In Harpers, Jasper Craven reports on "The Thin Purple Line"—the quickly-growing, heavily-armed and increasingly belligerent private security forces at work in America: "Americans' fear of crime is particularly disconnected from reality"
Yet while guards lack the training and public oversight of cops, they are increasingly coming to resemble them. A few years ago, the industry went so far as to co-opt the "thin blue line" of the police, choosing the color purple to represent security guards. The "thin purple line" has unofficially upgraded the guard to the echelon of first responder. This despite the fact that guarding, even with its intense and isolated pockets of danger, is a job that's about as dangerous as that of an elementary school teacher. …
It has been estimated that, over the past decade, hundreds of security guards have been arrested for manslaughter or murder. In 2019, California saw two incidents in which Allied-employed guards allegedly knelt on the necks of restrained citizens and killed them. The year before, Allied-employed guards harassed and threatened to fight an unarmed black man at Denver's Union Station. One guard then led the man into a station bathroom, where he was beaten unconscious and suffered permanent brain damage.
The punks are gone, the promised dystopia was always cybernormal. Even the uniforms are bad.
