in this snip form the Prison Payoff Report published in November, 2000 by Western States Center & Western Prison Project.
Prominent among ALEC’s corporate funders are several major stakeholders in prison privatization, including Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Wackenhut Corrections, and Sodexho Marriott Services, a major stockholder in CCA. CCA, the largest private prison corporation in the U.S., made the President’s List for contributions to ALEC’s 1999 States & Nation Policy Summit. (Sodexho Marriott and Wackenhut also sponsored the conference.)
Representatives from the corporate sector co-chair the task forces that develop ALEC’s model legislation. ALEC’s current Criminal Justice Task Force is co-chaired by Brad Wiggins, CCA Director of Business Development, and Brian Nairin of the National Association of Bail Insurance Companies. Up until April 2000, the Task Force was co-chaired by John Rees, a vice president at CCA.
Unfortunately - since the spotlight has been shined on ALEC - they have become much more secretive. They are more cautious and paranoid about their private sector / corporate enterprise members being exposed - the very companies that write legislation that then de-unionizes, profitzes and privatizes public sector services. And like good ALEC members - the corporate sector members are denying or lying about their affiliation with this dangerous organization.
For more detailed and thorough investigations of the links of GEO Group, Wackenhut and CCA to ALEC – I strongly suggest you investigate the writings of Kossack Bob Sloan.
The UK has not been immune to the influence of ALEC.
In 2002 the UK was used as model for support for ALEC thinking In an ALEC Policy Forum newsletter article titled: Making Privatization Work for State Government
Privatization in the United States is changing. Long thought of as strictly a conservative idea, privatization has gone bipartisan as key state and local democratic leaders have embraced it as a means of cutting costs and improving services.
Privatization as we know it began in the late 1960s, mainly practiced by local governments. In the 1980s Ronald Reagan brought the idea to the federal government at the same time Margaret Thatcher was revolutionizing Britain through the same process. Here in the United States we have traditionally privatized services to save money.
In 2006 the following events connecting ALEC and the UK were reported:
ALEC was privileged to be invited to the opening of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom (February 16). In his speech to new Center, Dr. Liam Fox MP (UK) lectured on the special relationship between London and Washington, assessing the challenges that lie ahead for the United States and the United Kingdom, from the NATO operation in Afghanistan to the Iranian nuclear crisis and the growing threat of international terrorism.
ALEC will hold an international relations seminar with Bill Cash Member of Parliament (UK) on April 6. Bill Cash is President of the European Foundation, a London-based think tank dedicated to Euro-realist policy analysis of European Union issues. Attendance by invitation-only.
Then in late 2006 ALEC presented awards to Thatcher and Cash for “their good deeds”, as was reported in the February 2007 Inside ALEC magazine.
ALEC’s 2006 National Chair Sen. Susan Wagle, Kansas State Senate, and ALEC Board Member and Georgia State Rep. Earl Ehrhart presented ALEC’s Pioneer Award to Lady Margaret Thatcher last November in honor of her remarkable political career and defense of the Jeffersonian principles of liberty and free markets.
ALEC also presented a bust of Thomas Jefferson to MP Bill Cash, in recognition of his legislative service to the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government and individual liberty.
But, it didn't stop there. In a 2007 press release the following statement was made:
Washington, DC—The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is pleased to announce the launch of The Atlantic Bridge Project as the latest component of its International Relations Program. The project aims to foster positive relationships between conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic, so that they may further the ideals exemplified by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. ALEC is proud to launch this project in conjunction with the Atlantic Bridge Group, a non-profit organization chaired by the British Conservative Shadow Minister for Defense, Liam Fox MP.
The relationship with Atlantic Bridge opened all kinds of propaganda spreading doors for ALEC. In the December 2007 Inside ALEC
ALEC is working in conjunction with the Atlantic Bridge Group, a nonprofit organization chaired by the British Conservative Shadow Minister for Defense, Liam Fox MP. The organization is supported by Lady Thatcher and ALEC Alumni Congressman John Campbell, who serves on the Atlantic Bridge Advisory Board.
Over the coming year, there will be a series of events aimed at conservative leaders from the field of politics, media, business, and academia – exposing them to innovative conservative thinking from the U.S. and Great Britain and helping them forge new transatlantic relationships.
This Atlantic Bridge connection was blown out of the water as a nonprofit scandal – as reported here in detail by Kossack Bob Sloan.
For the 2008 Annual meeting – also ALEC’s 25th Anniversary, Lady Thatcher sent ALEC this note of congratulations:
Lady Margaret Thatcher also sent ALEC members a letter in which she wrote, “you have achieved an enormous amount already but our task never ends. So steel yourselves for the struggles ahead and draw strength once more from that undaunted spirit of freedom which underpins your great nation.”
In 2009 The Reason foundation highlighted Thatcher in their 2009 Privatization Report
As airport privatization became a hot issue in the United States in 2008, policymakers and reporters seemed largely unaware that this phenomenon has been a major trend globally since 1987, when Margaret Thatcher privatized (via a 100 percent public stock offering) the former British Airports Authority (now BAA, plc).
Sound familiar Milwaukee County????
Additional Brits with connections to ALEC include:
International ALEC Partners
MEP Richard Ashworth – United Kingdom
MEP Martin Callanan – United Kingdom
MEP Niranjan Deva – United Kingdom
Dr. Liam Fox – United Kingdom (former Defence Secretary before the Atlantic Bridge scandal)
MEP Daniel Hannan – United Kingdom
MP Chris Heaton Harris – United Kingdom
MEP Roger Helmer – United Kingdom
MEP Syed Kamall – United Kingdom
MEP Robert Sturdy – United Kingdom
Other bits about these blokes:
MEP Richard Ashworth, Martin Callanan, Syed Kamall, Robert Sturdy. If you Google them you will find that they have had multiple contacts with G4S lobbyists over the years.
And the strangest coincidence, one of those flukes (?) that you may find on the intenet – on the Australian government site shows a Daniel Hannan as the contact for G4S in regards to “Commonwealth contracts” dated in 2011. That is a "hmmmmmmm" - especially knowing from news articles how active ALEC is in Australia.
A snip from an ALEC article states that: MP Chris Heaton Harris has been an elected British member of the European Parliament for the Conservative Party since 1999. Harris has been writing for ALEC publications since 2006 and was a plenary speaker at the States and Nation Policy Summit 2004.
The Cautionary Tale
Below is a statement from Lincoln’s Member of Parliament, Karl McCartney, regarding the news a G4S "private-public" partnership (my emphasis):
“With the Lincolnshire Police Authority, Lincolnshire Police have been leading our Country in a process that has now identified a successful private sector business partner, G4S, to work with them over the next decade to help transform policing in Britain. I believe this model will be the standard for the Country, and Lincoln and Lincolnshire will benefit greatly from this forward position. There may well be fewer police officers in future, but everything Lincolnshire Police are doing is designed to ensure that the front line service they provide does not suffer, and that every penny from taxpayers is spent wisely.”
An example of the ALEC model - get it implemented in one place - then declare it a success for everywhere. The ALEC "one size fits all" "model legislation". Then comes the overall implementaiton of the ALEC experiment and in the end the ALEC experiment becomes a disaster for citizens.
And I feel that I need to throw this in here as a caution for all readers - including cops. An excerpt taken from the April 2007 Inside ALEC article: What Price, Government?
Michigan’s Financial Crisis: A Case Study (my emphasis)
Why is it so easy for state governments to pay wages and benefits that greatly exceed the private sector? Because they can. When private companies face financial trouble, they may go out of business. Government has another option: it can reach deeper into taxpayers’ pockets.
Writing for the Mackinac Center in 1995, former Michigan State Rep. Margaret O’Conner cited a 1994 report from the American Legislative Exchange Council that offered this insight: "Private companies do not have the freedom to artificially raise employee compensation.… A company that raises employee compensation above levels that customers are willing to pay (in the price for the goods they buy) will lose market share and eventually close.… Government, unlike private employers, can artificially inflate public employee compensation, and compel the taxpayers to pay."
And repeat this from earlier in this diary:
Privatization in the United States is changing. Long thought of as strictly a conservative idea, privatization has gone bipartisan as key state and local democratic leaders have embraced it as a means of cutting costs and improving services.
Privatization as we know it began in the late 1960s, mainly practiced by local governments. In the 1980s Ronald Reagan brought the idea to the federal government at the same time Margaret Thatcher was revolutionizing Britain through the same process.
So where does this leave us?
In the current political state of Republican affairs where everything is being de-unionized - privatized – profitized in the United States using the “model legislation” of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the cops and firefighters have appeared to be safe.
Well in the future – the cops may not be working to “protect and serve” the public,
but to “protect and serve” the stockholders
of G4S, CEO Group and CCA.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE...
ALEC members must not be elected or re-elected to local, state or federal government positions.
We must rid our democracy - built on representation of, by and for the people - of this infestastion of legislators who believe in representation of, by and for the corporations.