Kaiser Permanente, Oakland’s largest private employer, has issued a memo directing workers in downtown Oakland to stay in their buildings for lunch and work. Kaiser has office all over the Bay Area and operates in multiple states. I, Brian Wang, worked for Kaiser for seven years (2010-2017). Kaiser Permanente operates 39 hospitals and more than 700 medical offices, with over 300,000 personnel, including more than 87,000 physicians and nurses. Kaiser provides health services for over 12 million members.
Another memo issued last month, tells workers not based in Oakland to not have any meetings downtown and to instead move them elsewhere, or have them online.
In 2023, Oakland had a 21% increase in violent crime last year over 2022. Robberies climbed 38%, and burglaries increased 23%. For the second consecutive year, the city logged 120 homicides.
Health Insurer, Blue Shield, also has Oakland offices and is offering employees ride-hail services, secure parking and security guards.
There has been significant private security in Detroit for years. Above on the left is picture from private security company, Detroit Threat Management.
Robocop was a dystopian future in movies and other media that saw high crime and corporatized security to manage it.
Private security companies are reporting a boost in business, like Ranger Guard, based in Houston. The company employs 400 security guards in Texas. It also operates in Florida and Nevada. It is no longer just unarmed mall cops but armed security guards.
Popular hamburger store, In and Out, shut down an Oakland restaurant. In and Out has long lines everywhere. They shut it down because daily car break ins, car theft and for crime affecting the safety of staff and customers.
A Korean Grocery store in Oakland now has six armed guards. The store is about half the size of a Safeway.
There are police cars on every block of Oakland Chinatown. This is better than the first year or two of the Pandemic when the crime was rampant but the security and police were not matching the level of crime.
A 7-11 security was killed in Oakland in December.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
It’s rather fitting we will see the introduction of burbclaves in California
Imagine if the “Defund the Police” movement was a mass media psyop to get the public to accept replacing flesh-and-blood cops with ED209s who’s loyal to the people running their software. No need to fear any cops betraying Big Brother in the dystopian police state.
Cop-bots need to run out of server farms with the identity of the drone operator a secret…so activists can’t sue them and where you don’t have to be trigger happy either.
A gangsta kills–oh show mercy…let a cop make a mistake and it’s a riot
You dialed 911 may I have your credit card please
All this diversity
This notice is to inform you that you have been randomly selected for mandatory re-education. Our politely armed escorts will arrive soon to transport you to the facility. There you will have the option to either take all or every class including:
-“White replacement – crazy conspiracy theory”
-“Why replacing whites is a good thing”
-“How thinking too much leads to disinformation”
Enjoy your stay.
There are easy and obvious solutions to this problem but no wants to talk about them honestly , and doing so openly will ruin any politician’s career in this political climate, especially in California.
Well it depends on where you live in CA. In Orange County our DA campaigned on #DontLAmyOC and won handily.
Decline is very much a choice that some parties pursue.
“…There are easy and obvious solutions to this problem but no wants to talk about them…”
There’s always some gun law we need…supposedly. Well here’s one. Back in the day, New York State had a law that any crime committed with a gun got the death penalty. You commit a crime with a gun, quick trial, and then they put you in the electric chair. Subsequently, they had extremely low crime. Very few people committed crimes with guns. This leveled the playing field of force that could be used between the criminals and those they preyed on. All shopkeepers had a baseball bat and if you wanted to rob them you would likely get a bat to the head, so mostly people did not bother.