You've all (undoubtedly) seen this before:
The World's Smallest Political Quiz
Posted on 07/09/2013 11:39:27 AM PDT by Sopater
Two Wisconsin lawmakers have asked the president of Gogebic Taconite to remove armed security guards from the company’s proposed mining site in Ashland and Iron counties.
Bob Seitz, Gogebic Taconite spokesman, told the News Tribune that the company began employing private security guards after teams of mining opponents “dressed in black and wearing masks violently attacked our drill site” in June.
State Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, and Rep. Janet Bewley, D-Ashland, on Monday sent a letter to Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams, calling on him to immediately remove “the heavily armed masked commando security unit recently hired to protect the company’s property in the Penokee Hills.”
Several photographs of armed guards dressed in military-style camouflage and combat gear, apparently working for the Arizona-based Bulletproof Securities Force, have appeared on anti-mining blogs in recent days. In one photo, one of the guards, armed with an assault-style rifle, appears to be masked.
The lawmakers called the photos “horrifying” and the action by the company to hire the high-security Arizona firm “appalling.”
“These kinds of security forces are common in Third World countries but they don’t belong in northern Wisconsin,” Jauch and Bewley said in a press
release.
The company is now conducting test drills, working toward construction of Wisconsin’s first modern taconite mining operations, including an open-pit iron ore mine and processing plant.
The project was pushed by Wisconsin Republicans as a way to create jobs in the region but is opposed by several Ojibwe and environmental groups and activists who say the project will damage the environment. The company reported several incidents last month with drilling crews confronting mining opponents at the drilling sites. One woman was charged after an altercation over a camera.
Seitz said opponents erected roadblocks to slow the response of local law enforcement officials, spurring the company to hire round-the-clock security.
“Sen. Jauch is entitled to his opinion. But I would have hoped he would be more interested in the safety of Wisconsin workers” on the company’s mine sites, Seitz said.
He would not confirm or deny that Bulletproof is the company providing the security guards. He said Gogebic had no intention of removing the guards or hiring a more moderate force to do the job.
“We have to protect our workers,” Seitz said.
Although the security guards are at Iron County drill sites, one drill hole was in Ashland County. Ashland County Sheriff Mick Brennan told Wisconsin Public Radio he doesn’t see the need for the assault-style rifles.
“Yeah, it always concerns law enforcement any time we have someone who is carrying a firearm, open carry or not,” Brennan said. “My concern if it was in Ashland County is the need for it and what the circumstances that maybe prompted them to change their security forces that they have.”
Jauch and Bewley acknowledged the company’s right to protect its property, but they called the decision to hire the security firm an effort to intimidate citizens. “No one in their right mind can justify the excessive force. These individuals are not deputized; they can’t arrest anyone. What they can do is unjustifiably scare people, and that appears to be your intention.”
Jauch and Bewley added that the company could improve its relationship with local residents by reversing its decision.
Please read my post 60.
Yeah, most libs like “social policy” that makes them feel good about themselves,
but, in my example, they’ll deny that they are advocating sticking a gun in the face of those that are being forced to pay for “their” act of beneficence.
When you try to logically walk them through the process, they get to the point where they virtually or literally stick their fingers in their ears and sing “la la la la”.
If I were one of these guards that’s exactly what I would do to tweak these liberal clowns.
oops i was thinking of the republican senator up there who is our maccain, yes Jouch is a democrat. my error.
Can't have any restriction on the right of Labor Goons to riot.
You've all (undoubtedly) seen this before:
The World's Smallest Political Quiz
-——Only gov’t “law enforcement” are allowed to dress this way. -—
No, not true
Richard Trumka’s terrorist United Mine Workers not only dressed that way but put their wives and mothers and children in the same clothing in the 1988/89 SW Virginia coal strike
Miners know Trumka is a terrorist and expect the worst
Yea, I don’t like that one either. The “Left” is directly between total Statism and the “Right”
And what is “The Center”? The Left and the Right are already the center between Statism and Libertarians.
I see your point, but I think it is more insightful and more instructional to the low information citizen to forget about what, why, or how totalitarians lord over people. Everyone has something that they would rather not relinquish to the state. For us on FR, that something is most everything.
You obviously don’t understand drillers...they wouldn’t have to be paid.
Exactly! I live close to all of this and the “pristine” land they all talk about is no such thing. From what I have heard today the security teams are not just standing guard they are doing recon. In fact, I heard that one of them walked out of the woods into an eco-nazi camp and said “hello” and they immediately fled! They are even wearing ghillie suits to get info on their locations. About damn time we fought them back. If you are from Wisconsin you would understand that this is war!
Oh, I understand them well enough. You miss my point, I think.
When the drillers are on "my" (speaking as the mine owner) worksite, I'm paying them to drill. I'm not paying them to thump hippies, regardless of how much they enjoy thumping hippies. If they're thumping hippies instead of drilling, I'm not getting my money's worth. It may well be more advantageous to me (as an owner and employer) to hire private security to keep the hippies off-site than to have my drillers constantly being interrupted by the need to thump another hippie.
Apparently, the actual mine owner in this case sees it the same way.
“they can’t arrest anyone”
Yes, they can. Private property.
Please note that this land is privately held managed forest, which means the property owner gets a tax break and in return the land IS open to the public...so it is not private property as we know it.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/ForestLandowners/openToPublic.html
Damned DNR strikes again...
The one thing about government land claims, such as gold claims, is that a person can treat the property as private property. I suspect this company has a claim that is delineated by boundaries that they can operate as private property so long as the claim is open.
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