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What do Mayweather & Labelle have in common

http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2011/06/28/Mayweather-bodyguards-in-assault-suit/UPI-98121309288482/

They have both hired attack dogs. Our industry is really getting infected by these folks. The saddest part of it all is that the uninitiated client assumes that bodyguards like this are the same people that advertise as executive protection specialists.

I am making it my business to be the town crier like the minutemen did in the revolutionary war, “The bodyguards are coming, the bodyguards are coming!”. Why you ask? It’s this simple, there is a clear line of separation from what we deliver and what they deliver. There is a distinct mindset difference.

This article is yet another example of where we are headed if the so called experts, who have a following don’t take a stand and speak out LOUD about this. My view is this, if you claim to be an expert and you remain silent, then you’re aquiescing. This is the time that silence isn’t golden it assists in permeating the fecal aroma that’s amidst.

Read this article and see the similarities between the Patti Labelle incident and this one. Either way, these guys they’ve hired are going to cost them a pretty good penny.

1 comment

  1. Mark

    Eric

    You have done a great job stimulating thought if not discussion on the subjects of close in / personnel protection that some don’t seem to want to or have the ability to discuss in a professional and helpful manner. Ethics, professionalism and many more soft skills are just not sexy or eye catching not to mention lost on most who’s experiences have not taught them the value of.

    I would like to point out one thing that is less scientific than your earlier words, its basic – ACCESS. Contrary to what some of us think we have no more authority than the people we protect. Some may be annoyed by me stating such an obvious fact but if you know that and apply that to your peace time as well as war time actions I am not referring to you. What a lack of understanding in that fact does is suggest that we have the authority to put handcuffs on someone that was “annoying” during a campaign speech in Alaska, or suggests that we have the authority to force someone into a particular area of a venue so our principal can pass through a room and of course more recently put hands on someone that presents a threat to our principal’s luggage.

    We all have to be willing to police our ranks these days because our craft is no longer a hidden specialty that naturally spits out the garbage. It is now a well known profession that has grown exponentially due to needs as well as interest. In that growth unfortunately comes a lack of process moving toward knowledge in what makes a specialist beyond the gun-play or kung-fu style, and of course what laws regulate ones actions in a particular jurisdiction. Those same professionals that were maybe annoyed in my previous paragraph, I now get to my point of ACCESS. Our authority that provides us with access, privilege, courtesy and simple “don’t mess with me” is GIVEN to us by those that observe us or those we are interacting with, it is not owed to us or even sworn to as in a police officer. What that means is the only authority we possess is defense of threat to life and limb and you better understand preclusion when you have to explain why you put your hands on someone or denied or detained someone. Now purely from a business perspective, The Palms Casino may now implement policies that are not conducive to the rest of us easily or effectively protecting our principals upon a visit to their venue. Now apply that possibility to any venue that any one of our principals may visit in Vegas or Paris for that matter. I am sure there are some readers that have had to experience a difficult security director at a venue that just doesn’t like EP specialists, bodyguards or in Mayweather’s case, catfish. This same security director probably has no interest in supporting or flat out denies access to us before we can even show that we are not like some of the idiots he reads about on the internet or some but not all of the goons he sees on TMZ .

    I say all of this because some of us may not care and feel that that type of incident will not impact us or our operations; that may be true for some but I would bet not for all. For most though I would offer an important aspect of maintaining that access or the given authority we enjoy and that is we must be aware of what we can and cannot do, and when able, call out those that do not as well as educate observers or purchasers of our product that there is a higher caliber of individual out there and this is how you can tell the difference.

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