Blackwater, G4S, Sheriff Posses(yes, Wild West Posses), Racist Cops, and Proud Boys - The New Brownshirts
The foot-soldiers of the new super-villain in town
I’m admittedly a huge nerd and like to watch nerdy movies. You ever sit in a movie and wonder who the hell fights on the side of the bad guys? Star Wars explains it neatly by making all the Stormtroopers clones grown in vats and then made the bad guys literal droids in the(awful) prequels. In the Batman universe the bad guys are heinous criminals and depicted as non-human caricatures; the Joker, the Penguin, the Scarecrow, etc. In Lord of the Rings the bad guys are again literal monsters - orcs and goblins. Giant spiders and stupid trolls.
We personify the “bad guys” in fiction often as literal non-human monsters. I think it’s because we have a difficult time accepting that normal humans can commit inhuman atrocities.
I’ve been listening to podcast episodes about Pol Pot. He murdered one third of the population of Cambodia. ONE THIRD OF THE POPULATION. Murdered. Genocided. Ethnically cleansed.
In early December I went on a Tinder date in Thailand with a British traveler who had just arrived from Cambodia. She described going on a tour to visit a Buddhist temple complex with ruins and natural caves. The Khmer Rouge would take prisoners to the cave opening, slit their throats with a banana leaf(how??) and then push them into the cave. Many of their victims would take hours or days before they’d finally die. The authorities later had to remove a literal mountain of human bones from that cave.
The killing caves of Phnom Sampeau are a Khmer Rouge (KR) execution site on Phnom Sampeau, a hill 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Battambang in western Cambodia. KR killed their victims on top of the cave at the rim of a daylight shaft or ceiling hole and threw the corpses into the cave.[1] Men and women were placed in separate caves and clothes in another.[1] Phnom Sampeau (Sampeau Hill) has multiple caves that traditionally served as Buddhist temples. A large glass memorial in the cave next to the skulls and bones and a golden reclining Buddha mark the massacre. A memorial assembled from cyclone fencing and chicken wire contains human bones.[2][3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_caves_of_Phnom_Sampeau
How can humans do such a thing to other humans? And how can we create such divisions amongst ourselves?
Step 1: Dehumanize
How do you get humans to murder others in cold blood? Worse yet, how do you get humans riled up and angry enough so that they actively want to murder other human beings simply for being who they are?
Genocides aren’t wars. It’s not combatants duking it out on the battlefield. It is one group going in and systematically murdering every man, woman, and child of the targeted group.
Systematic dehumanization always precedes genocide. Every single time. I know this well from my time in the military. Since 2001 the US has systematically dehumanized anyone of Middle Eastern descent. The US has done it way before that as well, but I was 14 on Sept 11 so that’s my earliest memory of the dehumanization of another group of humans. “Sand n*ggers” was a term I heard thrown around frequently amongst infantrymen.
We had a crazy squad leader. I don’t use that term lightly. He was legitimately insane and broken from PTSD and war. He would eventually be kicked out because he popped hot for cocaine. He had a real problem of coming into drill high, drunk, or both, but always late. The leadership cut him a lot of slack because they knew he was suffering immensely from PTSD and really needed the money and the benefits of being in the Guard. They cut him way more slack than he deserved and it didn’t do him any favors in the end.
Let’s call him SSG Cocaine. He really liked me for whatever reason and always tried to buddy up to me. One Saturday, after SSG Cocaine showed up late again, disheveled and wearing a wrinkled uniform he pulled me aside and told me about his wild night. He’d met a woman at the bar and taken her home. “She was into really freaky shit man. Like, really freaky and kinky. I was railing her hard you know and she asked me to choke her, and I don’t know why but I grabbed my pistol from the nightstand and put it in her mouth. She fucking loved that man! Then she took the pistol and put it against my head!” His eyes were bugging out crazily as he told me this, pupils still dilated from whatever drugs he’d taken the night before.
“Uh, woah. That’s crazy. Was your gun loaded?” I asked, not knowing what to say.
“Yeah man one in the chamber at all times, what’s the point of having a gun if you don’t have a round in the chamber?” SSG Cocaine said to me with a disturbing leer as he opened his uniform blouse and showed me the IWB holster where his Beretta was tucked under his waistband. He definitely wasn’t supposed to be carrying a weapon at drill but I wasn’t about to rat out the crazy coked up man with the gun.
A different drill we were on the machine gun range one drill and again SSG Cocaine pulled me aside to tell me another of his crazy stories. He reminds me of my step-dad actually. They’re both super insecure and always want to tell me insane stories in an attempt to impress me. Sad, really.
“So there we were in Baghdad right after the invasion. When we got there it was the wild fuckin’ west man. There were no ROEs. Today you gotta write a book report every time you fire a fuckin’ round. It was a free fire zone back then. You could shoot any sand n*gger you wanted.” SSG Cocaine’s eyes took on the dead, soulless eyes of a shark. I’ve seen this a few times in life with people that are severely traumatized. It’s a terrifying look. I’m sure if you’ve seen it you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the look of a man who could slit the throat of another human with a banana leaf and push them into a cave to die a slow, agonizing death.
“We got in a firefight one day and I was on the SAW(M249 light machine gun). I was laying down suppressive fire, right. We couldn’t see where the bad guys were shooting from so I was just shooting into every window I could see. I was prone in the middle of the street just slinging lead. And then this old man shuffles across the street. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know if I shot him, or the insurgents shot him, but a round tore his stomach open and his guts spilled out on the road.” SSG Cocaine stared into me with his dead shark eyes and continued, “I watched that guy die slowly right in front of my eyes Jones. I went through like 800 rounds on my SAW and the whole time this old fucker was just laying in-front of me, his guts spilled on the ground, dying. I saw steam rising from his guts, man.”
“Jeez dude that… that’s rough man. I don’t even know how you deal with that.” I said, searching for words.
“You know how I dealt with it? I put a 5.56 round in his skull to end his suffering, hahaha.” Life came back into his eyes as he slapped my shoulder. “Yeah I got tired of hearing his wheezing as he died. Hahaha just kidding dude nah I didn’t do that.” He winked at me. “Those sand n*ggers don’t even care about life and death you know, they’re all religious fanatics, they believe it’s the will of Allah if they get shot or not so that’s why that old man just walked out into the gunfire. They’re not like you and me. Their lives are shit. They don’t value life the same.”
Dehumanization. SSG Cocaine committed horrible atrocities in war because he didn’t see “the enemy” in Iraq as human beings. He saw them as religious fanatics. They weren’t like you and I. They didn’t value life the same. They just wanted to blow themselves up and get their 72 virgins. They’re truly evil people and they hate us for our freedoms. They want to kill Americans because they hate our freedoms. Given the chance they’d kill all of us, they’d happily blow themselves up just to kill an American.
Americans, are you nodding your heads along as you read this? Are you starting to see the systematic propaganda they pushed on us for two decades in order to dehumanize Middle Eastern humans and justify killing an incredible number of innocent civilians?
This very effective propaganda is why we’ve largely turned a blind eye to the genocide happening in Gaza. Because too many in the west don’t see a Palestinian child as a real human being deserving of simple things like food, or not to be murdered in their sleep by American made bombs and artillery.
In its latest update, the IPC estimated that one in five people in Gaza – 500,000 – faces starvation.
Prices have soared for basics such as a 25 kilogramme sack of wheat flour, which now costs between $235 and $520, representing a 3,000 per cent price spike since February.
The World Food Programme (WFP) and children’s agency, UNICEF, warned that hunger and malnutrition have intensified sharply since all aid was blocked from entering on 2 March. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163131
There is now a very effective campaign of dehumanization happening against “illegal immigrants.” The narrative has shifted from brown people from the Middle East to brown people from Central and South America.
The stated goal of the trump regime is to round up 11 million “illegal immigrants.”
Trump made plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants a central feature of his immigration discussions ahead of securing his second term. He signaled an ambition to carry out what he calls the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” That could mean a years-long effort to remove an estimated 11 million people who are in the country without authorization. The Trump Administration aims to leverage expedited removal processes, which allow for rapid deportations without the usual legal hearings. https://time.com/7171654/donald-trump-immigration-plan-2024/
11 million. Let me ask you, what happens when our jails and detention centers are overflowing with millions of immigrants? They haven’t even met 1% of their goal and already ICE detention centers are well over capacity.
Remember, deportation requires the consent of the country we want to deport a person to. We can’t just dump deportees back to their countries without their approval. The country must be willing to accept them. Many countries aren’t, that’s why the regime has come up with these crazy schemes to send Venezuelans to El Salvador and tried to send Laos, Cambodians, and Vietnamese to Libya(a country currently in the midst of a bloody civil war).
The quota system stopped hundreds of thousands of Jews and other Europeans trying to flee Nazi persecution from coming to America. Public opinion remained firmly against admitting more immigrants even in the face of Nazi atrocities. In a Gallup poll taken two weeks after Kristallnacht, a 1938 wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany and Austria, 72 percent of Americans said the U.S. should not allow "a larger number of Jewish exiles from Germany to come to the U.S." In 1939, the U.S. granted visas to just 27,370 people from Germany and Austria, with more than 300,000 people left on a waiting list. That same year, a German ocean liner, the St. Louis, which was carrying 937 mostly Jewish refugees, asked for permission to land in Florida. The Roosevelt administration refused. About a quarter of the ship's passengers would later die in the Holocaust.
World War II displaced at least 7 million people in Europe. In response, U.S. lawmakers created the nation's first formal refugee and asylum policies. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 resettled some 400,000 European refugees over four years. Meanwhile, the newly formed United Nations recognized the right of refugees to seek asylum in other countries. In 1951, the U.N. defined a refugee as anyone who cannot return to his or her home country "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion." The U.S. signed on to the U.N.'s refugee protocol in 1967, finally creating a comprehensive system for granting asylum with the Refugee Act of 1980.
https://theweek.com/articles/837512/complicated-history-asylum-america--explained
Our immigration and asylum laws were reformed after WW2 because we refused entry to hundreds of thousands of Jews who were trying to flee from Nazi Germany. Hitler’s original plan and intent was to deport the Jews.
Did you ever wonder what the problem was which required “the final solution?” The problem was that no other nation would take the Jews that Hitler had imprisoned, and they didn’t have the resources to feed and keep them alive. That was “the final solution.” A solution to the problem of what to do with all of these Jews and other “undesirables” and political prisoners that other countries wouldn’t take.
47,928 is how many people are under ICE custody as of April 6, 2025. https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/
And there’s already countless reports of inhumane conditions. Deaths at detention facilities. Extreme overcrowding.
Trump official acknowledges 9 detainee deaths in ICE custody, disputes overspending
Democratic lawmakers said ICE is projected to run out of money in two months for detention beds, but Lyons said the agency is living within its means.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/14/ice-detainee-deaths-custody-spending/83619379007/
This regime wants to detain and deport 220x that number of human beings. They’re putting $45 billion toward building new detention facilities. But the math simply doesn’t math.
We have built a prison industrial complex over the last century that houses more prisoners than literally any other country on the planet. Many of those prisons are private for-profit prisons. Our prison system is reportedly still overcrowded and understaffed. The New York prison system faced huge strikes recently and had to lower their standards because they can’t get enough guards to man their facilities.
NY set to lower hiring age of prison guards to 18 amid correction officer shortage. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/new-york-set-lower-hiring-age-prison-guards-121616988
And we “only” incarcerate 1.8 million people. The math simply doesn’t work for trump’s immigration plan. You’re not going to be able to detain 11 million people, period. But do you think that’s going to stop him from arresting all of those people?
This is the danger I see. Trump has done everything that he said he would do. I see no evidence that he does not intend to try to detain 11 million migrants. The fact that so many totally legal, documented, non-criminal immigrants have already gotten caught up in the ICE drag nets shows me that they are deadly serious about meeting that 11 million quota.
My fear is that this regime is going to implement its own final solution. The groundwork is all being laid. That’s why we need to stop them at step one. We must use our voices and not allow immigrants to become dehumanized. I fear this is already too late with many MAGA supporters, so then we must stop them at step two.
Step 2 - Build an Army to Round Up “Undesirables”
This article is from May 10th, 2025: Trump calls for 20,000 new officers to aid deportations
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the sub-agency that primarily deals with illegal immigration, currently has more than 21,000 employees.
Of those, it has 6,100 deportation officers and more than 750 enforcement removal assistants, according to the agency's website.
Trump has long called for local and state law enforcement, as well as the National Guard, to assist with border enforcement.
The order calls on the DHS to supplement its current efforts "by deputising and contracting with state and local law enforcement officers, former federal officers, officers and personnel within other federal agencies".
I want to highlight this chilling language from the May 9th executive order: “No later than 60 days after the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall supplement existing enforcement and removal operations by deputizing and contracting with State and local law enforcement officers, former Federal officers, officers and personnel within other Federal agencies, and other individuals to increase the enforcement and removal operations force of the Department of Homeland Security by no less than 20,000 officers in order to conduct an intensive campaign to remove illegal aliens who have failed to depart voluntarily.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/establishing-project-homecoming/
Again, let me highlight. “deputizing and contracting with State and local law enforcement officers, former Federal officers, officers and personnel within other Federal agencies, and other individuals.”
The language of these executive orders matter because it is the legal justification for these departments to act. If that order had simply ordered the hiring of 20,000 more officers DHS would have to follow traditional hiring practices. Which would require background checks, training, etc. Getting hired into the federal government is a tedious and slow process. When I joined wildland firefighting I had to apply in September the year before for jobs that started in April and May. I didn’t hear back until December and January, and then it was a 3-4 month process for them to process my background check and get me an actual offer letter and start date.
It typically takes 1-2 years for a person to get hired on and pass through their training in order to start as a DHS, ICE, CBP officer. Far too long for this regime. That’s why the language in this order calls for the contracting and deputizing of other individuals.
This language spells out plainly what they intend to do. Hire contractors and use the powers of ICE and sheriffs to deputize, which completely bypasses the federal hiring standards that require pesky things like background checks - which would deny those people who have been charged with say felonies after they stormed the Capitol building on January 6th. See my post here detailing the broad powers to deputize that sheriff’s have: https://quadzillahikes.substack.com/p/paramilitary-brownshirts-being-created
Sheriff’s Have Broad Powers to Deputize ANYONE
The laws vary from state to state but sheriff’s have broad powers to deputize.
In general, a sheriff’s power to summon members of the public to aid in law enforcement as a “posse comitatus” may be authorized under state law or as a residual power under common law.11 Depending on state law, posse members or deputized private citizens may assist the sheriff with tasks ranging from service of process to security at county events, hostage situations and wildfires, and/or pursuing fugitives. Some states limit the role of posse members or deputized private citizens to particular functions (e.g., serving process or executing warrants).12 States have also imposed procedural restrictions, requiring appointments to be made in writing and/or recorded in a register showing the terms and circumstances of such appointment.13 Although some states require training for members of organized citizen posses, others allow sheriffs to call upon citizens on a more ad hoc basis to provide backup during situations involving combative suspects, felony stops, in-progress crimes, or search and rescue.14 In some states, members of a sheriff’s volunteer posse may be authorized to carry firearms.15
https://statesunited.org/resources/factsheet-constitutional-sheriff/
Sheriffs hold a host of powers, from overseeing jails, transporting prisoners and pre-trial detainees, and acting as coroners in addition to all of the normal powers associated with law enforcement officers like investigating, making arrests, serving warrants, etc.
“Despite their broad duties, sheriffs and their deputies aren’t always trained in law enforcement. Elected sheriffs may have backgrounds in business or real estate instead. Patronage can run strong in sheriffs’ departments, with some deputies hired as political favors.” https://theappeal.org/the-power-of-sheriffs-an-explainer/
A staggering 60% of sheriffs run unopposed. There’s a reason that thrillers like Jack Reacher often have a corrupt sheriff as an antagonist. Because the system is ripe for abuse and has been abused throughout the history of the United States. It is an incredible amount of power given to an elected official that has very little oversight or accountability. Of course it’s going to be abused.
It’s hard to find specific data but in many states sheriff deputies are not required by law to have any formal training, like attending the police academy before they’re given a badge, a gun, and are allowed to carry out law enforcement duties. “Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler apologized to members of a state board that enforces law enforcement training standards for allowing two of his appointees to participate in an armed raid without proper certification, saying he didn't know they weren't qualified.” https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2025/02/18/knox-county-sheriff-spangler-apologizes-uncertified-appointees-armed-raids-jerry-glenn-eric-edlin/78620397007/
Sheriff’s Posse’s Aren’t Just Wild West Trope, They Are a Reality in 2025
“In rural Klickitat County, Sheriff Bob Songer — who has drawn national attention for his belief that sheriffs have the constitutional authority to decide which laws they will enforce — has been building a posse of volunteers nearly 10 times larger than the number of deputies, InvestigateWest’s Paul Kiefer reported. The posse is accountable to Songer alone, and he has warned that if the federal or state government tried to confiscate civilian firearms, he would use the posse to fight back. The posse has drawn concerns from residents worried about Songer’s association with far-right movements, as well as the potential liability to the county in the event of a violent encounter between a posse member and a citizen.” https://www.investigatewest.org/news/a-controversial-sheriffs-posse-an-uninvestigated-disappearance-and-a-wealth-of-obstacles-to-public-records-a-year-of-investigative-report-17757349
Songer is a central figure in the “constitutional sheriffs” movement, founded on the theory that county sheriffs have the authority to decide which state or federal laws they can enforce. He cemented his place in that movement — drawing national attention in the process — by publicly refusing to enforce gun control laws and pandemic-era public health rules. If federal or state authorities attempted to confiscate civilian firearms on his turf, Songer has warned that he would call upon the posse to help him fight back — a hypothetical showdown he once compared to the Bundy family standoffs in Nevada and Oregon a decade ago.
“I would call upon the citizens of the county, not just the posse, and I would deputize them,” he told InvestigateWest. “We would resist if they come in and take guns away from good citizens.” https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/2024/10/20/sheriff-in-washington-state-has-growing-volunteer-posse-at-command/75724149007/
Elsewhere, sheriffs have occasionally used posses for explicitly political purposes. In Culpeper County, Virginia, federal prosecutors indicted a constitutional sheriff for allegedly accepting $70,000 in campaign contributions between 2019 and 2023 in exchange for making donors part of his volunteer auxiliary and providing access to firearms. In Arizona, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s so-called “Cold Case Posse” attracted attention in 2011 when its members began investigating the validity of then-President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Arpaio’s successor disbanded that posse in 2017.
Another branch of Maricopa County’s posse — which once boasted as many as 3,000 members — took part in Arpaio’s trademark hunt for undocumented immigrants, including participating in traffic stops, worksite raids and crowd control operations. Those posse activities factored into a costly racial discrimination lawsuit in 2012 that played a key role in transforming Arizona into a battleground state.
The most obvious opportunity for the posse to act as enforcers for Songer’s political beliefs came during two Black Lives Matter protests in Klickitat County in 2020 — one in White Salmon, and another in nearby Lyle. Songer routinely refers to the Black Lives Matter movement as a source of “domestic terrorism,” and he told InvestigateWest that he deployed armed posse members to “keep an eye” on the protests and intervene in the event of rioting.
Indeed, Washington law provides practically no framework for volunteer sheriff’s posses. State statutes allow sheriffs to call upon civilians to help respond to riots, search for fugitives or serve civil court documents, but leave the details to the sheriffs themselves.
“It’s a blank check,” said state Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, chair of Washington’s House Public Safety Committee. https://www.investigatewest.org/investigatewest-reports/in-a-rural-stretch-of-washington-a-constitutional-sheriff-and-his-growing-volunteer-posse-provoke-controversy-17706597
What Contract Companies are Being Used by ICE?
G4S - A UK/US based firm, the largest security contractor in the world. They have an insanely long list of abuses and problems but they keep getting hired by governments. G4S has been sued numerous times in the US as being used illegally by ICE to detain people. This isn’t speculation, they’ve been using G4S contractors to illegally detain people for years, of course they’ll be using them again under trump 2.0.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California arrived at a settlement with ICE in a joint lawsuit with the Asian Law Caucus alleging that immigration enforcement officers “routinely and systematically” directed third-party contractors to arrest immigrants at county jails and prisons. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-12/ice-banned-from-using-contractors-to-arrest-immigrants-at-california-jails-prisons
A woman who has spent 22 years behind bars and is set to be released in March is suing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), saying it illegally uses third-party contractors to arrest immigrants who have just been released from custody, and fears it will do the same to her. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/jail-prison/us-immigration-customs-enforcement-ice-class-action-illegal-third-party-contractors-arrest-immigrants/
Here’s a long list of G4S abuses including:
The company received over 700 complaints from illegal immigrants held in G4S detention centres in the UK in 2010.
G4S's conduct during the London 2012 Olympic Games was described as "totally chaotic" and "an utter farce".
G4S supplied security equipment, services and maintenance for use at Israeli prisons, checkpoints and settlements in the West Bank.
In March 2006, whistle-blowers employed at Wackenhut(G4S subsidiary) released information to the press revealing that the company cheated on an anti-terrorism drill at a US nuclear site.
In October 2013, the BBC reported that there are allegations of prisoners being tortured at Mangaung Prison in South Africa. On May 3, 2022, G4S Correction Services (SA) notified the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and the SA Police Service (SAPS) of a fire at a Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC) and the death of Thabo Bester,[46] a serial rapist and murderer. G4S claimed that the prisoner had set himself on fire in his cell and the matter was reported as a suicide. On 15 March 2023, South African news agency GroundUp revealed evidence that Bester had, in fact, escaped from prison.
In August 2014, G4S was criticised for using immigrant detainees as cheap labour, with some being paid as little as £1 per hour.
Six members of staff were dismissed from G4S-operated Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre for children in Rugby in May 2015 following a series of incidents of gross misconduct. G4S took the action in response to an Ofsted inspection that reported some staff being on drugs while on duty, colluding with detainees and behaving "extremely inappropriately". The behaviour allegedly included causing distress and humiliation to children by subjecting them to degrading treatment and racist comments.
In June 2017, G4S was enlisted to cover chronic staff shortages at CoreCivic's Trousdale Turner prison in Tennessee. Some G4S employees were unable to take their positions due to background screening check failures.
G4S said two screenings of Orlando, Florida, mass killer Omar Mateen —one conducted upon hiring and the other in 2013— had raised no red flags.
Blackwater, AKA Constellis, AKA Eric Prince - Eric Prince’s mercenary companies keep changing names because they keep committing atrocities and need to re-brand for PR purposes. The company names don’t matter. The evil people behind them are what we need to focus on. Oh by the way Eric Prince is the brother of former Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. The corruption and nepotism runs deep.
Again none of these are new tactics. Blackwater was deputized on US soil after hurricane Katrina, carried live weapons, given the authority to kill, and very likely killed US civilians.
About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces "join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on the ground told a different story.
In an hourlong conversation I had with four Blackwater men, they characterized their work in New Orleans as "securing neighborhoods" and "confronting criminals." They all carried automatic assault weapons and had guns strapped to their legs. Their flak jackets were covered with pouches for extra ammunition.
When asked what authority they were operating under, one guy said, "We're on contract with the Department of Homeland Security." Then, pointing to one of his comrades, he said, "He was even deputized by the governor of the state of Louisiana. We can make arrests and use lethal force if we deem it necessary." The man then held up the gold Louisiana law enforcement badge he wore around his neck. Blackwater spokesperson Anne Duke also said the company has a letter from Louisiana officials authorizing its forces to carry loaded weapons.
Blackwater is not alone. As business leaders and government officials talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from 185 to 235. Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal contract to house FEMA workers.
A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security (BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one of Quinn's associates and escort him through the chaotic city. Montgomery told me they came under fire from "black gangbangers" on an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. "At the time, I was on the phone with my business partner," he recalls. "I dropped the phone and returned fire."
Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blackwater-down/
Eric Prince along with other mercenary contractors have pitched a $25 billion plan to create a private Army to enforce trump’s immigration policy.
Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America.
The group has had multiple talks with administration officials, and the ideas laid out in the proposal are likely to be a top subject in the bilateral meetings with El Salvador at the White House next week, according to two people familiar with the Prince proposal and an administration official, granted anonymity to discuss information that has not previously been made public.
Prince and his group’s earlier proposal to the White House was a more expansive mass deportation plan that included an army of private agents promising to arrest and remove 12 million people at a cost of $25 billion. That plan, which has not been publicly embraced by the White House, also raised a host of legal issues, some of which overlap with the newest plan.
Why does Blackwater get so much bad press? Well for one their mercenary contractors murdered 17 civilians and injured 20 in Nisour Square in Iraq in 2007. “Four Blackwater employees were tried[5] and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges.[6] In 2020, all four convicted were pardoned by President Donald Trump.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre
Their crimes were so obvious and so heinous that the US actually prosecuted and convicted them. This only happens when the evidence is overwhelming. The US goes to great lengths to protect its military and its mercenaries from prosecution because it sets bad precedent. After all, we don't want our troops and private mercs to worry too much about the consequences of committing war crimes! So the fact that these Blackwater guns for hire were prosecuted and sentenced tells you how clear cut their crimes were. And then trump pardoned every one of these cowards.
I wonder if these Blackwater murderers who were pardoned by trump might find work under DHS as part of the effort to hire “former Federal officers … and other individuals?” What do you think?
“Former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Sandweg called Trump allies’ pitch to privatize deportation efforts “plainly unlawful” Tuesday, a position in line with decades-old laws to restrict the government’s ability to privatize certain law enforcement efforts.
“The idea that we could have a private cadre of bounty hunters going out on the streets and arresting migrants is frightening and would obviously be plainly unlawful,” Sandweg said on CNN. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/private-mass-deportations-illegal-022717
“The leaked 26-page proposal led by former Blackwater executives Erik Prince and Bill Mathews has been circulating among Trump allies since December and was obtained by Politico. It reportedly details an aggressive strategy that includes a network of “processing camps” on U.S. military installations, a private fleet of 100 aircraft, and a force of civilians given federal law enforcement powers to carry out arrests.” https://www.mediaite.com/news/leaked-25b-military-contractor-pitch-promises-trump-12-million-deportations-by-midterms-report/
Oh this is interesting. I googled Bill Mathews, he was Blackwater’s COO and VP.
RALEIGH - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today GARY JACKSON and WILLIAM WHEELER MATTHEWS, JR. pled guilty before United States District Judge Louise W. Flanagan, to one count each of failing to make and maintain records related to firearms in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(m) and 923(g)(1)(A).
Additionally, Judge Flanagan sentenced JACKSON and MATTHEWS to 3 years probation, 4 months house arrest with stipulations, and fined them $5,000.00.
The corporate entity formerly known as Blackwater has entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the government in which it has agreed to extensive ongoing compliance programs and the payment of approximately 7 million dollars in fines. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/previous-officers-corporate-entity-formerly-known-blackwater-plead-guilty-are-sentenced
Nothing to see here folks, just a bunch of convicted criminals getting more contracts with the US government.
The case stems in part from a raid conducted by federal agents at the company's Moyock headquarters in 2008 that seized 22 weapons, including 17 AK-47s. An indictment alleged that the company used the Camden County Sheriff's Office to pose as the purchaser of dozens of automatic weapons.
The indictment also alleged that Blackwater purchased 227 short barrels and installed them on long rifles without registering them and that company officials presented the king of Jordan with five guns as gifts in hopes of landing a lucrative overseas contract and then falsified federal documents once they realized they were unable to account for the weapons.
Gary Jackson and William Matthews, the former president and executive vice president of the company and both Navy Seals, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count each of failure to keep records on firearms. They were sentenced to four months of house arrest, three years on probation and fined $5,000.
"We would do anything to defend our country. I regret that mistakes were made, but they were made with the best intentions," Matthews said.
"I still believe we have the best justice system in the world," Jackson added.
All other charges against the men, including conspiracy to violate firearms laws and possession of unregistered firearms, were dismissed. Prosecutors also dropped all charges against former general counsel Andrew Howell, former procurement vice president Ana Bundy and former weapons manager Ronald Slezak.
"All the things (Jackson) was charged with doing that were crimes that he did and the company did ... for the government, at the request of the government, with the full knowledge of the government, and it's just taken us this long to get the government to understand that and to resolve this case with that misdemeanor," Jackson's attorney Ken Bell said.
https://www.wral.com/story/government-folds-tent-in-blackwater-weapons-case/12136098/
What a farce. Any normal citizen who committed even ONE of these crimes would be facing years in jail at minimum. These guys illegally purchased automatic weapons and short barrel rifles and they get probation and a $5,000 fine. Yes of course Matthews believes we have the “best justice system in the world.” Because our croney justice system saved his butt from jail. And now these same people are in the process of getting contracts with ICE in order to unleash mercenaries on American soil.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Jonathan Donte Rogers, Jr., 22, of Jacksonville, to 21 months in federal prison for possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle. Rogers had pleaded guilty on June 1, 2023. https://www.atf.gov/news/press-releases/jacksonville-man-sentenced-federal-prison-possessing-short-barreled-rifle
21 months in federal prison for just one illegal short barrel rifle. Blackwater had 227 illegal short barrel rifles and they get a $5k fine and probation.
Palantir - “Alex Karp doesn’t look like a warmonger. The Palantir CEO is often photographed in quirky glasses and wild hair, quoting St Augustine or Nietzsche as if he were auditioning for a TED Talk on techno-humanism.”
Palantir’s flagship product, AIP, is already embedded in US military operations. It helps with target acquisition, battlefield logistics, drone coordination, predictive policing and data fusion on a scale that would make the National Security Agency (NSA) blush.
Karp boasts that it gives “an unfair advantage to the noble warriors of the West.” Strip away the romantic rhetoric, and what he’s offering is algorithmic supremacy—war by machine, guided by code, sold with patriotic branding.
And corporate America is buying. Citi, BP, AIG and even Hertz now use Palantir’s product. The line between military and civilian application is evaporating.
What makes him so dangerous isn’t just the tech—it’s the belief system. Karp talks about “transforming systems” and “rebuilding institutions” like he’s Moses on a mountaintop.
But beneath the messianic tone is something more chilling: a conviction that democratic drag—messy deliberation, public resistance, moral caution—is something to be bypassed. He’s not selling tools; he’s selling inevitability.
Karp doesn’t hide his politics. He’s pro-military, anti-transparency and openly contemptuous of Silicon Valley’s squeamishness. While other CEOs flirt with ethics boards and open letters, Karp says the quiet part loud: Palantir is here to wage war—on inefficiency, on bureaucracy, on enemies foreign and domestic.
https://asiatimes.com/2025/05/the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-isnt-trump-its-alex-karp/#
“Customs and Border Protection has called for tech companies to pitch real-time face recognition technology that can capture everyone in a vehicle—not just those in the front seats.”
“A CBP spokesperson tells WIRED that the agency plans to expand its program for real-time face recognition at the border, potentially aiding Trump administration efforts to track people who self-deport.”
Two articles from Wired magazine that were published last week.
Artificial intelligence is what will bring to fruition the vision of the dystopian “big brother” surveillance state we have seen in sci-fi movies. For most of us watching this vision is a nightmare. But for those in government they see this vision as a blueprint.
Palantir is the center of this dystopian artificial intelligence surveillance state. Palantir stock is up 96% in the last six months, due to the trump administration handing them hundreds of millions of dollars of lucrative contracts already secured and the expectation of billions of new contracts in order to integrate their AI systems in all levels of government from the DOD, to HHS, FAA, IRS, and of course DHS and ICE.
CoreCivic & GEO Group - “WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership met with two of its private detention contractors today. CoreCivic and the GEO Group, Inc. CoreCivic and the GEO Group, Inc continue to be valued partners in the immigration detention space.” https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/readout-us-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-meeting-private-detention-contractors
Did you see the video recently where Newark mayor Ras Baraka was arrested while attempting to enter an ICE facility in order to exercise his right as the mayor of the city and inspect the facility along with members of congress? This is the facility in question, being re-opened by ICE under new contracts to these private prison groups.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday it will reopen Delaney Hall in Newark, a facility owned by the private prison giant GEO Group that shut down in 2023. With capacity for up to 1,000 detainees, Delaney Hall would become the largest ICE detention facility on the East Coast.
The contract marks the beginning of a proposed wave of expansion led by President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who anticipates roughly doubling the nation’s detention capacity to hold at least 100,000 immigrants who might be deported. ICE held 41,169 detainees as of Feb. 9, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data-gathering organization at Syracuse University. https://archive.is/CDFXI
These private prison groups are the worst of the worst of humanity. Right up there with private insurance companies and the Sackler’s whose pharmaceutical company profited off the millions of Americans they got hooked on prescription opiates.
Late Wednesday afternoon, private prison company CoreCivic announced it would be reopening a notorious family detention center in South Texas, under an amended contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The facility, first built in 2014, will house up to 2,400 people, including children. It had been shut down last year to save costs, after years of reports suggesting poor treatment, including a report of one toddler who died due to a lack of medical care.
The reopening is part of a trend. CoreCivic isn’t the only company bringing back facilities. We are at the beginning of what looks like a private prison boom, as the groups profit off President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. They are set to make billions. As the Washington Post reported, the GEO Group and CoreCivic stand to benefit in particular from Trump’s immigration plans—the companies hold at least 16 vacant facilities that can be reopened within months for mass detention and deportation. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/private-prison-mass-deportation-trump-billions-geogroup-corecivic-ice/
An ICE Contractor Is Worth Billions. It’s Still Fighting to Pay Detainees as Little as $1 a Day to Work.
GEO Group, whose stock is valued at $4 billion, says that state minimum wage laws don’t apply to the cleaning services that it’s asked detained migrants to perform at facilities where they’re kept.
https://www.propublica.org/article/geo-group-ice-detainees-wage
The GEO Group Announces Contract for Company-Owned 1,800-Bed North Lake Facility in Michigan. BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 20, 2025-- The GEO Group, Inc. (NYSE: GEO) (“GEO” or the “Company”) announced today that the Company has entered into a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) for the immediate activation of a federal immigration processing center at the GEO-owned, 1,800-bed North Lake Facility (the “Facility”) in Baldwin, Michigan. Expected to generate in excess of $70 million in annualized revenues in the first full year of operations, with margins consistent with GEO’s company-owned Secure Services facilities. https://investors.geogroup.com/news-releases/news-release-details/geo-group-announces-contract-company-owned-1800-bed-north-lake
Quick math says they’re being paid $38,888 per prisoner if they have a $70 million per year contract for a 1,800 bed facility. That’s more than I’ve been paid for most of my working adult life. The year I worked on a hotshot crew and worked 2,100 hours in 5 months I only made $37,000 after taxes, and I almost died three times that year. Yet the government of fiscal responsibility is willing to pay that much for a private prison to hold immigrants, immigrants who have either only committed minor misdemeanors, or no crime at all.
Here’s what our laws actually say about “illegal immigrants.”
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
(b)Improper time or place; civil penalties
Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to enter) the United States at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil penalty of—
(1)at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or attempted entry); or
(2)twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under this subsection.
Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be imposed. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1325
Let me parse that legalese for you. “Shall, for the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.” Fined up to $250, and imprisoned up to 6 months. It is a misdemeanor crime to cross the border illegally. Our president has been convicted on 34 felonies, crimes far more serious than a misdemeanor that holds as a maximum punishment 6 months in jail and $250 fine.
It is not even a crime, but only a civil penalty to overstay a visa in the United States. Many of the immigrants being detained right now never crossed the country illegally, thus they never committed any crime. Their only “crime” is having overstayed a visa, which under US law is not a crime at all. Yet they are being kidnapped off our streets and held as if they’re horrible violent criminals. Worse yet some of those kidnapped have valid visas so there’s literally zero justification for them to have been detained by ICE, yet they have, and have been held sometimes for months at a time without due cause.
Visa overstays and illegal entries are two common issues that immigrants might face, but each carries different legal penalties and subsequent handling in the U.S. immigration system. A visa overstay occurs when someone enters the U.S. legally on a valid visa but remains in the country beyond the authorized stay period noted on their I-94 form. On the back end, illegal entry involves a person entering the United States without proper authorization, which includes crossing the border in unauthorized locations or using other methods.
Visa overstays often involve individuals who were legally allowed entry into the United States but did not exit upon visa expiration. The penalties for overstaying are generally less severe compared to illegal entry; typically, overstayers can face bars to reentry ranging from three to ten years, depending on the duration of their overstay. However, they are not typically subjected to criminal penalties unless other violations are involved. https://www.novo-legal.com/en/blog/visa-overstays-vs-illegal-entry
This is straight from the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Abrejo Garcia. He is innocent. He has been ordered by courts, including the Supreme Court to be brought home. Yet he still rots in an Salvadorian prison to this day.
The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding
order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the
removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal. The United
States represents that the removal to El Salvador was the
result of an “administrative error.”
Nevertheless, I agree with the Court’s order that the
proper remedy is to provide Abrego Garcia with all the process to which he would have been entitled had he not been
unlawfully removed to El Salvador. That means the Government must comply with its obligation to provide Abrego
Garcia with “due process of law,” including notice and an
opportunity to be heard, in any future proceedings. Reno v.
Flores, 507 U. S. 292, 306 (1993). It must also comply with
its obligations under the Convention Against Torture. See
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel and Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10, 1984, S.
Treaty Doc. No. 100–20, 1465 U. N. T. S. 113. Federal law
governing detention and removal of immigrants continues,
of course, to be binding as well. See 8 U. S. C. §1226(a) (requiring a warrant before a noncitizen “may be arrested and
detained pending a decision” on removal); 8 CFR
§287.8(c)(2)(ii) (2024) (requiring same); see also 8 CFR
§241.4(l) (in order to revoke conditional release, the Government must provide adequate notice and “promptly” arrange an “initial informal interview . . . to afford the alien
an opportunity to respond to the reasons for the revocation
stated in the notification”). Moreover, it has been the Government’s own well-established policy to “facilitate [an] alien’s return to the United States if . . . the alien’s presence
is necessary for continued administrative removal proceedings” in cases where a noncitizen has been removed pending
immigration proceedings. See U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Directive 11061.1, Facilitating the Return to the United States of Certain Lawfully Removed Aliens, §2 (Feb. 24, 2012).
In the proceedings on remand, the District Court should
continue to ensure that the Government lives up to its obligations to follow the law.
The blackwater guys committed felonies and faced harsher sentencing than these crimes for violating gun laws. Yet they all get to walk free and take on more lucrative government contracts while innocent immigrants rot in these private prisons.
Even with all of these facilities re-opening, they’re only increasing their capacity from around 50,000 beds to 100,000 beds. If they truly do intend to round up 11 million migrants as their goal states, where will they keep them? What will they do with all of these people?
Step 3: Genocide
Back to my original point - what are they going to do with millions of immigrants? They do not have the infrastructure to hold so many people.
This is the same disturbing question people are asking of the Salvadorian CECOT prisons. What is happening to the people there? What has happened to the 288 immigrants the US sent there? The answer is more dark and disturbing than many Americans are willing to face.
My opinion is that these are death camps(
You can see my analysis of satellite images here. I am not the only one to contend these are death camps. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif has called CECOT a death camp on his Instagram.
Gabriel J. Muller contends that there are mass grave burial sites at CECOT:
Muller’s bio: “Retired U.S. Air Force combat medic, former casino risk and safety director and avid wildlife photographer. I am also highly experienced in mass grave complex/sites of genocide investigations & analysis as a former on the ground investigator.”
Textbook case of a very poorly hidden genocide site.
I am a former mass grave complex and genocide site investigator with real-world experience. My expertise is in analyzing satellite and spy plane imagery for the identification of very specific features and landmarks to locate sites of genocide.
I have worked in multiple undisclosed areas and have experience in not only the identification & reporting, but also the boots-on-the-ground investigations.
I unequivocally stand by the analysis and statements made in this report.
Bottom line: this one specific area is of HIGH probability to be a mass grave site.
***********
UPDATED on 4.27.2025:
The probability was upgraded to
“Likely and of Utmost Gravity”
Please read his full article, the evidence is damning.
This is what we will see in the US if this regime is not stopped. I know I’ll be criticized for being hyperbolic and for fear mongering. I hope you’re right. I hope in the future you can revisit this post and call me a fear monger and an alarmist. I really do hope I’m wrong. But anyone who studies history and has paid attention to the actions of this regime should come to the same conclusion as I have. This regime has done exactly what they said they’re going to do. If left unchecked they will be imprisoning hundreds of thousands and then millions of immigrants.
They do not have the facilities to house so many human beings. Other countries are not going to take in so many human beings. We have seen throughout history what happens when regimes run out of resources to hold their undesirables. This is not a leap. This is simply connecting the dots and learning from history.
I hope I’m wrong. I truly do. But we cannot afford the consequence of me being right so therefore we must all do everything in our power today to stop what is happening. For me this means doing this kind of research and speaking up about it on my platforms. For you this might mean organizing locally, or volunteering with anti-ice groups. Check out this great website:
Every one of us can make a difference and make an impact. But we all must act. We all must speak up. Time is running short and the lives of millions of innocent human beings are at stake.
I know people that have worked with Blackwater/Academi as they are in my backyard. It’s an interesting place to say the least. Word on the street is that they know everything about everyone and to assume they are watching. Proximity to military installations in the Tidewater region provides a deep recruitment pool. BW/Academi pays well above prevailing wage so it’s a popular employer around here. Local LE train there and are well connected with local government and the private sector.
You could put a stop to immigration yesterday, simply by imprisoning illegal employers under RICO, and seizing those assets.
THAT. is fiscal conservatism.