Hiring the Fox to Guard the Henhouse

John Robb has recently blogged about the problems Oakland, CA, is now facing in its efforts to privatize security. Apparently Oakland's present unionized police forces object to this cost-saving measure and therefore are obstructing it.

However wrong-headed the Oakland police unions may be, we should consider Guatemala, where reportedly private security guards are emerging as a security threat. According to the Washington Post, drug traffickers and gangs have caused Guatemala's problems.

Translated into John Robb's vocabulary, Global Guerrillas are causing in. Which means, to the extent that Global Guerrillas prevail, we should avoid privatized security.

Update: Of course, public employment is no guarantee of integrity, either. Reportedly, the number of United States border agents being arrested for corruption is on the rise.