by nessie@sfbayguardian.com
Jan 04, 1996
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As long as we refuse to protect ourselves and each other, we are at the mercy of a legal system whose very business is crime, and a lucrative business it is. By this point in history, all but the most naive of us have stopped expecting cops, public or private, to all behave like Boy Scouts. There has been simply too much hard evidence to the contrary. In that murky gray zone where law enforcement overlaps with organized crime, an underground empire has arisen. It is a world where the so-called "War on Drugs" is often a war on rival drug dealers, and always a war on the poor. It is a world where "national security," excuses war crimes and genocide is a commodity. It is a world where justice is for sale and cops are for rent. Cops, rent-a-cops in particular, vary widely in quality.
A family business, Wackenhut Corp. was founded in 1954 by a one time FBI man George R. Wackenhut. His son Richard, a Citadel graduate, is president and CEO. The immediate family hold over 50% of the stock The rest is divided among just 1100 stockholders. Wackenhut stock is traded on the New York Stock exchange. Buy a share, and you will receive a fascinating brochure. The company's revenue has grown from just $300,000 in 1958 to nearly half a billion today. It is one of the largest private security firms in existence.
Wackenhut specializes in security contracts. Government contracts are best, of course, and the company's remarkable growth is due on no small part to George Wackenhut's relationship to certain government officials. His first big break came when he secured a contract to watch over Titan missile sites in four states. Since then, security and public safety functions have proven a lucrative focus. Wackenhut provides security guards for such high-risk installations as the trans-Alaska pipelines, major airports both in the United States and abroad, dams and the nuclear test site in Nevada. It also owns a casualty reinsurance firm, a travel service, and an airline services company. The Department of energy provides 25% of Wackenhut's total gross. Their operatives also serve friends of the U. S. Govt. and Big Oil (like the fugitive Shah of Iran), abroad as well as at home.
Wackenhut personnel guard the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve Sites in Louisiana and Texas. From time to time, they can be seen around the complexes, dodging alligators, and exchanging laser gunfire with soldiers, local police and sheriff's deputies. This is just practice to prepare for real trouble, such as terrorists. Wackenhut touts it's supposed anti-terrorist expertise. James*P.*Davis, who manages the site for government contractor Boeing, declares: "I pity anybody who tries to invade here. It would be tougher than Fort Knox." That is arguable. The government itself concedes that the security could be beefed up. But the analogy to Fort Knox is fitting. There is gold here, too, only it's black. Never forget the Golden Rule: "Gold rules."
Wackenhut often recruits ex-police and military men who don't require a fresh background check. Cutting this corner (at $30,000 to $40,000 apiece) has allowed the employment of a number of unsavory characters, including infamous navy spy John Walker. When Wackenhut operatives were caught recently in the public spotlight by court allegations of illegal surveillance, Associated Press reports that they were staunchly defended by their employer in the case, the president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., James B. Hermiller. Alyeska is a consortium of seven oil companies including Exxon Corp., owners of the Exxon Valdez. They are also long time Wackenhut clients. During the spill, industry security mounted an armed "bear patrol" to "keep grizzlies from rolling in the contaminated sand." They kept potential witness from the spill scene. Alyeska lies about clean up. State studies have confirmed that contaminants -- including carcinogens such as benzene and toxic materials such as heavy metals -- are ending up in the waters and sediments of Port Valdez. Happy dining, crab lovers. Alyeska also lies about the carcinogen content of the atmospheric pollution they inflict on their neighbors. Breath deep, Valdez.
Few of it's victims are any longer surprised that Big Oil lies. Internal documents to that effect (and worse) were leaked by Aleyska employees to long time industry gad-fly, professional tanker broker Charles Hamel. The whistle blowing employees were afraid to let their names be used. Charley Hamel was not. At least one regulatory action, a $20,000 fine proposed by the EPA in August, 1992 against Alyeska for illegal waste-water dumping, is attributable to information provided by Hamel.
One former employee, Robert Scott, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Labor Department charging that Alyeska illegally fired him for leaking information that detailed problems with vapor-emission.
"This is not a knock down and kill you problem," says Riki Ott, a marine toxicologist and president of the Oil Reform Alliance, a coalition of fishing and environmental groups in Alaska. "It's more like a 20 year from now cancer problem."
Cancer is not the only problem in this case. This is more about lies than it is about cancer. Disinformation is cancer in our body politic. It has so saturated our culture that it is no longer the social norm to take a stranger at his word on such basic information as his name. Can Wackenhut's public relations department be trusted to tell the truth? Their track record, and that of their clients, tell the tale.
Company officials claim that Alyeska is committed to operating in an environmentally sound manner. But environmentalists, state and even federal officials and other observers differ. Privy employees agree. Alyeska has been a major source of water, air and soil pollution in Alaska. Wackenhut Corp. has been, at the very least, a witting accomplice, both during and after the fact. They have worked to conceal disturbing truths from Congress, law enforcement, and the public at large. They have perpetuated dangerous, sometimes fatal lies. They hired Wackenhut to help cover them up. Wackenhut certainly gave it a hell of a try. Wackenhut blew it. Fortunately for us, many Wackenhut operatives are incredibly lame.
As disturbing as the cover-up itself, allegations have surfaced in court that Alyeska has pursued an aggressive campaign of spying and covert operations aimed at ferreting out internal whistle-blowers and silencing outside opponents. Their main tool in this undertaking has been Wackenhut Corp. Three of five dissident Wackenhut employees allege that even Rep. George Miller (D-California), chairman at the time of the House committee that oversees environment and resource development issues was targeted for "dirty tricks" when he began investigating alleged environmental wrongdoing by Alyeska, according to sources and sworn court statements. Miller became incensed to the point of subpoena. His committee quickly began investigating the possibility that Wackenhut may have obstructed Congress, as well. Alyeska, as well as Wackenhut, denies any wrongdoing. But for some, the alleged black-bag operation conjures up disquieting echoes of the past, and uneasy foreboding about the future. One honest (and prudent) cop, Rafael Castillo, a thirty year veteran of city, county, state, and federal police work left Wackenhut rather than expose himself to the possibility of criminal prosecution and a ruined career. Twice he had confronted superiors on the matter, to no avail. He had no honorable choice but to quit, which he did, reputation intact. It's too bad that all cops aren't Rafael Castillo, but they're not.
Sworn court statements and interviews with sources familiar with the probe, portray a conspiracy of electronic surveillance, lies, phony offices, burglaries and similar behavior aimed at silencing critics. With one side of it's mouth, Alyeska has denied the charges. With the other side, Alyeska assigned Wackenhut the task of rooting out the sources. Wackenhut began by attempting to backtrack from Hamel. In a sworn statement in U.S. District Court in Houston one former Wackenhut employee stated that the company's special investigations division conducted illegal electronic surveillance of Hamel's home, searched his garbage, obtained his telephone records and attempted to furnish him with large amounts of cash.
The employee, whose name was blacked out in the court file, said Wackenhut agents also masqueraded as news reporters and environmentalists. They also steal garbage. Charley Hamel caught them on video tape stealing his. They also got a parking ticket while inside bugging his house. These are not exactly what you could call rocket scientist types. They were beaten at their own game by an amateur armed with little more than a camcorder and a realistic estimation of the degree of privacy he enjoyed. It can be done. Wackenhut also set up a phony environmental group, called Ecolit, with offices near Hamel's home. This was part of a 17 person "special investigation unit" created by Wayne Black. Black described it in an interview with the Washington Post as a "private FBI." Black had once been a criminal investigator for the Dade County prosecutor. According to the Anchorage Daily News, he had been suspended for illegally conducting a wire tap and pressuring witnesses. Despite, or perhaps because of, the efforts of a special prosecutor, he managed to squirm out of the charges. A month later he went into private practice. In 1989 his firm was purchased by Wackenhut. He's their kind of guy. He told Hamel his name was Dr. Wayne Jenkins, a staff researcher for Ecolit. At one point, Hamel was told that real estate tycoon Donald J. Trump was on Ecolit's board of directors. For a while, Hamel fell for it. Then his garbage started disappearing. His suspicions aroused, he set a trap with his trusty camcorder. It worked.
On occasion, Wackenhut also delivers garbage. One operative, identifying herself as an environmental journalist, tried to "befriend" Hamel in an Anchorage hotel bar in March, 1990, and later on an airline flight. Her aim was to discover Hamel's sources and also to "compromise him" in some way, court statements said. It didn't work.
Wayne Black was not a loose cannon. According to Castillo, Black kept Wackenhut security chief, and former head of Alaska's State Police Pat Wellington abreast of his progress. Black has since been promoted. He is now vice-president of investigations for Wackenhut. Alyeska President James B. Hermiller said the company would cooperate fully with Miller's committee, but he has denied that Alyeska targeted Hamel for investigation. Hermiller declined to comment on the specific allegations in the court documents. But he did say, "Wackenhut is probably the premiere security firm in the world, and they do not do anything illegal. They conduct programs in a very professional and legal way."
Premier? Professional? Legal? Hardly. In service to other less influential clients Wackenhut operatives have appeared, on numerous occasions, to be the premier bunglers of the trade. Yet they can, on occasion, appear deadly efficient and, in fact, downright sinister. Wackenhut performs a wide variety of services with widely varying efficiency. Some are scarier than others.
One such service is union busting. The firm provides a comprehensive strike-breaking service. It includes armed protection, bedding, bath facilities and a catering service for scab labor. Clients of this particular service range from the Greyhound Corp. to Capital Cities. Capital Cities (owner of ABC) was founded by the reputedly deceased Director of Central Intelligence, William Casey. Casey is the alleged mastermind of the "October Surprise" and convenient scapegoat of the Iran-Contra affair, as well as being a Knight of Malta. The Knights are no friends of labor.
The Wackenhut Corporation boasts widely of the sophistication of its "strike service." Potential clients also take note of other, more objective, versions. A poignant vignette of Wackenhut labor relations is found in SPOOKS "The Haunting of America- The Private Use of Secret Agents." Author Jim Hougan recounts the dilemma of a certain Muldoon, hired by Wackenhut to guard publisher Katherine Graham and other executives of the Washington Post during a dispute with the pressmen. About twenty of Muldoon's spooks were given plainclothes assignments that placed them round the clock in the executive's living rooms. Muldoon remembered the awkwardness of the situation. "It was uncomfortable," he said, "These were really nice homes. The family would eat dinner, the kids would be playing-and there, sitting on the couch would be me or some other guy from the agency -- big, you know, and checking his gun. It was sorta tense. We didn't really fit in. I'll tell ya: some of those people were real shits about it. Katherine Graham wouldn't even let us in. She wanted my man to sit outside on a cot in the cold all night. I wouldn't let him. I mean, who the hell does she think she is?"
Meanwhile the pressmen bothered Muldoon even more. One morning he came home to find his car filled with garbage and a threat painted on his hood. Muldoon was furious. He "called a friend in New Jersey who's very well connected to both the unions and, well, organized crime. And I told him that I had a list of twelve union leaders here in Washington. If anyone fucked with me or my family or anything of mine, I was going to take out three of the bastards at the exact same time. As a warning. If anything else happened, I was going to hit the other nine - all at once. I told him I didn't care if those guys were responsible or not. I was holding them responsible and he'd better get the word out. I was not bullshitting either. I would have done it. I know guys inside the Agency, and guys who left, who could do that. And they would, too. I offered, as a demonstration, to abduct three of the union people and hold them for an hour -- just to show I was serious. But he took the hint. Nothing ever happened after that." Muldoon, smiling, admitted that such an abduction would have been "embarrassing" to the Post's publisher. He shrugged. "What the hell? If they can hit my car, they can hit my family."
Employing Wackenhut placed the liberal Katherine Graham in some very strange company indeed. The immense private intelligence service relies on dossiers of the Church League of America, a right-wing think tank whose massive intelligence files on the "left" surely included volumes about Mrs. Graham herself. In 1971, six executives of Wackenhut, Pinkerton's, and Burns were found guilty of bribing New York City policemen to obtain confidential records of would-be employees of American and Trans-Caribbean Airlines. One wonders why they needed to resort to bribes at all, since, as Rand Corporation reports, Wackenhut and Pinkerton's (never mind Burns) have dossiers on more than four million Americans.
Wackenhut sells what it calls "protection" to more than just media moguls. A look at how well they deliver presents a telling appraisal of their skill level and intent. Far from "premier," they instill little confidence in their ability to protect even themselves against bunglers, turncoats, and law enforcement, let alone serious terrorists. Still less does Wackenhut's consistent corner cutting inspire confidence in it's ability to protect the lives and property of ordinary clients. I'd hire the Keystone Kops first, if I was you.
Wackenhut has repeatedly proven to be incapable of protecting the Nevada Nuclear Test site from the intrusion of pacifist protesters in peace time. They perform better in the brochure than they do on the ground. They're not the only ones. The "premier" track record of Wackenhut's much vaunted and ballyhooed "protection" business has been repeatedly exposed, even by America's routinely lapdog press. Some things are just too big to ignore. During the recent Gulf War, Wackenhut's impotence was driven home by terrorists. February 6, 1991 the Los Angeles Times reported that "guerrillas opposed to the U.S. role in the Persian Gulf War" blew up a car outside the offices of Pesevisa, the Peruvian subsidiary of Wackenhut. Pesevisa is under contract to provide security for the U.S. and Canadian embassies in Lima. Three security guards were killed, and seven other people were seriously injured, authorities said. In a drive-by attack, assailants threw at least 22 pounds of dynamite and fired machine-gun bursts at three diplomats' cars parked in front of the company, police said. The explosion left a large crater and blew out windows outside the office. Leaflets condemning American involvement and attributed to the pro-Cuban Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement were left at the scene. A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Lima said the attack was directed at Pesevisa, though Tupac Amaru guerrillas also attacked the U.S. Embassy twice that week and dynamited the North American Cultural Institute the previous November. Wackenhut guards have also died on the job in El Salvador. The "premier" protection business seems hard pressed to "protect" themselves, let alone clients. What would Muldoon say?
In fairness, it must be emphasized that in 1986, when Wackenhut Corp. announced the creation of an anti-terrorism division headed by former agents of the FBI, CIA and State Department, the director of the new division did state specifically that it would not provide "rent-a-commandos" but would instead provide what it called "training" on how to survive a terrorist attack. The anti-terrorism and crisis management division would be for hire to "advise" corporations or governments, said Richard R. Wackenhut. "This is a new corporate division to deal (sic) not only with the threat of terrorism but with a major industrial accident, hostage taking or any other crisis facing an organization."
The L.A. Times reported that in 1985, the increasing fear of terrorism had boosted the already growing security business significantly, citing a 25% increase in 1984 of clients for Wackenhut's executive protection division, provision of bodyguards and "other" security services in 28 countries. Revenue was up 16% said Matt Kenny, director of corporate communications. The greater the number of terrorist incidents, what ever their source, the greater the demand is for "protection." One can not help but wonder if some incidents are covert operations by private security operatives, aimed at drumming up business.
"We are aiming at some U.S. government contracts," said Conrad V. Hassel, the director of the new division. Hassel had previously served as chief of special operations for the research unit of the FBI for part of his 23-year career with that agency, and so presumably knew where to peddle his wares. Hassel foresaw embassy security as one potential marketplace, adding that Wackenhut already posted guards at five U.S. embassies.
"There's no way we're going to be rent-a-commandos," Hassel said, "We're not going to put a force together to storm any airplanes."
Instead Hassel predicted the new division would provide "training" for clients and their families who might be targets of terrorism. "We will try to instruct them how to survive over there, but we're not going to train them how to become 'Rambos' and kick their way out of a room," he said. Training would include discussions by former hostages, and focus on psychological preparedness, such as teaching potential victims to humanize themselves in the eyes of their captors. "The terrorists are reacting against a symbol of what they are fighting against," he said. "Once you become human, it becomes damn hard to kill you." This bit of Wackenhut wisdom was marketed to customers from among the company's 15,000 member base of clients as well as to the United States and certain unnamed foreign governments.
Lack of proper training has been a Wackenhut trademark for years. The reduction in cost provided by cutting this corner enables Wackenhut to deliver their admittedly reduced services at substantial savings to organizations who value a penny saved over the lives of their employees and customers, and to individuals who put a price on the life of their families. The spate of terrorist attacks against Americans and their allies, during the Gulf War included some pesky snipers in Saudi Arabia. Was the House of Saud safe? According to Jonathan Littman, the Saudi ruling family negotiated (at least) with Wackenhut over a contract for security at Crown Prince Fahd's palace itself. Whether Wackenhut delivered is not for commoners to know. These negotiations took place by way of the tiny (but sovereign) band of Cabazon Indians in Southern California. The Cabazons have also allegedly fronted for Wackenhut's role in the secret (and illegal) Contra supply scam. Both Wackenhut and the Cabazons prefer the term "joint venture."
In 1978 the Cabazons hired a certain John Philip Nichols to manage their finances. This self proclaimed "Doctor of Theology" was reputed to be a "premier" obtainer of grants. Once he had obtained the Cabazons' trust, Nichols began proposing an array of projects involving tank cartridges, laser-sighted assault rifles, portable rocket systems, night vision goggles and, most ominously, biological weapons. Many of these proposals grew out of the tribe's partnership with Wackenhut. The Cabazons' sovereign status, and it's accompanying freedom from costly regulation, enables great ease in the bidding process.
"I was present at one meeting where Wackenhut people were present. We were told it was part of the security system on the reservation," said Cabazon Joe Benitez. "Later on, I found out they were working to develop munitions. It seemed amazing to me."
It is unclear which, if any, of the deals went through. It is a matter of court record, though, that in 1985, Nichols pleaded no contest to the charge of solicitation to murder. He served 18 months. His son, John Paul, took over as acting administrator of the Cabazons while his father did time. After his release, Nichols was barred by his felony record from running any of the reservation's gambling operations. His brother, Mark, inherited the position of Cabazon administrator. What, if any, role Wackenhut plays in Cabazon life today is unclear. Wackenhut denies any. "It turned out that we never got any contracts and, after two years, the venture was canceled," claims director of public relations, Patrick Cannan (1-305-666-5656).
Cannan also denied any connection with the so-called "Inslaw case." Wackenhut's name has come up consistently in relation to claims made by Michael Riconoscuito that while a research director for a joint venture between Wackenhut and the Cabazon Indians, he modified a stolen copy of Inslaw's PROMIS software for sale by Earl Brian to the Canadian government. Brian is a crony of Reagan's Attorney General, Edwin Meese. Meese is best known as gutter of the Fourth Amendment, and Wedtech scandal principal. Another former US Attorney, General Elliot Richardson, is the attorney for Inslaw. He has been quoted as saying that Inslaw "is far worse than Watergate." In fact, the Inslaw case does make Watergate look like a small town parking ticket fix. The press has barely scraped the surface of this most sordid of scandals, and not without reason. Among the few honest journalists to poke a nose in this nest of hornets and live to tell the tale is Jonathan Littman. According to Littman, Riconoscuito was a "consultant" for Wackenhut. According to Patrick Cannan, Riconoscuito was a "hanger on." Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
The Inslaw case stems from the alleged theft of software by the Justice Dept. from the Inslaw Corp. It has grown from a title and bankruptcy case into one that includes allegations of sales of the software to foreign governments (such as Canada, Iraq, South Korea, Libya and Israel) by such Iran-Contra figures as Robert McFarlane and Richard Secord. The case attracted more public attention following the apparent suicide death of journalist Joseph D. "Danny" Casolaro on mid-August in a Martinsburg W. Va. motel room. Casolaro had told friends that he had made connections between Inslaw, Iran-Contra and the so-called "October Surprise." (allegations that representatives of the Reagan-Bush campaign team, headed by Casey, had convinced the Iranian government to delay release of American hostages until after the 1980 U.S. elections). Casolaro also allegedly told his brother that, if he was reported to have had an accident, not to be believe it. Elliot Richardson has demanded a federal investigation of Casolaro's death.
Cannan also denied that William Casey was legal counsel to Wackenhut before joining the government and that former CIA officials Frank Carlucci and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman were Wackenhut directors. Cannan said, "Although Casey's law firm represented Wackenhut, Casey himself never had any connection with us. Carlucci was a director of the firm -- he is no longer -- but Inman was not. We did have another director with a similar background to Inman, an admiral who was chief of naval operations, and that might have lead to the incorrect rumor."
Plausible deniability has been an American tradition at least since the Boston Tea Party. "The Indians did it." Right. Sure. Tell us another one.
Operating fronts within fronts, is a standard modus operandi, and not just of Wackenhut. Wackenhut Corp. itself appears on occasion to be the collective front of a variety of scofflaws, felons and worse. They hide behind a wall of omerta excused by "national security" and enforced by an old boy network rooted deep in the intelligence community. Some successful scams are hidden behind the facade of ineptitude projected by their under-trained and under-paid employees. Perhaps they hire a lot of fuck ups to divert our attention from how slick a few of their operatives actually are. If so, this has proved a somewhat less than successful tactic. The blowback has come from disgruntled former employees. Wackenhut Corp. does not inspire a degree of loyalty up, commensurate with the loyalty down they demand. Instead, they buy it. They buy it cheap. Loyalty bought is intrinsically fleeting. Loyalty bought cheap is fleeter still. Consider the degree to which testimony of disgruntled former employees has damaged Wackenhut's reputation in court as well as the press.
Then there's the prison biz. Wackenhut operates 10 detention or correctional facilities, in seven states, that house 3,456 inmates. At least, those are the ones we know about. It's first facility, a federal Immigration and Naturalization Services detention center, opened in 1987. Biz burgeoned. Within two years the correctional business generated about $25 million of Wackenhut's $462 million 1989 revenue This is according to the company itself, not to independent auditors. Robert Hennelly reported in the Village Voice, that Wackenhut is also developing and marketing electronic systems for tracking prisoners under house arrest for local, state, and federal authorities.
According to the L. A. Times, Wackenhut does not "operate" any jails in California, but it does "run" a minimum security "correctional facility" for the state in McFarland, where parole violators are housed. This subtle distinction may be lost on those outside the profession.
Wackenhut has some serious competition for market share in the prison boom. "Privatization is a slap in the face to corrections officers as professionals," said Jeff Doyle (no relation), a prison guard and California Correctional Peace Officer Assn. vice president. "It's irresponsible for government to turn this over to the private sector." Although Doyle acknowledged there is an element of self-protection among the state guards who are upset with privatization plans, he emphasized that the Wackenhut guards do not have the same level of training and experience that state corrections officers do.
Consider the effect of Wackenhut's level of competence of life in a typical American city, San Diego. While California law prohibits counties from contracting out the management of its jails to the private sector, the San Diego county counsel's office (not a Court of Law) determined that the sheriff could contract for beds in the city's proposed jail. According to correctional officials, the Otay facility would be the first privately owned and operated jail in California. Pete Abrahano, the San Diego manager for Wackenhut, said the guards who will run the Otay Mesa facility, would be better trained than the rest of the company's guards. "They will have the necessary training and experience required by federal law," he said. "These will not be just regular guards."
Wackenhut's "just regular" guards are no strangers to informed San Diegans. When the Union-Tribune Publishing Co. brought in the Tennessee law firm King & Ballow to handle its contract negotiations, King and Ballow fired all the Union-Tribune security guards and hired new guards from Wackenhut. Bringing in Wackenhut is standard procedure when King and Ballow enters a newspaper labor dispute. The Newspaper Guild complains that the tactic is meant to intimidate employees.
When intimidation fails to do the trick, there's always the courts. Slander is a fact of human life. No one gets through life without ever being slandered. But Wackenhut attorneys have refined slander to a high art. Consider the case of murder victim Richard Crake, who met his demise in La Jolla in 1981. In 1985 a jury lodged $217,500 in compensatory damages against the Wackenhut Corporation, the security firm that guarded the complex where Crake lived. Before the trial his widow, Kathryn Crake, turned down an offer from attorneys for the Wackenhut Corporation and it's co-defendants to settle the case for $1.3 million. Then Ken Grider, 32, of Los Angeles, alleging to have been Richard Crake's male lover, testified as a witness for the defendants about how much time Crake spent with him daily before he was killed. The defendants' attorneys argued that the Crake marriage was doomed because of the love affair and would not have survived had he lived. Compromising the reputation of their dead client failed to redeem that of the Wackenhut guards who bungled his protection, but it did save the company a right smart piece of change. It is an aphorism of the trade that "dead clients don't pay." They're not the only ones.
Wackenhut hires much better trained attorneys than guards. They need them. In August 1986 it took a 4th District Court of Appeal ruling just to gain a Los Angeles woman the mere right to sue Wackenhut Corp. and it's co-defendants. Florence Blakely was struck by a passenger gate blown open by a blast from a jet engine at John Wayne Airport, where Wackenhut provided the security. Judge Sonenshine, citing "human error" as a "further complication" found the gate dangerous, despite sworn statements from airport officials that there had been no prior reports of negligence by guards opening the gates. Gates are the business of guards. You'd think they'd know how to work the latch. Fortunately for them, Wackenhut knows how to work the courts.
Wackenhut guards are as likely to be brutal as they are to stupid. Consider the case of survivor George Bagwell Jr., who sued futilely for redress in the wrongful death of his father. George Bagwell Sr. had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for years. He had driven to Lindbergh Field in January, 1988, thinking his son was due to arrive on a flight. Bagwell wandered into a security area and didn't respond when Harbor Police and Wackenhut Corp. security guards called to him. According to the lawsuit, guards beat and kicked Bagwell, in the course of his arrest. At the time of the incident, Bagwell was wearing a medical bracelet that explained his health problems. He had further details about his condition inside his billfold. Bagwell's son said his father was about 130 pounds and 5-foot-7, hardly a threat.
The lawsuit said Bagwell suffered lacerations and injuries to the face, scalp, arms and body, which led to his death in April, 1988. Medical experts testified at trial that the stress of the incident contributed to his death. He did not die in the guard's hands, but died soon thereafter. Bagwell Jr. said the January 1991 verdict was a second disappointment, although the family has no misgivings.
While wiser counties such as Los Angeles and Orange use their own deputies to guard hospitalized prisoners at county hospitals, San Diego employs Wackenhut. It was a poor choice. One prisoner escaped in a wheelchair, kidnapping his guard in the process. You'd think if Wackenhut was so "premier," a guy in a wheelchair wouldn't be too much for them to handle.
One of the reasons San Diego County Sheriff's Department uses Wackenhut is economics, said Sgt. Bob Takeshta, public affairs officer with the Sheriff's Department. "It's a pure fact of dollars and cents." Sheriff's deputies are paid an average of $12 to $16 an hour for their services. Peter Abrahano, area manager for Wackenhut, declined to say how much his guards made per hour, except to say that they are paid less than sheriff's deputies.
To Takeshta's knowledge, the escape was not highly unusual. "This is not an isolated incident; there have been others," he said. Earlier that month, a narcotics suspect escaped by jumping out a fourth floor window. Hospital guards are unarmed and do not wear uniforms, said Sheriff's Lt. Sylvester Washington, a shift watch commander at County Jail downtown. The Sheriff's Department ". . . prefers it that way," he said, "The guards don't have adequate training to be armed." Wackenhut also works for private companies and, in some instances, its guards are armed. Washington said it's a wonder hospital escapes aren't more common. "We've been lucky, very lucky," he said.
"There's no reason for guards to be armed," said Abrahano. "You don't really think (prisoners) are going to go anywhere."
Not really thinking seems to be an ongoing problem at Wackenhut.
Consider case of the 27-year-old fugitive from Colorado who escaped from custody at UC San Diego Medical Center ten days later, the third such escape from a hospital room in less than six weeks. In each case the inmate had been guarded by Wackenhut Corp., under contract to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. Wackenhut cost the Sheriff's Department $410,000 that year, according to county officials. The prisoner, who jail officials had considered to be an escape risk, eluded two Wackenhut security guards but was arrested after crashing a stolen truck into a tree across the street from a San Diego Police Department substation. Clearly this was no rocket scientist either, but it is equally clear that he was smarter than his guards.
According to police, the escape occurred about noon when, with one of the guards apparently out to lunch, the prisoner asked the other guard for permission to take a shower. He then asked for shampoo and, when the guard left to get it, escaped from his 10th floor room by taking a stairway that leads outside. Well, duh!
The growing privatization of the ever expanding prison industry places ever greater demands on the public for "raw material." Wackenhut operates 10 detention or correctional facilities in seven states that house 3,456 inmates. It's first facility, a federal Immigration and Naturalization Services detention center, opened in 1987. Within two years the correctional business generated about $25 million of Wackenhut's $462 million in 1989 revenue This is according to company spokesman, not independent auditors. Robert Hennelly reported in the Village Voice that Wackenhut is also developing and marketing electronic systems for tracking prisoners under house arrest for local, state, and federal authorities.
Never in my life did I even imagine that one day I would be sticking up for a screw, but by golly there folks, this Doyle guy is right, at least as far as he goes. If we the public want to be perceived as members of a just society we can't buy justice from any body, least of all the lowest bidder. It makes us look real bad. It also aint justice. If we want actual justice, and not just the perception, we have to participate in the process. History has proven conclusively that prisons are no solution to the problem of crime. If they were, it would have happened by now. Only a complete restructuring of society can even begin to address the problem. The problem of crime is structural. Victimless crimes are nothing more than a cash cow for the state. Crimes against property are political offenses, and almost always the result of drug prohibition. There's also the ever sticky problem of definition of property. The sanctity of personal property is respected near universally. Public property and private property are a little harder to define, at least without sufficient arms. This leaves violent crime, a tiny minority of all crimes. Violent criminals should not be imprisoned, per se, but offered asylum, on a purely voluntary basis of course, where they could seek treatment for their mental disorders, and protection from the rest of us. If they decline asylum, kill 'em and be done with it. Don't hire somebody. That's totally gutless. It doesn't work very well, either. If it did, violence would have subsided by now. Do it yourself. If you need help, don't hire; inspire. If you can't inspire, you're living wrong; change. Don't oppose the death penalty. The death penalty is good. Oppose its monopolization by the state. The only truly effective defense against violence is effective self defense. Collective self defense benefits from the economy of scale. History has proven conclusively that courts, prisons, and cops (both public and private), are useless. They have failed, miserably, to cure the problem. In fact, they made it worse, much worse. Worse still, they use the power we grant them against us. Then they have the unmitigated gall to charge us money for the service. Then they don't even deliver. How much worse does it have to get before we wise up? It doesn't matter whether we hire our cops through the private sector or the public sector, they're still basically mercenaries. Machiavelli was right. Mercenaries are useless.
We all have a practical as well as a moral duty to protect ourselves and each other. Most of us still lack the skill. The time to start learning has come and gone. While the practice of hiring bumbling thugs to "protect" us has long withstood the test of time, our freedom has not. It dwindles even as I speak. Neither are we protected. Do you feel protected by the current system? Or do you feel, like me, merely used? Can you foresee the situation getting any better on its own? I sure can't, and I'm an inveterate optimist. As we approach the increasingly corporate millennium, we can look forward to life in a private prison that encompasses all society and subjugates every moment of daily life: work, a prison of measured time, and play, a supervised activity. For this we sacrificed our freedom. For this, we even hire our own guards, guards who work for money, not for us, guards who have their own agenda. And a lot of them aren't even good at it, which is a mixed blessing. They, themselves, are a curse.