Just When You Thought It was Safe in the Woods

Yesterday I said that we need to go camping. I said that the woods were as much our birthright as anyone else’s, and by restricting ourselves to a landscape of glass and concrete, we are neglecting a part of ourselves. And I meant it. Just don’t go too near these guys.

They are up in Wisconsin, guarding a Taconite mine for a company called Gogebic. They are armed with assault rifles and handguns, and they wear masks. 

These guys are from a company called Bulletproof Securities. They are ex military and law enforcement, and they are trained to put a bullet in your fool head if you do something fishy. Their motto; “We train daily, because threats change daily.” The threat that they were called in to monitor is protestors.

Mercenaries are becoming the new normal. There were more contractors from companies like  Blackwater (now known as Academi) in Iraq than there were actual American soldiers. They were also paid better and in many cases, better supplied.

Bulletproof sprung up in Arizona in response to increased threats along the border. They are owned by a real estate developer, and they are well armed and well trained. If their website is any indication, they are the guys that you want backing you up, in the unlikely event that Cobra Commander decided to attack your cul de sac.

They aren’t breaking the law. They aren’t even setting a precedence. President Lincoln used guys from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency as his security force during the Civil War. At their height, they had more soldiers than the US Army. And when labor unrest began to affect the bottom of American companies, they called in the Pinkertons, who infiltrated unions and recruited goon squads.

What they are doing is making a lot of people feel uncomfortable. And there have been calls from State Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, and Rep. Janet Bewley, D-Ashland, to get the guys from Bulletproof off of their mountain.

Until then, you should probably avoid masked men carrying assault rifles up in the Wisconsin hills. But then, that’s a pretty good policy anywhere you are.