> It takes only a few armed and motivated men to dominate hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. So disarmament and pacifism is not a workable strategy until the day we start programming people as if they were machines
This is was a lot people don't see. How easy it is to create a dictator ship with a "system" like that
The same phrase you quoted resonated with me. South Africa does have some violent crime. I don't know how it relates to other countries. We are fourth on the list when it comes to expenditure on private security per capita[1]. That's not all we spend money on. Next week a contractor is coming to fit an electric fence around our block of flats. Most homes now have high walls, alarms, sensor of all sorts. I grew up in a small town there were hardly fences. Fences were probably to protect against pesky kids stealing fruit and prevent cows eating up people's gardens.
To your point, it is just a small group of violent thieves that have the rest of us under siege. Everyone is security conscious and not at ease. I don't think trying to talk sense into these gangsters is going to work. It makes me mad that another man is making live life in a manner that I loathe.
Why don’t vigilantes solve this, assuming the State refuses to do so? It would certainly be cheaper to redirect some of the passive and defensive security expenditure to intelligence and targeted killing.
See that's the thing. vigilantism is illegal, society as a whole frowns upon violence. Thus good healthy men end up building fences and hoping another man (the thief) cannot attack them. The government has its challenges solving the crime issue and I would venture that the criminals are more motivated/organized/have less red tape than the cops. Not everyone is lying down and accepting the status quo. Neighborhood watch committees exist. Some neighborhoods have put up boom gates which have caused a stink because it is perceived as limiting people's movement.
More to your question. Occasionally frustrations boil over and communities take the law into their own hands [1][2]. This is the other extreme to the criminals.
This is was a lot people don't see. How easy it is to create a dictator ship with a "system" like that