Industry News - January 2023 - Circuit Magazine

Industry News - January 2023 - Circuit Magazine - News

source: https://circuit-magazine.com/industry-news-january-2023/

Donald J. Trump on Wednesday reached a settlement in a civil case brought by protesters who said they were attacked by his bodyguards in 2015

In September 2015, in the early months of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign for the presidency, the protesters staged a demonstration outside Trump Tower during which they said the candidate’s bodyguards violently attacked them. They said Mr. Trump himself was responsible, because he had explicitly authorized the bodyguards to use force. They also sued his company, the Trump Organization, and several guards.

A lawyer for the protesters, Benjamin N. Dictor, said, “The sidewalk belongs to the people, it doesn’t matter whose name is on the building. We think that today’s resolution confirms that.”

They said in their lawsuit that Mr. Trump’s longtime personal bodyguard, Keith Schiller, had taken one of their signs, ripped it to pieces, and then struck one of the protesters on the head. They said there had been other attacks from other, unnamed bodyguards.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that Mr. Schiller had been doing his job and that it was he who had been attacked by the protesters.

Excerpts of Mr. Trump’s questioning under oath were made public in April. Asked about Mr. Schiller’s behavior on the day of the protest, Mr. Trump insisted that the bodyguard had done nothing wrong.

“He went out — I didn’t know about it. But he went out, he heard there was a disturbance and he went out. And he took a 50-cent sign down that was racist,” he said.

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Eric Jean Baptiste, lottery business magnate, and a bodyguard were killed in Laboule 12, a leafy hillside area in Port-au-Prince, after attackers opened fire on their vehicle, officials said. Jean Baptiste, 52, headed the center-left Assembly of Progressive National Democrats Party and once sought Haiti’s presidency.

Ricardo Nordain, a party official, said Jean Baptiste’s armored vehicle flipped over when it was ambushed.

“He represented a lot,” Nordain said. “His assassination shows we do not have leadership in this country.”

Gangs have long had a presence in Haiti, but their power has grown in recent years amid a broader deterioration of democratic institutions and security conditions. United Nations agencies said this month that gang violence in the capital has displaced some 96,000 people and that gangs have used rape to terrorize the local population.

Roberson Alphonse, a well-known Haitian journalist with the newspaper Le Nouvelliste, was attacked in his car this week by armed assailants. He is recovering. In one of his last tweets, Jean Baptiste mentioned the attempt on Alphonse’s life.

“The life expectancy of people in Haiti is 24 hours,” he said. “Who will be next? Will he have the same luck?”

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The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal to dismiss lawsuits against two of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security staff who allegedly assaulted protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington DC in 2017.

Turkey applied to lower courts requesting the cases be dismissed, citing immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

But the lower courts ruled that the the events in 2017 were not covered by the act, and that the lawsuits would go ahead under the Supreme Court’s ruling.

During Erdoğan’s visit to the United States in May 2017, a brawl broke out between Erdoğan’s supporters and -the mostly Kurdish- protesters. Two people were arrested for assault, while nine others were injured and taken to a hospital after the DC police unsuccessfully tried to separate the groups.

After the brawl between the Turkish President’s security and the pro-Kurdish protesters drew international condemnation, DC officials issued warrants on assault charges.

Erdoğan responded to the charges by saying that the demonstrators were associated with terrorist organisations.

“What kind of law is this?” he asked, “If my security guards cannot to protect me why would I bring them with me to America?”

The New York Times analysed the video of the incident and spotted that after the security chief leaned into the Turkish president’s car, he spoke into his earpiece, and three guards ran toward the Kurdish protestors.

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An Atlanta police officer who was assigned to former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s Executive Protection Unit has been indicted and suspended without pay for shooting an alleged carjacking suspect at a gas station in January 2019.

Officer Oliver Simmonds was indicted Friday on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of violation of oath of public office.

Simmonds, who was off-duty and in plain clothes, pumping gas at a Shell station when 18-year-old D’Ettrick Griffin “allegedly jumped into the driver’s seat of Simmonds’ unmarked SUV.”

The DA’s office said Simmonds shot Griffin as he tried to steal the city-issued SUV. The GBI said Griffin was able to drive off with the officer’s vehicles but crashed into two other cars a short distance away.

There was no indication Griffin had a weapon, the GBI said.

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A Russian woman whose family had links to the Kremlin was made a director of the Security Institute, which has close ties to Westminster.

Anastasia Spiridonova, 23, who speaks six languages and is described by several colleagues as ‘exceptionally charming’, is connected to the Putin regime through members of her family. Her grandfather was an MP in Putin’s United Russia party, while her mother Marina worked at the Kremlin in a department running resort hotels and presidential retreats around Russia.

Meanwhile, Ms Spiridonova’s father, Grigory Bryukhov, was once president of Intourist, the privatised successor of the giant Soviet travel agency that was notoriously riddled with KGB spies.

After spending her early years in Moscow, Ms Spiridonova moved to the UK. She was educated at £40,000-a-year Sevenoaks School in Kent and studied modern languages at Stanford University in the US.

She eventually got a job with a detective firm and then joined the Security Institute, but she eventually agreed to step down in June after less than two months.

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Meta Platforms Inc.has fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors over the last year whom it accused of improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases allegedly for bribes, according to people familiar with the matter and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Some of those fired were contractors who worked as security guards stationed at Meta facilities and were given access to the Facebook parent’s internal mechanism for employees to help users having trouble with their accounts, according to the documents and people familiar with the matter.

As part of the alleged abuse of the system, Meta says that in some cases workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from outside hackers to access user accounts, the people and documents say.

A spokeswoman for Meta’s security contractor, Allied Universal, said it “takes seriously all reports of violations of our standards of conduct.”

When people are locked out of their accounts, they typically try automated methods for resetting them or try to reach someone at Meta by phone or email, which many users have reported is often fruitless. Some of those people are able to get Meta employees and contractors to fill out a form through the Oops (Online Operations) channel as a method of last resort.

But in part because the Oops system is off limits to the vast majority of Facebook users, a cottage industry of intermediaries has developed who charge users money to regain control of their accounts. In interviews with the Journal, some of those third parties claim to have access to Meta employees to help reset accounts.

“When you take someone’s Instagram account down that they’ve spent years building up, you’re taking away their whole means of generating an income,” says Nick McCandless, whose company McCandless Group operates a platform for content creators. Mr. McCandless says he charges his clients to reset accounts, sometimes through a contact he declined to name at Meta.

“You really have to have someone on the inside who will actually do it,” he said.

Lately, Allied has cracked down on its employees’ use of internal systems, warning in a recent internal message viewed by the Journal “DO NOT use the Meta OOPS platform.”

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The post Industry News – January 2023 appeared first on Circuit Magazine.

Tactical Firearms Training – The Basics

If you plan on working internationally in the close protection or security industry you will be expected to some degree to know how to handle firearms. Now, to get things straight to start with, what most people, especially Americans, don’t realize is that most non-government close protection jobs are unarmed due to the legal restrictions on firearms in most countries. Part of your threat assessment for any assignment needs to include the laws on the use of force and what if any weapons are legal in the locations you are going to be working in. Being caught with an illegal weapon, especially a firearm will get you thrown in jail very quickly, no matter how important you think you are! So, what do you need to know about firearms if you are looking to work internationally in the close protection and security industry, well the first and most important thing is knowing how to use firearms safely. To become proficient with firearms, like everything else takes practice and time, you’re not going to become and expert after a few hours’ tuition. Many firearms related accidents happen because those handing the firearms are not complying with the basic firearms safety rules of keep the firearms pointed in a safe direction and keeping their fingers off the guns trigger. If you ensure you always follow these two safety rules, you will be acting more responsibly than many others who are working with and carrying firearms. Remember, if you’re the one holding and in control of a firearm that accidentally discharges and injures or kills someone you will be held responsible. A thorough understanding of firearms and range safety is essential before you even start any shooting with live ammunition. Here is a more complete list of firearms safety rules and considerations. WEAPON SAFETY DEPENDS ON KNOWING YOUR WEAPON, CONFIDENCE, ALERTNESS Safety considerations for firearms must always be followed Always keep firearms pointed in a safe direction, especially when loading and unloading. Keep your finger off the trigger until the weapon is pointed at your target. If the action or slide on the weapon is closed, always treat the gun as if loaded and carry out the unload drills. Always show that a firearm is unloaded to a person before you hand it to them. When someone hands you a firearm, always check the chamber and make sure it is unloaded. Never take a person’s word for whether a firearm is loaded or unloaded, always check! Never point a firearm at anyone just for fun or play games with firearms. Always know what is behind your target and have a good backstop. Only fire-controlled shots. You can rapid fire but make sure you are hitting your target. Always practice tactical drills with unloaded firearms until you’re confident and competent enough to use live ammunition. Always unload firearms before dry-fire tactical training. Only use dummy ammunition or blank-firing firearms for demonstrations or dry-fire drills. Never mix blank, dummy, and live rounds. Always check that the gun is unloaded before cleaning. Never tamper with ammunition, and only use reloads from reliable sources. Never use damaged rounds, and always dispose of them safely. Keep guns and ammunition in secure storage when not in use. If you do not know how to operate or are having problems operating a firearm, get professional help. Never used drugs or alcohol when using firearms. Always check and comply with local firearms law Types of Firearms You should try to train with and get to know as many different types of firearms as possible as you never know what you will come across. You might be working unarmed on an assignment in a hostile environment but you need to know how to use the firearms you might encounter in that environment incase things go bad, say your hotel is attacked, and you might have to use the firearms of the local security, police, military and bad guys or make them safe after an incident. Pistols: The two main classification for pistols are semi-automatic and revolver. Sadly, most people these days tend to only train with semi-auto safe action guns such as Glock and S&W M&P’s etc. You need to know how to safely use revolvers, single and double action semi-autos, single action semi-autos and at least be familiar with derringers and sub-compact pocket pistols. Shotguns: I have heard quite a few supposed close protection experts, usually from police backgrounds dismiss the requirements for shotgun training. The reason for this I believe, is in their limited experience within a government agency they have never had the opportunity to use shotguns or travel to locations where they are used. I have personally working in Europe, South & West Africa, Middle East, US, Caribbean, Latin America and have come across shotguns being used in for security details in all of those locations. I would say shotguns are the most widely used firearm used for legal security purposes globally. Shotguns come in various configurations and you should at least understand break action, pump, semi-auto shotguns and the various types of ammunition and chocks. Assault Rifles: Even though most of the tacticool firearms training videos on the internet put an emphasis of training with AR-15’s and AK-47’s in reality there are not many places you can legally use them for security purposes unless you are in the military, on a government related assignment or working illegally. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the laws were put in place for security guards to carry assault rifles, but in most places if you are lucky enough to legally have firearms there is a greater change of it being a shotgun or a pistol rather than an AK etc. Sporting Rifles: In a lot of countries semi-auto firearms are banned or very restricted and the only legal firearms available will be sporting shotguns and leaver or bolt-action rifles. The only time most tacticool operators will consider learning how to use a bolt-action rifle would be if it was a tricked-out sniper rifle… Well, I am sorry if I offend any tacticool operators reading this but all hunting rifles, even with wood stocks, can be used as sniper rifles and for tactical applications. If someone is trained how to shoot properly, understands individual tactics and is armed with a decent leaver or bolt action .22 rifle, I would class them as far more value than the tacticool shemagh wearing operator who uses optics on their tricked-out AR-15 to hit paper targets at 15 meters… Other Firearms: Depending on where you are planning to work depends on the types of firearms you could encounter; in hostile environments you may need to have the rudimentary knowledge of how to operate belt-fed machine guns. Or, if you’re in an area where hunting is popular it might make sense to learn a little bit about black powder rifles and pistols, which in some places have a lot less restrictions on them than cartridge firing firearms. Tactical Firearms Training I have my own views of firearms training and the state of the firearms training industry but will try to keep them to myself as much as I can for the sake of this article. My basic advice to anyone looking at attending any firearms training courses would be is the course relevant and is the instructor experienced enough to teach it. The best place to get a good grounding in firearms training is in the military as you should be given thorough training, the bullets will be free, and you will also be getting paid for your time. There is no way you can replicate a few years military firearms training experience by taking a two-week tactical firearms course. One issues with those who have only had regular military training is that they are only used to dealing with a limited range of firearms. Personally, I only really started to learn and use handguns other than a Browning Hi-Power after I left the British Army and worked in South Africa, Eastern Europe and then joined a gun club in UK before handguns were banned. You must ensure the training you will be getting is relevant for what your going to be doing and is of a good standard. In the U.S. the general standard for training is what’s put out by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Most people don’t realize when taking a training course from an NRA instructor that it only takes one-day to become and NRA instructor or Range Safety officer. In the United States, it’s easy for a novice shooter to become an NRA firearms instructor, as I said it’s a one-day course, SERIOUSLY! With another one-day course they can become a Range Safety Officer, and after that with another one-day course a Chief Range Safety Officer able to certify Range Safety Officers… All without any experience of ever running a firearms course or any experience of actually working on a shooting range… I have come across NRA instructors who could not field strip their own firearms, Chief Range Safety Officers who had never used revolvers or shotguns. From their certifications you would expect them to be experienced professionals! Well, think again… You cannot gain the experience required to be a decent RSO or instructor by just attending a few theory classes, watch tacticool YouTube videos and belonging to Gung-ho online chat forums. The schools issuing these NRA certifications are making money, it’s business, but how many of their students then go on to market themselves as “firearms experts” after just a few one-day classes? I think this can be classed as fraudulent in anyone’s books. It’s just like taking a first-time driver, giving them a two- or three-day theory on how to drive, showing them a car, starting the engine and then certifying them to set up a driving school… Scary, right? Always verify the real-world experience of the instructors who you’re intending to pay good money for quality training. Firearms training can be very expensive so ensure you’re not wasting your money and understand that after just a few days training you’re not going to be at a professional level, whatever your certificates say! Ongoing dry and live firearms training and weapons familiarization is essential if your serious about working in hostile environments but learn to differentiate the difference between tacticool holidays and experiences and relevant training! Tactical Firearms Training – The Basics The post Tactical Firearms Training – The Basics appeared first on Circuit Magazine.

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