Sign of Things to Come!

Kia Ora,

Well the last couple of days have being interesting internationally as a sign of things to come.

First there has being the storming of parliament in Thailand, following the unrest in Greece & now what could be described as a coup in Kyrgyzstan, resulting in the incumbent politicians running from the capital.

What has caused this?

Thailand it is an on going issue between suporters of the former head of government & the replacements.

Greece it has being the result of austerity measures the Government had to take to try & stave off financial collapse.

Kyrgyzstan it was a 200% rise in the cost of utilities (water, gas, etc). So could that happen in say the US or even here in NZ?

Not can but when should be the question? Already prices up up 10% in supermarkets & crime is on the rise.

Just two days ago I was visiting a business in a mall & as I came out a guy goes "are you mall security?" "No, but work in the industry, why?" " oh no reason".

Anyone in the industry will know that anyone taking interest in security are up to something. When talking to a few shops just after they all commented that there had being a rise in crime in the area recently.

So could it happen in the US? Well there is certainly a lot of anger already over the health care bill which they can't afford. Citibank recently gave notification as required that sometime in the future they may require 7days notice for people to withdraw their money.

Of course when that happens, the bank will just say we gave you a warning.

Meanwhile the SEC has basically said funds will not have to pay peoples pension funds out if ordered to hold them.

Both of those issues are enough to set people off, not to mention the job losses & foreclosures.

In NZ there was a few months ago a small notice in papers to the effect from 1st April 2010 power lines companies will be able to raise prices by level of inflation.

In the last few weeks there has being another small clipping to the effect that even though the storage lakes are fuller than normal for this time of year, the spot prices for electricity were high, so to expect a price rise shortly from the supplying companies.

The ones in the know have being getting themselves ready.

So what has that to do with security?

It is the security industry & police that are going to bear the brunt of the rise in crime & emotions that will lead to even more violent crime.

Are they ready?

In one word. No!

Now in the army we trained for situations such as this, it was called 'Aid to the Civil Power', but the military is committed elsewhere in a number of operations. Even mobilizing the reserve element & Territorials would not cover it. NZ's terrain & small population just means there will never be enough people.

So the slack will have to be taken up by the security industry & that means having a properly trained industry, something that in most cases at present there is not present.

Having being in near riot situations or situations in which the elements which make up a riot were present, the attitude of most of the security staff was ambivalent at best.

They just had no idea why ex military pers or police were doing things in a certain way. When outnumbered as you invaribly are, certain actions have to be taken to keep on top of the situation.