I think it was Antonio Garcia Martinez where I read some content he made that drew a bunch of parallels to the US as very similar to LATAM in a lot of ways. I was fortunate enough to spend some time doing the digital nomad thing in Panama and personal security is way more explicit in places like that. Barbed wire around houses, big security systems, armored vehicles, etc. etc. because people didn't particularly trust the government to take great care of them. I some of these things happening in the US and its a bit concerning. I often and harshly criticize the police but they have a lot more accountability than a private security detail does. Feels like as a society we are making decisions taking us down a path of low trust and more violence. I don't pretend to know the answer though.
This doesn't really make any sense to anyone actually living in NYC<p>They don't really explain how they are guarding you and not the 79 other strangers on the block or your subway car<p>Will an armed ex-military person confront every panhandler talking sh* on the subway? Will they first yell "IS ANYONE IN THIS CAR A PAYING MEMBER OF RADIUS? PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD AND I WILL MOVE THE DIRTY PANHANDLER AWAY FROM YOU"<p>All of the explanations are about how they are patrolling all subway lines and 24 neighborhoods, but no mention of how you as a member have better protection than the person next to you<p>Other than that, its a smart idea because there is virtually no crime in these neighborhoods, just hysteria. So i'm sure they've figured their guards won't have to actually do anything
It's not so much that this business is a bad sign, as for all I know it's a hoax/PR stunt. It's the fact that it is totally believable t hat it could be real, that is a bad sign.
Anyone taking this seriously is very gullible.<p>Whole thing is laughable, stock photography, "I am very badass" language. Submitted by a new user.
Look at their numbers: "1000 elite bodyguards operating 24/7/365 across key areas of the city...", they say they're only accepting 10,000 clients, and pricing starts at $99/month ("basic") or $499/month ("elite").<p>Either their uber-elite agents are being vastly oversold, or the arithmetic of their actual revenue sources (and how they expect to meet payroll each month) is worth examining.<p>(Yes, or they aren't real after all.)
This is interesting, and I'm not sure if it's good or bad for society. Bad if they only protect wealthy paying clients (most likely scenario), but good if they protect opportunistically, and/or also involve the police.<p>The business model seems to be based on "zone" coverage, but the question will be how effective this is when actual situations take place. They're either there or they're not. It's unlikely to have an "SLA" in terms of response time in minutes since they have a flat monthly fee, while supporting swings in demand like New Years vs a normal day. My guess is the profitability of this rests on the inability of users to see how many staff are actually around. They could have 20 people on-duty and no-one would be the wiser. "Needed us? Sorry, unlucky on that one." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Super interesting while being mildly dystopian.
Wow, what FUD scaremongering:<p><i>>murder rates are up 50%</i><p>Overall, multiple sources I found indicated they're up 30% (yeah, still not good at all, but it still means the startup is overstating the relative rate increase by 40%)<p>And for NYC itself where the startup is focused, the murder rate is now on the decline [1]<p>And the whole thing, presentation style etc., seem so over the top that I wonder if it's satire or some type of attempt to get viral attention for a product/service yet to be revealed but a bit different than the private-security-as-a-service presented here.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00071/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-december-2022" rel="nofollow">https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00071/nypd-citywide-crim...</a>
While there’s undoubtedly demand for Blackwater meets Uber in the nouveau riche set, I don't think this goes far enough in securing the arriviste’s perimeter. How can I be sure my Gigachad operatives aren’t also being hired by my many opponents and detractors? How can the same foreign aristocrat who is after me be <i>using the same Gigachads as me</i> on a gig-work basis??<p>To be fair, that does already happen, and that’s why I have Gigachads watching my Gigachads. My own Gigachads are sworn enemies of my opponent’s Gigachads, and STILL, they are constantly selling each other out, often over jewelry or strangely-chambered boutique firearms. I think this is just another bunch of dilettante college kids I don't trust with my perimeter.
I love that the header "hidden in plain sight" has a photo of a person with an ear bud with a coiled phone wire heading into his jacket. It's 2023. You'd be more hidden in plain sight with a pair of headphones picked up from the Apple Store.
Gigachad, references to GTA5 etc. and the website looks like from Hitman. Who is
the clientele? Rich millennials?<p>This must be some kind of gerilla marketing for something.
their video is kind of chilling <a href="https://twitter.com/radiusNYC/status/1621578982725386240/video/1" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/radiusNYC/status/1621578982725386240/vid...</a>
Their manifesto is something else:<p><a href="https://www.radius.nyc/manifesto" rel="nofollow">https://www.radius.nyc/manifesto</a>