First, assume that a good number of my friends are mentally ill. I do. But I have a friend who says he is in the American Legion (I don’t bother doubting that because lots of people are) and he sometimes comes into meetings wearing, in addition to his Special Forces badge (maybe, though he also says he was a door gunner which, while it might explain a lot, I don’t think has an intersection with the Green Beret set) and his Blackwater badge (he’s 65 and a bit crippled from Nam and the drink so I doubt Blackwater had much use for him), a Homeland Security badge. He says that the DHS deputizes the AL for armed security at its practice emergencies and such.
Is this last part the bullshit it sounds like, since the DHS has loads of incompetents paid minimum wage to do that for them? Sure, crazy old men work for free and bring their own sidearms and Mace, but letting them boss people around seems like a false economy.
According to Wikipedia, DHS runs a program called Citizen Corps for training the general public in disaster response and recovery. The article describes the American Legion as an organization that is “partnered” with Citizen Corps. So, there may be some instances where American Legion members assist with some sort of Citizen Corps event. I’d be shocked if CC retained AL personnel as armed security, however.
But it still doesn’t explain his sidearm or Mace. I would ask him more but he’s a nice guy and likely to tell me far more than I care to know. When we were talking about his going AWOL on a two-week bender I mentioned his likely punishment, with specifics like where to find the Navy brig where all US prisoners were held. He hugged me and said, “Welcome home.”
It took me a moment to realize that he was giving me the welcome home from Nam that so many vets claim they didn’t get, but I said, “I never left. I just know more about what punishment AWOL soldiers in Vietnam received than I ever expected.”
FTR, the UCMJ leaves it at the discretion of the CO, who back then usually gave a slap on the wrist. “You aren’t getting out of combat THAT easily, Soldier!”
DHS does not deputize civilians. The federal government does not deputize civilians. The legal, financial and political liabilities from such an action are not worth it. If the federal government requires additional armed assistance, they use state and local law enforcement, or contract out to private bonafide security companies. Depending upon the nature of the event, the military can be called in under the guise of the National Guard.
At all of the practice emergencies I’ve participated in under DHS auspices, all “security” are federal employees, and all armed “security” have been federal law enforcement officers. We don’t use amateurs nor volunteers.
It all sounds like bullshit to me, every single word. Anyone can buy a badge, and while the DHS might enlist volunteers for events, they wouldn’t deputize them. This guy has some issues, me thinks.
And just because a private organization contributes members to a government program doesn’t mean that the organization has become a branch of the government or a government contractor. I knew a guy who was an ordained minister who also taught at a public college in the US. Afaik nobody said anything about there being a separation of church and state problem with this as long as he refrained from preaching on the government’s dime in the classroom.