History of Private Security in the Us Essay

The Homestead Strike was a labor dispute between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The Carnegie Steel Company’s chief executive, Henry Frick, hired Pinkerton Detectives to end the workers’ strike. On July 6, 1892, a confrontation between the workers and Pinkertons escalated into a deadly battle in Homestead, Pennsylvania (AFL-CIO). Despite becoming a source of inspiration for American workers, the Homestead Strike led to the eradication of the country’s strongest labor union and showed how powerful the combination of government and business could be.

Further evidence of the government’s support for the employers was illustrated by Cleveland’s use of Pinkerton agents to suppress the Pullman strike. The Pullman strike illustrates the often hostile approach of governments in the early part of the period, as the Federal government occasionally was active in their support for the employers, to the detriment of the workers, whose strike for higher wages failed as a result of the government.

The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor soon followed, organizing strikes and negotiations as leverage against the powerful big business. However, big business worked around labor unions with “yellow dog contracts” requiring employees not to join a union and with armed “Pinkerton Detectives” hired to combat strikes (Kingwood College Library).

During the Gilded Age, around 1860 to 1910, Unions, in an attempt to improve working conditions, were created, and while strikes from union workers “have been known in America since the Colonial Age… their numbers grew larger in the Gilded Age”: creating a numerous amount of issues that needed to be resolved (USHistory). One specific incidence that demonstrates the problems created was when workers of the Homestead Steelworks, that had unionized, were locked out in an attempt to break the union; however, these workers, recognizing the attempt to hire scabs, blocked the entrance to the steelworks (KhanAcademy). This, in turn, shut down production and angered management, thus a private police force was hired to arm themselves and to “push past

"Private security and public law enforcement share many of the same goals: preventing crime and disorder, identifying criminals, and ensuring the security of people and property," ("Private Security and Public Law Enforcement," n.d.). There are many more private security officers than public police officers, making tandem projects and collaboration essential ("Private Security and Public Law Enforcement," n.d.). There may be some overlap between public law enforcement and private security, but generally the latter can be more highly specialized and are therefore useful in situations such as campus security.

Andrew Carnegie, a self made steel magnate, hated workers unions. He had abolished all the other unions at his other plants, however, the union was strong at his Homestead plant. Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie’s business partner, did not like the labor union’s attempts to control the mill. When the contract with labor unions ended, Frick declared that the workers at the steel mill could not work there unless they left the labor union. Sensing a revolt coming, he built a wall around the Homestead mill, and he hired the Pinkertons, a “well-armed mercenary army”. In an attempt to conceal their entrance they came in barges under the cover of darkness. The Pinkertons were not an elite group of mercenaries, but was mostly made up of men “hired off the

We started getting unrest and preparing for a violence strike against the company. The workers thought that Carnegie might employ some company like the Pinkertons, so the workers reached out to the Pinkertons and told them to be on the workers side. The Pinkertons quickly accepted and the company didn’t even get a clue of what had just happened. Even though it was supposed that the company was about to get violent, it was also heard that Carnegie wanted to resolve this in a peaceful way so that people could go back to producing

Bellavita Christopher is the Director of Programs for the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Also, from 1998 to 2002, he was the planning coordinator for the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command. The author focuses on the fact that homeland security faces a variety of threats. Many factors such as the economy, weapons of mass destruction and a lack of moral compass pose potential challenges to homeland security (Bellavita, 2009). The terrorist attacks such as the one in Mumbai, the economic meltdown, the disaster on the borders remain potential malefactors to the U. S. homeland. And to no surprise, the threats are gradually transforming into a more complex tactics. Bellavita takes aim towards a realistic assessment

On 9/11 the U.S.A. was struck forcefully by terrorism. Since then, many laws, like the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act and the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have been put into place to help fight and prevent future terrorist events from taking place. Coupled with their previous skills and experiences, law enforcement officials have trained and gained new techniques to better equip America for the unexpected and to properly handle the expected as well. Fighting terrorism while also fighting non-terrorist crimes has become a common role for law enforcement officials.

National security became the ground breaking concern in the United States after the tragic events unfolded on September 11, 2001. Many questions were brought to the attention of the public eye, such as why the September 11 attacks weren’t diffused prior to the deaths of

For many American workers unions were just “foreign,” radical, or out of step with American traditions and various differences broke up the labor force (Brands, 421) After the research conducted in this paper, there are three main aspects on how each group differs from the other. The Knights of Labor is said to be more Radical, while the American Federation of Labor is classified as Moderate (Rise of Unions). As the Knights were inclusive and welcomed and encouraged practically everyone to join their organization, the AFL felt that opening their union to unskilled and minorities would only weaken it, so they believed exclusion was the better option for them (Knights of Labor). While the AFL was launched and supported by socialist Samuel Gompers in 1886, the Knights of Labor was traced back as a small secret union created by Uriah Stephens more than fifteen years before in 1869 (Brands, 241). On the other hand, both of these well driven organizations shared common grounds like aspiring to improving working conditions, by increasing the worker's’ wages and shortening the hours each individual worked (Rise of Unions). Both of these union groups used strikes at some point in their existence. The AFL generally resorted to strikes and boycotts as their main tactics; however, when it was the Knights of Labor's last resort they

The American people did not think much about terrorist threats from abroad before September 11, 2001. Terrorist attacks were always thought of as being overseas and far-off distant lands and not a worry for the average American. Of course, we

At present, manual labor in the United States is not without problems by a long shot. However, manual labor no longer has many of the countless problems that burdened workers during the 1800s. The problems in industry during this period consisted of intensely long working hours without breaks, low wages, and (especially in the steel industry) immensely physically demanding conditions1. It was only a matter of time before these conditions would require a serious facelift. Progress toward more ethical labor conditions has not always been forward, but many improvements have been made to labor laws, largely thanks to the tireless efforts of labor unions. However, these improvements were not easily obtained. At the dawn July 6th, 1892, an outbreak of rebellion in Pennsylvania at one of Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills began in what is now known as the Battle of Homestead. This began when the tugboat known as Little Bill brought nearly 300 Pinkerton Detectives hired by Carnegie and his colleagues to the union workers of the Homestead Carnegie steel mill. This resulted in the workers storming the docks and attacking the incoming Pinkertons as they approached the mill2. In the case of union involvement at Homestead Steel Works of the Carnegie Steel Company, potentially more harm may have been done than good during the 1892 battle of Homestead.

The fight against terror has been an on going issue in the world for centuries. There is always someone or some group trying to bring harm to a nation or a group of people formed by their hatred. In America, the battle is fought on the home front, in the air, and on the water throughout the world with different intelligence agencies. With every agency grouping together to keep this nation safe it has made big differences. It is the job of every American to keep a watchful eye for those who threaten the future of the country. Grouping all levels of law enforcement is important to the success of homeland security. Throughout this paper, I will be focusing on three agencies that plan a major role in the success of defending our nation’s frontline.

Before we begin we must first understand the different definitions of proprietary and contract security operations. There are many definitions and explanations that are used to distinguish between the two but I will use the definitions provided by Fischer, in his book titled Introduction to Security. “Proprietary security operations are those that are “in-house,” or controlled entirely by the company establishing security for its operations” Fischer, Robert; Halibozek, Edward; Walters, David (2012-11-23). Introduction to Security (Kindle Locations 877-878). Elsevier Science. Kindle Edition. A good example of this would be if a company purchases all the equipment and security personnel to provide security functions