Shadow government and a private “security force” funded by wealthy people sounds pretty shitty to me.

I suppose when government fails the people, powerful actors take control. I agree it’s scary, because in extreme cases, like Haiti, you end up with warlords.

People fail themselves and each other long before the governments have a chance. That’s a fact.

Yes, entirely true. I heard Peter McCormack discuss his frustrations with Bedford and its govt on the latest Natalie Brunell pod. The cops are just letting people shoot heroin in public, and people are fleeing the downtown. He’s hired guards temporarily to show the city that things can be better. Hopefully, it leads and empowers other people to act, too. I’m also from a small, deteriorating town and am interested to follow Peter’s experiment.

Unless his “security” force is going to disappear the dealers it’s laughable. Pushing around the users is a waste of time. That’s why the cops don’t do it. No bigger waste of time than telling drugged out addicts anything. If his agenda is actually in line with the city then he should run for mayor. I’ve heard him say he doesn’t want the job but he’s gonna spend just as much time this way using his own resources and probably end up in jail. Better off becoming mayor and using community resource.

Yeah, probably so.