$230,000 For a Guard Dog: Why the Wealthy Are Afraid Of Violence From Below

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Sarah Jaffe

$230,000 For a Guard Dog: Why the Wealthy Are Afraid Of Violence From Below
As inequality in the US grows, the ultra-rich are pouring their spare cash not just into private jets, but into private security. Think there's a connection?

July 29, 2011 |


“Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.”

That was what an unidentified billionaire told Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal a while back. Rich people are scared of global unrest, Frank reported, citing a survey by Insite Security and IBOPE Zogby International of people with liquid assets of $1 million or more (translation: folks who have or can get their hands on $1 million in cash fairly easily) that says 94 percent of the wealthy are concerned about “global unrest” around the world.

He noted:

Of course, Insite has an interest in getting the paranoid rich to beef up their security. Still, the numbers are backed up by other trends seen throughout the world of wealth today: the rich keeping a lower profile, hiring $230,000 guard dogs, and arming their yachts, planes and cars with military-style security features.

John Johnson, the owner of the $230,000 dog featured in the New York Times, is a former debt collector. (You can't make this stuff up.) He sold his debt collection company three years ago, but still has not just one, but six highly—and expensively—trained “executive protection dogs.” Harrison K-9 services, the trainers behind Johnson's pricey protection dogs, used to train dogs for elite military units like the Navy Seal team that raided Osama bin Laden's compound. The article doesn't say exactly how many dogs Harrison K-9 has provided for the world's rich and famous, but it does feature a quote from their head trainer saying she's trained “a thousand” dogs.

In addition to security systems, dogs and armed yachts, the security-conscious oligarch can hire a private spy company—Jellyfish, a spinoff of the notorious private security company Blackwater. Or what about their own personal drone? “Smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator” may be coming to well-heeled private citizens near you, according to the UK's Daily Mail. So far the private drones appear to only be for spying, but former Navy fighter pilot Missy Cummings told the Daily Mail, “It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151837/%24230%2C000_for_a_guard_dog%3A_why_the_wealthy_are_afraid_of_violence_from_below/

[holdencaufield]

1. Ummmmm....

Because violence from above costs a lot more to defend against?

Seriously, defencive missile battery and early-warning radar cost a heck of a lot more than a dog.

[PADemD]

2. Are they hiring food tasters, too?

[plumbob]

12. (SECOND plumber to the house, viewing ruins: I don't know HOW

a bag of magnesium chips got in your plumbing. Who did you say came out for the drains last night?)


They will need to learn to plunge their own shit.

Careful with that wiring - an electrician who does not (or does?) know what they're doing can create a helluva fire or shock hazard.

And what landscaper in the name of God apparently put a short length of hose into the ground with the water cutting a cavern beneath the house until the slab collapsed??!!

"Service" people - what can ya do?

[saras]

21. Yep - seen 'em do it all to their own houses, no reason others can't do it too...

[Uben]

3. Their fears are well founded....

...it's just a matter of time before the poor start retaliating against the rich, and now they are scared. When desperation takes over, people will go where the money is, and that's the rich. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some of these greedy CEOs and bankers who live on compounds getting attacked or killed. That's just a natural progression of society on the way down. The rich will never get all the money, but they won't stop trying. Greed is something these people built their lives on. We'll see a sharp increase in personal protection in the way of body guards and security devices.

[mwb970]

5. I'm surprised it hasn't started yet.

If I were a super-rich person living in a gated community, I'd be shoring up those gates about now. And hiring a security guard to keep an eye on my yachts. It'd be a shame if they were to sink.

[Doctor_J]

18. Nah. Hate Radio will make sure it's poor vs. poor

Never has a ruling elite had this much control of mass media.

[txlibdem]

24. And they do it by switching out the thing they want us to fear this week

One day it's Socialism, the next week it's "Radical Islam," the next week it's "the left-wing media is attacking little old us" ... on and on and on. Always a new boogie-man to keep the sheeple and the mindless followers focused on *anything* but the true cause of their economic difficulties (the rich stealing every dollar and moving it out of the economy).

[Turbineguy]

4. A heavily armed populace

with nothing left to lose?

We seem to be getting there.

[JDPriestly]

6. These people are not paying high enough taxes.

For their own safety, they should want to have adequate police protection for everyone not just for themselves.

[BiggJawn]

7. "Violence in the streets"

Yeah, like we'd ever catch one of those bastards out on the street.

Great job opportunity for a returning war veteran, service in some rich fucker's private army, uh, "security force"...

[dissidentboomer]

13. LOL. Yeah. Part of their fleet sits in Nice (the south of France) harbor every summer.

[txlibdem]

8. What the media has been hiding: the rich have been waging class warfare against us for decades

The only reason a person might think they need "military-style security" is because they know that they are waging a war.

When will the majority of citizens around the world wake up and realize that fact. This awakening is what the wealthy fear... as well they should.

[swilton]

9. Here's the Harrisson K-9 link for those interested

http://harrisonk9.com/

Mercenary armies = equivalent to feudalism

[ensemble]

10. can you say...

third world country? I knew that you could.

[WingDinger]

11. Someone should flat out tell the rich, if you get your way, you will spend the rest of your life

protecting yourself, and your possessions.

[dissidentboomer]

14. I think this is a sad truth.

[LiberalEsto]

15. I feel sorry for those poor dogs

having to protect shitpieces

[Doctor_J]

16. They have nothing to worry about

unfortunately

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flamingdem]

19. It's getting third world-like, in Brazil the rich live in fortified, fully patrolled homes nt

[Politicalboi]

20. Then why don't THEY stop it

Don't they see what is going on? Let the Fat Cats get taxed to the hilt. Don't they enjoy what they have now? Don't they want to keep what they have? How long will it be till hackers take over the banks and no money is available to anyone. If the FAA closes they aren't going anywhere anyway. Timing will be EVERYTHING! Even a gated community needs food. When the trucks stop coming, then the shit will hit the fan. And even for stores that can stay open, the parking lots will be filled with "zombies" looking to take whatever they can. People will have to be armed to go out, and even that may not help.

[classysassy]

22. Living with fear

Too much money can enslave you especially if it is gained by illegal means.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

23. The best security you can "buy" is unassuming anonymity

I did some work for a guy who was at that time worth $140 million, the guy started and sold two software companies and invested in a third that was bought by Apple. The guy drives a Honda, lives in an ordinary house in an ordinary suburb of Los Angeles with no domestic help and picks up his kids at school every day. His neighbors think he is unemployed.

[fasttense]

25. The rich should be afraid, be very afraid.

Look how they created that Tea Bagger party out of the whack-a-doos in the RepubliCON party and now those teabaggers are about to blow up the very same economy and government they make their billions from.

Then there are the millions and millions of poor young men and women being pumped out onto the streets every day with no education, no jobs, no career opportunities, no chance of success. Eventually those people will get a clue and it wont be to protect the idly rich.

[Doctor_J]

26. I hope you're right

I'll believe it when the first few dozen idle rich are found swinging from lamp posts. Right now the poor all believe what they hear on the radio, so they're more likely to kill someone wearing a burka than the real criminals.

[L0oniX]

27. Glad to know they have some fear ...I hope it grows.

[Fokker Trip]

28. How foolish

How foolish of them to think that when things truly come apart they can somehow live completely separately and protect themselves with security systems. Do they realize what they are up against. There are hundred of millions of firearms in private hands in the US and many many more in the world. They live in a f**king fantasy land in their heads and they've never really been challenged. They don't know how to live without all of their help, servants and sycophants.

Nothing will protect them except maybe a never landing 747(in air refuelling!..oh, and there is a hitch in that plan lol)

I believe that without the rest of society on-board to grant them some safety by leaving them alone, they will not escape in the long run.

Look at how many sacrificed themselves in the Russian, Japanese and Chinese armies in various conflicts. Those soldiers were largely forced to to so but if people are hungry enough and have nothing to loose..it only takes one to get through.