Privatized Police Force Purchases Town of Hardin, Montana

[blue_tetris]

Not to sound like scythe, but.... this is some creepy, conspiracy-level bullshit. Let's take a look at the paramilitary organization "American Police Force" as they make a play for power, by helping drag a dying Montana down out of the economic swamp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3tiCrihW84

APF has no valid return address. It chases back to a location in DC where no one has ever heard of the agency.

APF is held by a parent company it refuses to identify.

APF indicates that it has been around for years and has been training for a long period of time. A spokesperson for the company affirms that it has not, and has only existed for several months.



Sounds to me like this American Police Force is a generally bad company. No bookkeeping. Poor references. It's the kind of company you wouldn't hire to roof your house, because you're afraid they're run off with your credit card number. But the scale is a little bit deeper than that. It's a private police force. It sells AK47s in Afghanistan, according to the website. It is well-militarized. And, because the people of the dying town of Hardin, Montana need anything to fuel their economy, they sold their town and all its living space to the American Police Force.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRbxKH_rCeY

The APF now makes use of a jail that was built, but not filled, in the town. With the collapse of Gitmo, the mayor of the town has indicated that he wants to take on some 300 or 400 detainees. In a town with only a few thousand people, that's a sizable prison population, all of whom would be under the administration of the APF, who now use the town's jail as a base of operations.

What's with this place? Who runs it? Why so elusive? It's got all the credibility of a telemarketing agency and all the weaponry of the former Soviet republics. I don't know what this place is about, but it certainly didn't want any of the publicity that it's getting. This little business is either getting in way over its head, or is controlled by agents who know just what they're doing.



Thoughts, opinions, new evidence?

[unoriginal name]

It's goddamn troubling is what it is.

[blue_tetris]

http://www.americanpolicegroup.com/

Take a look at that, if you can. The "Service Is Unavailable" info pops up a fair amount when trying to pull up the site.

EDIT: If it doesn't work on the first click, refresh the page.

Domain Name: AMERICANPOLICEGROUP.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS25.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS26.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 29-sep-2009
Creation Date: 15-may-2009
Expiration Date: 15-may-2010

GODADDY! :D

[SlappyMcGee]

Creepy as ten fucks.

[scythe]

CBS article, probably the only reliable source on these guys: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/29 ... 1491.shtml
AP ran an article about the founder of APF a while back, too.

Gawker does a nice job of investigating, though. This is interesting:

the Force is a satellite of a larger security firm.

There appears to be some circumstantial evidence that APF is a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe LLC. Business as usual for the world's biggest douchebag, I suppose.

[blue_tetris]

I figured it was connected to Blackwater, too. Maybe a way to distance themselves from the stigma they acquired by shifting resources to a new organization.

The Serbian coat of arms thing they use is also bizarre. The two-headed eagle is relatively common in heraldry and stuff, but the full coat of arms seems to match the Serbian coat to a t.

[SlappyMcGee]

I figured it was connected to Blackwater, too. Maybe a way to distance themselves from the stigma they acquired by shifting resources to a new organization.

The Serbian coat of arms thing they use is also bizarre. The two-headed eagle is relatively common in heraldry and stuff, but the full coat of arms seems to match the Serbian coat to a t.

I love that our world has actual conspiracies. This shit is awesome.

[otters~1]

Blackwater's what came up when I googled around a bit. I also found a lot of conspiracy theory-type-sites claiming that APF (or APG, or whetever) is just a front, set up so that Blackwater, which is universally hated, can screw around in the US on the sly. For once, the crazies may be right.

Also, what I saw of their badly-set-up website was creepy.

EDIT: Strangely enough, the whole scenario reminded me almost exactly of an Asimov short story about some sort of government takeover. And if that's not cheering, I don't know what is!

[jean-luc]

man, that company is shady. Pretty much everything on the website seems to suggest a hasty setup without good guidance or planning - note the tons of inconsistent variations on the logo (a terrible branding practice that a well established company would avoid), the domain/company name mismatch (which suggests the domain and company brand were not developed together), &c. The biggest thing, though, is in GoDaddy's domain records:

Code: Select all

Created on: 15-May-09

Yeah, that company's been around for years. I seriously doubt any well established security contractor just discovered The Internet this May.
The domain is registered 'securely' (which I think is a scourge on the internet) so identity information on the registrant isn't available.
Also notice that the armed individuals in their banner image are all wearing different uniforms, clearly indicating that they are stock images and not, in fact, images of APF/APG trainees/employees.

[乳头的早餐谷物]

Weiiiird.

I'm not enough of a libertarian to be comfortable with any kind of private military contracting. It's fucked.

[blue_tetris]

Even us libertarians only contract with companies that have, y'know, credentials. The rich folks bought these guys for the whole, unsuspecting town.

I may become a populist instead.

[SlappyMcGee]

Even us libertarians only contract with companies that have, y'know, credentials. The rich folks bought these guys for the whole, unsuspecting town.

I may become a populist instead.

I actually think that the actual evil that these guys represent makes a pretty good case for sacrificing liberty for security.