I think it was Antonio Garcia Martinez where I read some content he made that drew a bunch of parallels to the US as very similar to LATAM in a lot of ways. I was fortunate enough to spend some time doing the digital nomad thing in Panama and personal security is way more explicit in places like that. Barbed wire around houses, big security systems, armored vehicles, etc. etc. because people didn't particularly trust the government to take great care of them. I some of these things happening in the US and its a bit concerning. I often and harshly criticize the police but they have a lot more accountability than a private security detail does. Feels like as a society we are making decisions taking us down a path of low trust and more violence. I don't pretend to know the answer though.
I'm aware this is a joke and also am aware that NYC is largely safe. It clearly struck a nerve however and I think thats for a reason which is things are heading that way generally.
I tend to agree that it's a joke (or some marketing ploy) simply because this service makes zero sense.
Usually in security you need multiple people to guard one person of interest. This "start-up" suggests the exact opposite, one person guarding multiple subjects, with a total of 10,000 persons of interest around the city. Right.
You have to give them credit for the amount of work they put into the presentation though - this makes me think it's more of a marketing stunt than some college student screwing around.
Edit: Okay, just clicked the Team page and it's beyond any doubt a gag, I bet the reveal will happen soon.
This doesn't really make any sense to anyone actually living in NYC
They don't really explain how they are guarding you and not the 79 other strangers on the block or your subway car
Will an armed ex-military person confront every panhandler talking sh* on the subway? Will they first yell "IS ANYONE IN THIS CAR A PAYING MEMBER OF RADIUS? PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD AND I WILL MOVE THE DIRTY PANHANDLER AWAY FROM YOU"
All of the explanations are about how they are patrolling all subway lines and 24 neighborhoods, but no mention of how you as a member have better protection than the person next to you
Other than that, its a smart idea because there is virtually no crime in these neighborhoods, just hysteria. So i'm sure they've figured their guards won't have to actually do anything
It's not so much that this business is a bad sign, as for all I know it's a hoax/PR stunt. It's the fact that it is totally believable t hat it could be real, that is a bad sign.
Look at their numbers: "1000 elite bodyguards operating 24/7/365 across key areas of the city...", they say they're only accepting 10,000 clients, and pricing starts at $99/month ("basic") or $499/month ("elite").
Either their uber-elite agents are being vastly oversold, or the arithmetic of their actual revenue sources (and how they expect to meet payroll each month) is worth examining.
This is interesting, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad for society. Bad if they only protect wealthy paying clients (most likely scenario), but good if they protect opportunistically, and/or also involve the police.
The business model seems to be based on "zone" coverage, but the question will be how effective this is when actual situations take place. They're either there or they're not. It's unlikely to have an "SLA" in terms of response time in minutes since they have a flat monthly fee, while supporting swings in demand like New Years vs a normal day. My guess is the profitability of this rests on the inability of users to see how many staff are actually around. They could have 20 people on-duty and no-one would be the wiser. "Needed us? Sorry, unlucky on that one." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Super interesting while being mildly dystopian.
Overall, multiple sources I found indicated they're up 30% (yeah, still not good at all, but it still means the startup is overstating the relative rate increase by 40%)
And for NYC itself where the startup is focused, the murder rate is now on the decline [1]
And the whole thing, presentation style etc., seem so over the top that I wonder if it's satire or some type of attempt to get viral attention for a product/service yet to be revealed but a bit different than the private-security-as-a-service presented here.
While there’s undoubtedly demand for Blackwater meets Uber in the nouveau riche set, I don't think this goes far enough in securing the arriviste’s perimeter. How can I be sure my Gigachad operatives aren’t also being hired by my many opponents and detractors? How can the same foreign aristocrat who is after me be using the same Gigachads as me on a gig-work basis??
To be fair, that does already happen, and that’s why I have Gigachads watching my Gigachads. My own Gigachads are sworn enemies of my opponent’s Gigachads, and STILL, they are constantly selling each other out, often over jewelry or strangely-chambered boutique firearms. I think this is just another bunch of dilettante college kids I don't trust with my perimeter.
I love that the header "hidden in plain sight" has a photo of a person with an ear bud with a coiled phone wire heading into his jacket. It's 2023. You'd be more hidden in plain sight with a pair of headphones picked up from the Apple Store.
Right and actually "cum" is a perfectly cromulent English word that they're using correctly here...except that today people would usually say "slash" instead due to the secondary meaning "cum" has picked up.
I tend to forget you can use that word in a normal way, too many memes and rarely seeing it used that way except in like movies and shows, and my brain assumes troll when I see it.
In states like NY though they can have a considerably easier time getting carry permits since they can argue it’s with cause better than a random private citizen.
Also the obvious thing to do is offer your services for free to judges and prosecutors. The dark cyberpunk future is on its way and inevitable barring a total collapse.
I was walking in Las Vegas and private security started following me in a vehicle. I ignored them and kept walking. They followed me for several blocks, driving very slowly right behind, and occasionally severing at me. I recorded them and called 911. The police showed up right away. The police had a long chat with the private security about public spaces and intimidation.
