Wisconsin Mining Company Hires Paramilitary Guards

9 July 2013 Min­ing com­pa­ny Goge­bic Taconite has hired para­mil­i­tary guards from Ari­zona firm Bul­let­proof Secu­ri­ties Force fol­low­ing a protest at its explorato­ry mine site in Wisconsin’s Peno­kee Hills in which some minor van­dal­ism occurred.

From Pop­u­lar Resis­tance:

Peo­ple who live near the large taconite mine in Peno­kee Hills, WI are grow­ing con­cerned about the pres­ence of mil­i­tary-style armed guards. The mine is not active yet, but pro­posed with drilling and sam­pling tak­ing place….

Dear Neigh­bors — GTAC now has men in mil­i­tary fatigues with auto­mat­ic weapons in the Peno­kee Hills– lands that you have legal access to as they are in Man­aged For­est sta­tus. IS THIS THE KIND OF BUSINESS we want in our com­mu­ni­ty?

The pub­li­ca­tion of pho­tos of the guards, bear­ing auto­mat­ic rifles while dressed in com­bat fatigues and some­times even masked, has stirred up a firestorm in Wis­con­sin, and two state leg­is­la­tors have already asked the com­pa­ny to remove the armed guards, not­ing that the guards have no legal author­i­ty to use force.