A mysterious, reportedly unregistered and almost entirely unknown private security firm by the name "American Police Force" is causing a stir in a small Montana town for apparently impersonating local police.
According to a local media report, APF representatives were recently seen in the tiny town of Hardin, Montana, driving black SUV's with a peculiar logo and, inexplicably, "City of Hardin Police Department" stamped on the door.
However, Hardin does not have a police force.
The town instead contracts with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department for patrols, according to KULR 8 in Billings, Montana.
According to the news agency, APF was never given permission to assume policing duties. Instead, the firm -- which the Associated Press reported to be unregistered in government databases -- gained its contract with the town on the promise of bringing inmates to an unpopulated prison complex.
An image on KULR's Web site shows the insignia on the APF vehicles, which has caused some concern on the Internet as being of conspiratorial origin.
APF's coat of arms, a clearer version of which appeared on the group's Web site (which had been taken down at time of this writing but is viewable here), shows a double-headed eagle with a red shield and white cross borne on its breast.
The coat appears very similar to the insignia attributed to one Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich, based on RAW STORY's analysis of images hosted by Burke's Peerage & Gentry International Register of Arms. The site notes the coat as hailing from the Royal crown of Serbia.
However, the significance or implied nationality of the insignia's crown could not immediately be identified.
The double-headed eagle itself has been used repeatedly throughout history by many cultures as a symbol of empire, dominance and power.
Hardin, home to about 3,400 people, is in the state’s poorest county. Its unoccupied, 460-bed prison cost $27 million to construct. The town made national headlines earlier this year when local officials pleaded to have Guantanamo Bay inmates sent to the jail.
Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus and other Republican lawmakers have stood in the way of moving Guantanamo inmates stateside, claiming they would present an increased security risk. The political calculation has led the White House to caution that its promise to close the controversial facility in January may not materialize on schedule.
An Associated Press report on American Police Force, published Sept. 12, 2009, follows.
-- Stephen C. Webster
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/mysterious-unregistered-security-firm-policing-montana-town/
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