The small commercial helicopter buzzed low over the marijuana fields of northern California. Men dressed in fatigues, rifles slung over their plate carriers, legs dangling above the skids as they sat in the open doors, surveyed the field below. One fired a black jet of dip out, wiping his mouth with a gloved hand.

Lear Asset Management, a private security company founded in 2012 by fish-and-game commissioner Paul Trouette, is a premiere national-level private security firm operating mostly in and around the western US (despite their amateurish website).

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Lear Asset Management, or just “Lear,” started as a response to a growing concern among corporate logging cartels in central and northern Calfiornia that pirate pot growers were encroaching on their private tree-clearing land. Clandestine marijuana operations were putting employees at risk (they claimed), and local law enforcement could not do enough to keep them out of the way of giant logging machines.

“I think the feds could be doing more,” Trouette said in an interview with Time magazine in 2014.

Private security is nothing new in our society, going back to the 1800s when the Pinkertons roamed the west (they still exist, by the way).

Go anywhere and you’ll likely encounter some form of private security. Usually it’s a bored-looking dipshit staring into their phone while standing in front of a doorway. At the Emergency Department I work in, our private hospital security has a lot to be desired. Out of the dozen or so security guards (they prefer to be called “agents” Jesus Christ), maybe two or three look half-way competent in their stab-proof, front-zippered tactical vests and tasers. The majority, with sagging 5.11 cargo pants, face 2” from their phones are liabilities, not assets; a far cry from the Lear guys, most of them former operators or law enforcement officials.

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I bring up Lear because news that broke over the weekend: Couer d’Alene, Idaho, a small town literally no one’s heard of, but is the heart of Fascist America, hosted a town hall meeting. At this meeting, a woman was forcibly removed by private security for simply *checks notes* speaking her mind.

Resident Theresa Borrenpohl factually pointed out that one of the representatives in attendance stole timber from public lands in the 1990s. She admits she spoke out of turn, but many others in attendance were doing similar things, only in support of the elected fascists on the dias. That’s when a plainclothes cop descended on her.

The cop? Oh, he’s the Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. Like, THE Sheriff.

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According to Borrenpohl, the first thing out of the sheriff’s mouth wasn’t him identifying himself, asking her to hold her comments, it was “do you want me to pepper spray you?”

It was then that Borrenpohl noticed his belt badge, tucked way back under his jacket. He then grabbed Borrenpohl with two hands on one of her arms and attempted to forcibly and violently extract her from her seat.

When she wouldn’t budge, he called over the goons.

The goons, were Lear Asset Management employees, also in plainclothes. No one at any time identified themselves as law enforcement or security. Borrenpohl was hoisted aloft by her limbs and carried out of the auditorium. She would bite one of the security officers before being ziptied.

Video of the incident has been spread widely across social media, causing (understandable) backlash. Not one of the officials at this town hall knew who hired Lear to provide security, but it is interesting to note that Paul Trouette, the Lear Asset Management CEO, is a resident of Koontenai County.

So the question I can see you about to ask is, do you have to comply with orders from private security? The answer is murky.

Traditionally, private security have no police powers. They cannot legally detain you, but even that’s a gray area. Most local level, low-trained security “agents” are simply there to be a deterrent or speed bump. Take for instance, any security or loss prevention at a major retailer. Their orders are literally to observe and report.

But other private security, like Lear, who look more like a paramilitary outfit similar to Blackwater (remember them?), where do their authorities start or stop?

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Great question and again it depends. Sometimes these outfits are “deputized” with temporary police powers by local authorities or governments. Sometimes they just do what they want because who’s going to stop a heavily armed mercenary outfit?

Bottomline here piggies is, you can start expecting more private security companies like Lear, to be operating in areas near you. With every local police department struggling to fill its ranks (wonder why) you can expect businesses to begin hiring high profile security companies to fill the gap.

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