“How do we know they’re doing the right thing? The answer is: We don’t.”

March 24, 2025 7:36 PM

"For many on California’s North Coast, Lear Asset Management’s heavy-handed tactics in Idaho were no shock. For decades, CEO Paul Trouette has straddled the line between private security and hired gun, hired by logging companies to police forest protesters." The mercenaries who took on Northern California's hippies resurface by Matt LaFever in SFGate.
posted by goatdog (5 comments total)

From the Idaho article “Is this your deputy?” Borrenpohl asks Norris in the video. “Who the (expletive) are these men?”

And then later The Press reported that police cited Borrenpohl for misdemeanor battery for biting one of the men, but the prosecuting attorney’s office has moved to dismiss it after reviewing video.

I don't get why these private security guys don't get fucked up more often. If you resist a law enforcement officer by biting them (!) even if the officer is fully in the wrong, you are almost certain to face unpleasant legal consequences. But private security? They're just private citizens.Biting might be everyday self defense. And the more tacticool and menacing they are, the more extreme the self defense measures that might be seen as reasonable.
posted by surlyben at 8:56 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]

Here's a video of the incident in Coeur D'Alene. A bit under 15 minutes long.

Here's another one taken from the seat next to Teresa. About 8 minutes long. Both videos are distressing to watch.

There were hundreds of people in the room. At least a dozen close enough to reach out or take a single step to say something to the sheriff or the unmarked bullies.
posted by VelveteenBabbitt at 9:05 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]

"Pinkerton cocksuckers."

- Al Swearengen
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:17 AM on March 25 [4 favorites]

In Appalachian coal fields, they were called gun thugs and they happily attached a gatling gun to an armored train car so they could spray the camp of striking miners and their families.
posted by Atreides at 10:52 AM on March 25 [1 favorite]

The militiamen have been fired for not wearing identifying clothing (shot | chaser) and besides that the sheriff is already hanging himself.

The video conflicts with statements later made by Norris to news outlets. The sheriff told KREM that he had walked away to escort another person out of the event and that Borrenpohl was already on the ground by the time he returned. He told the Press that he did not give the security guards any direction.

And what's this, collecting disability from the notoriously gang-riddled LA County Sheriff's Department? This might get complicated!

It's in a part of the country where that may not matter in the end, but it's something, and that feels like progress.
posted by rhizome at 11:34 AM on March 25 [3 favorites]