I came across a strange app that offers you ride-sharing apps where the drivers are armed and the cars are bulletproof. I think this app is an another example of pseudo-security being marketed to the uber-rich.
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00:00:00:08 - 00:00:20:02 Bennett Tomlin Welcome back to my personal channel, everyone, where the rules are made up and we remember that the rich and powerful are the problem. I was recently scrolling through Instagram reels, a questionable decision at the best of times and came across something that shocked me. Which is not an easy thing to do. I was on 4chan as a teenager. So what shocked me? 00:00:20:14 - 00:00:21:29 Bennett Tomlin Well, it was this video. 00:00:21:29 - 00:00:32:29 Kerry KingBrown You got Uber and you got Lyft Now you have the wolf. Here's the biggest difference. Your driver is an armed driver. You have unarmed and you have armed. They're both trained, highly skilled drivers. 00:00:32:29 - 00:00:55:16 Bennett Tomlin Listen, I've wished many things when ordering an Uber before. That they actually picked me up where the app said they were supposed to pick me up, that they wouldn't even ask me for instructions in cities I've never been to, But never once have one of those thoughts been: I hope this person has a gun. If guns ever did come into my thoughts, it was almost certainly, I hope this person does not have a gun. 00:00:55:22 - 00:01:17:23 Bennett Tomlin So apparently I'm not the target market for this app. But what is it and who is the target market? As far as I can tell this app is a way to schedule and book what is basically bodyguards, executive protection drivers and the cars they use for this are supposedly extra secure. They show two examples on TikTok of the cars they use. 00:01:18:01 - 00:01:22:05 Bennett Tomlin One is $150,000 bulletproof GMC SUV. 00:01:22:17 - 00:01:24:26 Interviewer Hey, what type of car is this? 00:01:24:26 - 00:01:32:17 Kerry KingBrown The bulletproof GMC 2023. All bulletproof windows. Check the thickness of this inside. It's bulletproof as well. 00:01:32:17 - 00:01:34:01 Interviewer So the body is bulletproof. 00:01:34:01 - 00:01:49:05 Kerry KingBrown Body is bulletproof. Everything is bulletproof. Hope you all like guns. All our vehicles have to come first aid Black Wolf Bag. Vest for our drivers. Turnoiquet. Fire extinguisher. This is not for any 00:01:49:05 - 00:01:58:05 Kerry KingBrown and everybody, you have to go on our website. You have to click the link to submit a form to get one of these again to sign up for every single day. These are for clients who need this. 00:01:58:06 - 00:02:12:25 Bennett Tomlin Yep. Hope you like guns and also really thick windows. Remember, this is for people who need this and that'll be important later. The other car they show us is even more expensive. A $400,000 Rolls-Royce. 00:02:13:06 - 00:02:14:14 Interviewer Is this your car? 00:02:14:14 - 00:02:15:15 Kerry KingBrown Yes sir it is. What’s happening? 00:02:15:15 - 00:02:16:23 Interviewer What do you do for a living man? 00:02:16:23 - 00:02:31:09 Kerry KingBrown I own the Black Wolf App. So Uber and Lyft that's an app, correct? Yeah, Same as mine. Only difference is I got armed driver's. We provide security. We want to make everybody safe and feel secure. All right, let's. Let's say you're riding. Your mom says, hey, I want you to go somewhere. 00:02:31:15 - 00:02:38:27 Kerry KingBrown If your mom is worried about you, I can send her a link. Your mom can live track me and she can livestream you in my vehicle. She can see you. 00:02:39:09 - 00:02:41:09 Interviewer And you guys said you’re armed? 00:02:42:08 - 00:02:51:07 Kerry KingBrown As you can tell, we are all licensed and insured. This is for our customers. I've been around the White House, Capitol Hill. Every major hip hop artist you can possibly think of. 00:02:51:18 - 00:03:10:25 Bennett Tomlin I'm going to talk directly to my own mother here for a second. Mom, I cannot believe that you just let me wait at a bus stop and then get on a bus to go to my public school. Did you not realize what intense danger I was in the entire time? Mom, I cannot believe that you never once realized that my trip to school desperately needed an armed guard in a bulletproof car. 00:03:11:04 - 00:03:46:04 Bennett Tomlin Every single day. You risk my life by making me ride to school on a school bus. It's crazy that school busses even exist. Every student needs their own armed guard More seriously, this is clearly absurd. There is very minimal danger for almost every single student on their way to school. And the stories you do hear of students who get assaulted on their way to school would almost certainly never be the ones able to afford to pay for a daily armored transport. That drive your kids to school product is literally one of their core product offerings advertised right on their home page, by the way. 00:03:46:15 - 00:04:09:28 Bennett Tomlin This is a fundamental aspect of their business and their marketing. It does make me wonder if the parents paying for this understand that kids are getting shot inside the schools because of our societal inability to grapple with gun culture and very rarely are getting killed in violent confrontations on their way to school. So yeah, deal with that problem. 00:04:09:28 - 00:04:19:11 Bennett Tomlin Maybe. But hey, maybe it's worth it for these parents to know that just like every school bus I've ever been on, these drivers carry a first aid kit with them. 00:04:19:19 - 00:04:43:29 Kerry KingBrown Does Uber or Lyft have anything like this? First aid? CPR AED? I don't think so. Let's say there's a young kid choking. Guys, we have a thing called Quick Saver. You take this, you place it over the young child's mouth and you breathe through it knowing your compressions. Let's say there's a wound. You guys will wrap this as tight as possible. 00:04:44:14 - 00:05:09:11 Kerry KingBrown And it goes around the leg and it actually stops the bleeding. We have our choice of our, fire light sticks or cotton tips for any nosebleeds, blister release pads. abdominalcombine pads. Yeah, Band-Aids, triangular bandage, emergency blankets, scissors, eye pads instant cold compress, even emergency puncture release. These are the important things as to why we are not Uber. 00:05:09:22 - 00:05:29:05 Kerry KingBrown We are not Lyft. We’re not even trying to compete with them. We want to show you guys safety first no matter what, no matter who the rider is, the color, the creed, the sex orientation. Guys, we provide safety for every body. Our drivers are well-trained, and we want to let you guys know we are the black wolf app safety first. 00:05:29:15 - 00:06:00:10 Bennett Tomlin Listen, it's a good idea to carry a first aid kit and an emergency kit in your car. You probably should if you own your own car, it's helpful. But also, again, we're talking about rare and extraordinary circumstances here, especially when you were in Atlanta, which is where this is based out of, because you're in a city, there's emergency services, there's other people you are unlikely to be like in a situation where having the first aid kit or not having the first aid kit in your Uber is going to mean the difference between life and death. 00:06:00:26 - 00:06:04:25 Bennett Tomlin So who is this for? Well, Atlanta Housewives, for one. 00:06:04:29 - 00:06:15:24 Atlanta Housewife Safety is always a concern in every major city. That's why I love using the black wolf app. I can go out with my friends and enjoy amazing night in the city. And I don't have to worry about a thing. You feel nice and secure all night long. 00:06:16:10 - 00:06:43:12 Bennett Tomlin Also, musicians you see on the website for this application, the CEO one, Kerry KingBrown, who you have been seeing in many of these clips, talks a little bit about the portfolio of people he has protected, and that includes Chris Brown DaBaby Chris Brown again had to make the list twice, Rick Ross, Joyner Lucas, Ty Dolla Sign, YK Osiris, Tory Lanez, Meek Mills, Gucci Mane, T.I., Young Jeezy, Lil Kim, Chaka Khan, and many more. 00:06:43:15 - 00:07:02:20 Bennett Tomlin I don't want to spend too long on this list, but I do want to highlight that it opens on Chris Brown, the woman beater, and then includes him a second time just to make sure if you don't know, DaBaby would be the homophobe who slapped a woman at a concert and keeps shooting people. Tory Lanez is spelled wrong on the website and would be the one who allegedly shot Megan Thee Stallion. 00:07:02:29 - 00:07:22:10 Bennett Tomlin As part of that, he had to surrender all of his guns. And you know what? I will concede that none of those three should be armed. If they need guns around them, they should let professionals carry them. All three of them have shown they do not have the temperament to carry guns. Besides rappers, they also provide security for politicians. 00:07:23:01 - 00:07:57:27 Bennett Tomlin A specific type of politician, really. On the website, Kerry says he's been around and worked with a long list of other people, which is a peculiar phrase that makes it seem like some of these are not really his clients. That list includes the royal family of Qatar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. You may notice something about the list specifically that the politicians and leaders who made that list tend to be either authoritarian or explicitly fascist. 00:07:58:08 - 00:08:16:13 Bennett Tomlin MTG in there was especially interesting to me, so I decided to look into it a little. I went further through Black Wolf’s TikTok and I found this reposted news report that featured them and in it is a very brief little clip that seems like it shows Marjorie Taylor Greene. 00:08:16:13 - 00:08:19:21 News Presenter Is bodyguard for celebrities and politicians And now 00:08:19:21 - 00:08:28:06 Bennett Tomlin it was brief. And I didn't want to assume that Marjorie Taylor Greene regularly used this app. So I kept digging around until I found another clip. 00:08:28:06 - 00:08:36:09 Kerry KingBrown All Black Wolf riders will receive the same level of top tier service in transportation and protection, just like our Congress members and presidents. 00:08:36:10 - 00:08:58:26 Bennett Tomlin That is unequivocally Marjorie Taylor Greene. And also insinuates that they have provided protection for Donald Trump. It's even more confirmed that that actually is Marjorie Taylor. Greene Because you see Marjorie Taylor. Greene has tweeted about this app. So Black Wolf app provides protections for abusers and fascists. And this is the core of the company that I wanted to get it for you. 00:08:58:26 - 00:09:18:25 Bennett Tomlin All the people who this service is providing protection for are high profile, violent people and high profile authoritarians and fascists. Also parents who need to send their kids to school, apparently. Before we get into why I find this product so deeply disturbing, I did want to briefly discuss what I think are some of the problems with the basic business model. 00:09:19:08 - 00:09:26:01 Bennett Tomlin Consider this free consulting Kerry. This service has much higher demands on drivers and vehicles than Uber. 00:09:26:03 - 00:09:50:05 Kerry KingBrown You guys want to know how you become a Black Wolf App driver? There's a minimum of five years, whether you're in military, private security, law enforcement. Those are requirements. Five years, minimum CPR, first aid, AED. You have to be certified in those whatever state that you are in, you have to be licensed CCW and your security guard can't remember whatever gun that you're carrying has to be on your license. 00:09:50:05 - 00:10:07:13 Kerry KingBrown Guys, we're looking for the top tier operators in each state that we will go into. Guys, we want security and safety for all of our riders, all of our clients. We want them to know that they are secure. Whether you are armed or unarmed, you are on the same level. There is no difference. Guys, this is so important. 00:10:07:18 - 00:10:23:26 Kerry KingBrown This is what makes us different from Uber and Lyft. Another thing. Comprehensive background checks. Every one of our drivers have to go through that. We check everything from high school to where they are now. We are not playing. We're looking for the top tier operators. That is, who will become like Black Wolf App drivers. 00:10:24:12 - 00:10:47:14 Bennett Tomlin This necessitates the service charging a premium over Uber. Demand for this product will be unpredictable, in part because it's more expensive. People in Atlanta , where the service currently is, who need regular protection will organize regular protection, which means that the primary focus of this ends up being visitors or people trying to convince other people that they are important enough to need protection. 00:10:47:15 - 00:11:06:26 Bennett Tomlin This is a far less predictable level of demand. In order to meet it, you need an adequate number of drivers in cars who again are being compensated higher than Uber drivers to cover these surges. When these important people visit Atlanta. Uber's business model mostly only really worked if they're able to monopolize or near monopolize the ride sharing industry. 00:11:07:05 - 00:11:42:28 Bennett Tomlin And in order to get to a point where they started to nearly monopolize the ride sharing industry, they've had to burn millions and millions and millions of dollars running at a loss for years to reach that position. In a situation where Black Wolf brought on funding to try to do that same kind of strategy. Uber would likely use it as a test to see if there was significant demand, and if there was, they would offer a competing product being able to tap their larger pool of demand with their preexisting install base to offer a similar product likely at a lower price than Black Wolf will be able to compete with, especially since Uber's business tactics 00:11:42:28 - 00:12:12:23 Bennett Tomlin over the years have largely been to try to undercut competitors running at a loss in order to force them out of the market so they can more easily try to monopolize. Best case scenario, I think this product ends up being mostly lead gen for their more bespoke offerings of protections. You find some executive who for some reason needs protection and done it before uses this initially likes it and then enters into an arrangement with Black Wolf Exec, which is another related company in order to figure out their ongoing protection needs. 00:12:13:09 - 00:12:29:20 Bennett Tomlin Otherwise, I could see this serving for a company that is doing some of that bespoke protection as a good place to train some of your newer hires. You start them driving for the app. You make sure they get their experience there, that they're able to interact with clients, and then you move them on to your more bespoke protection details. 00:12:29:21 - 00:12:46:26 Bennett Tomlin Otherwise, I really struggled to get to a point where you can charge a price that will have enough baseline demand to justify enough drivers to make the product work when there's surges. But I'm not a venture capitalist. I'm not an entrepreneur. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the economics or the demand. And the demand is kind of what I want to talk about. 00:12:46:26 - 00:13:06:12 Bennett Tomlin Anyways. Let's get one thing straight. Violent crime in America today is way less than it was a few decades ago. The rich and the conservative, a Venn diagram that is very nearly a circle love to imagine that they are at some incredible risk now, often fantasizing about crime waves in the city that are aberrant or that puts them in extraordinary danger. 00:13:06:21 - 00:13:36:25 Bennett Tomlin But again, statistically, these rates are far lower than they used to be and have been basically consistently falling for most of the American history. There's also been a tendency to sell protection from this fear to the rich, whether this is an indulgence sold by the church that helps your immortal soul reach the promised land earlier, or whether you are an AI CEO building bunkers in New Zealand, those with the capital and therefore the power always want to isolate themselves from the potential consequences of their actions. 00:13:36:26 - 00:14:07:01 Bennett Tomlin Consider in cryptocurrency the tendency of Maximalists to discuss their citadels. They will own once hyperbitcoinization occurs. These castles are very explicitly meant to keep out the swarms of people who did not make it. The rich and powerful are terrified of the possibility that those they have exploited in order to become the rich and powerful will eventually turn their attention against the rich and powerful, and especially that they may choose the French solution to the problem of the rich and powerful. 00:14:07:02 - 00:14:14:19 Bennett Tomlin So they buy bunkers. So we have Elon Musk discussing how the Cybertruck is dystopian technology meant to survive an apocalypse. 00:14:14:21 - 00:14:16:28 Jay Leno Is that a special kind of glass? Is that different? 00:14:16:28 - 00:14:17:12 Elon Musk Oh yeah, 00:14:17:12 - 00:14:18:27 Jay Leno than normal windshield glass. 00:14:18:27 - 00:14:32:11 Elon Musk We are going to be using effectively a form of armored glass for the car and the door panel of the car are the 300 series stainless steel. And it's so tough that it's bulletproof to handguns. 00:14:32:11 - 00:14:34:21 Jay Leno Why is that important to you? That it'd be bulletproof? I mean, 00:14:34:23 - 00:14:36:21 Elon Musk It’s just badass. 00:14:36:21 - 00:14:37:24 Jay Leno Well, yeah, okay. 00:14:37:24 - 00:14:37:27 Elon Musk Super cool. 00:14:37:27 - 00:14:41:07 Jay Leno Yeah that’s super cool. I like that answer. That's a good answer. 00:14:41:07 - 00:14:42:23 Elon Musk Do you want your truck to be bulletproof or not? 00:14:42:23 - 00:14:46:05 Jay Leno Yeah, I guess. I guess I want my truck to be bulletproof. 00:14:46:05 - 00:14:52:25 Elon Musk Exactly. You know, you never know, when the apocalypse comes you’ll be glad it’s bulletproof. I want to be a leader in apocalypse technology. 00:14:52:26 - 00:14:53:16 Jay Leno Exactly. 00:14:55:02 - 00:15:16:26 Bennett Tomlin And really, that's the upper middle class solution. Or the lower upper class solution, if you prefer. If you're really rich, you'll be able to take a starship to Mars to escape the apocalyptic consequences of choices you have made. That's Elon Musk's pitch. This is that same thing. It is marketing the illusion of safety to the rich and powerful. 00:15:17:15 - 00:15:38:10 Bennett Tomlin This, like the Cybertruck, though, is aimed at the lower upper class. If you're a billionaire, then you probably already have some type of security and you do not need an app to help you schedule this same, if you're a really high profile celebrity, you're going to have people managing that type of thing for you. So this is for the people who like to fantasize that they are in danger. 00:15:38:29 - 00:16:02:23 Bennett Tomlin It's the property developer with $10 million who thinks they're an incredibly important person in town who's at danger. It's broadly those who have some vague sense of impending consequences for our societal inequity, but who cannot afford a real citadel, who do not have actual around the clock security, but want to convince themselves that the drive from their McMansion to the airport is fraught with impending danger. 00:16:02:24 - 00:16:19:21 Bennett Tomlin They want to believe that the morning trip where the nanny drives the kid to the private school is one where at any moment gunfire could break out because being the target of violence like this, even imaginary makes you feel important. So you buy a cybertruck with windows marketed as bulletproof that shatter on stage. 00:16:20:04 - 00:16:28:14 Tesla presenter Sure, yeah. Oh, my God. Well, maybe that was a little too hard. 00:16:28:22 - 00:16:53:07 Bennett Tomlin So you overpay for these drivers to take your kids to school. You use your vast wealth in this consumptive manner to convince yourself that you have dealt with the danger inherent in the society, that you have specifically benefited from. Almost no one who will pay for a Black Wolf ride actually needs the protection and the few individuals who may need protection, need it because they have either lived violent lives or have worked to advance violence. 00:16:54:00 - 00:17:17:25 Bennett Tomlin This is not an app for you. You if you were watching me on YouTube right now, almost certainly do not need an armed Uber. The people who think they need it are those at the top of our deeply unequal society, terrified that at some point things may become more equal. Thank you for watching. And if you enjoyed this, then consider checking out some of my other videos like this recent one. 00:17:17:25 - 00:17:20:09 Bennett Tomlin Taking a look at George Santos's indictment. 00:17:21:03 - 00:17:23:24 Tesla presenter Oh my God. Oh, my.
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