Um, this is mostly bunk.

Policing some of the most dangerous US cities has quickly become the newest line of business for many of these companies which have already replaced police officers in cities from Portland to Baltimore.

The phenomenon runs deeper than the normal shopping center or bank security guard. While in many cases private security personnel act more as city cleanup, organization or local ambassadors, some cities are pushing for armed private security personnel to patrol the streets, perform arrests and transport civilians. This is somewhat of a cause for concern, especially because of the more controversial issues surrounding the role of private military and security companies abroad in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cities are turning to the private sector for a variety of reasons. Some local and state governments are under pressure from budget deficits and are often convinced that privatized industries are more cost-effective than state agencies and bureaucracies. Other cities have an already overstretched force that cannot respond to increases in crime, so private contractors are seen as a quick fix and an easy force multiplier.

From Oakland to New Orleans

Oakland, California is the latest city looking to hire private companies to patrol some of its rougher neighborhoods in the wake of record municipal budget deficits. Last April, according to the Wall Street Journal, the city successfully voted to outsource part of its police patrol to International Services Inc, but later retracted after “two of its vice presidents were accused […] by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office of defrauding the state of California out of more than $9 million in workers compensation.”

According to the daily Portland Mercury newspaper, Portland, Oregon’s downtown area is patrolled by armed personnel with arrest powers that are supplied by Portland Patrol, Inc, a company which, according to local media, has repeatedly evaded requests to appear before the city’s oversight committee.

Over 2,000 miles away, Chicago has turned to a company that currently operates in police-like automobiles marked “special patrol,” according to CBS News, and are expected to have their powers expanded as the city combats increased crime rates with an overstretched police force.

Down south in New Orleans, Louisiana, armed private guards patrol wealthy neighborhoods and private schools. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, “Some areas of New Orleans have used armed private patrols since 1997, when residents in an east New Orleans community petitioned Louisiana's legislature to create a tax on property owners to pay for a private force. About 20 residential tax districts have been established, employing an estimated 100 private guards. This month, seven more neighborhoods voted to create such districts.”

During the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was patrolled by approximately 150 heavily armed Blackwater personnel alongside several other big contractor companies like Dyncorp, Wackenhut and most interestingly, ISI, an Israeli company that flew in former Israeli Special Forces commandos.

Most notably of all of these companies is Capital Special Police, which not only supplies guards and corporate escorts, but offers “real police officers [that] arrest for felonies and misdemeanors; issue citations for infractions; and enforce local ordinances.”

“The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States,” the daily wrote.

You think not? You are clueless.

The demise of the American auto business and the industrial heartland all began in the 1960's and early 1970's with the recognition that it cost money to protect the worker and the environment from industrial pollution. These big dirty cities, their hapless labor forces and their smokestack industries migrated to Japan and then China. And guess what?

The pollution has come home to roost. In your lungs, reproductive organs, cells, and unhappy genes.

Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's Detroit automakers were not going bankrupt (except Chrysler in the 70's). In fact they were making nice profits, thank you. Yet during that time the city of Detroit started going downhill. While the Big Three were raking in the dough in the 60's, there were riots and abandonment on the streets of Detroit.

Furthermore, Novus was referring specifically to the bankruptcies, which has occured in the last year. Detroit (the city) has been going downhill for a helluva lot longer than one year.

While the flight from the cities would have happened anyway due to the push of the closing industries, the enabling of the roads, the pull of the shiny new shopping and (at least for a time) the less congestedness of the suburbs, the cities gave themselves their own coup de grace by allowing highways to be plowed through the city and by tearing down everything that made the city a better place than the suburbs for the sake of mostly - parking. They thought they could lure cars back to the city by giving them what they want most - parking and gas stations and in so doing destroyed the city for people. This prolonged the agony.

Check it out

The Louisville National Theatre being demolished for a parking lot...

You have no historical perspective and that explains your constant attention to short term trends. I will repeat facts one more time.

The United States passed Clean Water, Clear Air and other environmental laws in the late 1960's and early 1970's that made it harder and harder for industry (in general) to compete in America. As the same time other countries (in this case Japan with Datsun, Toyota etc.) began their relentless competitive rout. They made smaller better cars that used less petroleum. We didn't.

The industrial cores of our once great cities (Detroit, New York City, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Youngstown, etc. etc. etc.) started their rust-belt declines.

It is not coincidental that "white flight" also took off at the same time. The newly wealthy with a gift from the American post-war empire fled the pollution and dirt of these rusting cities. And didn't let the colored folks follow.

The United States passed Clean Water, Clear Air and other environmental laws in the late 1960's and early 1970's that made it harder and harder for industry (in general) to compete in America. As the same time other countries (in this case Japan with Datsun, Toyota etc.) began their relentless competitive rout. They made smaller better cars that used less petroleum. We didn't.

The industrial cores of our once great cities (Detroit, New York City, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Youngstown, etc. etc. etc.) started their rust-belt declines.

It is not coincidental that "white flight" also took off at the same time. The newly wealthy with a gift from the American post-war empire fled the pollution and dirt of these rusting cities. And didn't let the colored folks follow.

The number of unclaimed corpses at the Wayne County morgue is at a record high, having tripled since 2000. The reason for the pile-up is twofold: One, unemployment in the area is approaching 28%, and many people, like the Vickers, can't afford last rites; two, the county's $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out in June.