The British East India Company at its height was the largest corporation in the world, and they even had their own armed forces. Those powers were stripped before they finally dissolved. As with all history, what was old will be new again!
By mid morning on Monday, September 17, as Occupy Wall Street protesters marched around the perimeter of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, all signs that an FRPD (Federal Reserve Police Department) existed had disappeared. The FRPD patrol cars and law enforcement officers had been replaced by NYPD patrol cars and officers. That decision may have been made to keep from drawing attention to a mushrooming new domestic police force that most Americans do not know exists.
Quietly, without fanfare or Congressional hearings, the USA Patriot Act in 2001 bestowed on the 12 privately owned Federal Reserve Banks, domestic policing powers.
Yeah, sounds like a great idea to me too! Its one thing having say a group like NMFS having their own police, they’re a Federal agency, and they’re enforcing a specific set of laws that do include arrests and seizing of private property. We can argue if it can be done better, but for the time being, I won’t deny them their guns and arrest powers.
But a private entity? Sure I see nothing wrong with hiring armed security to protect their interests, but these are straight-up law enforcement! Scary!
