Darren New wrote:

> Stefan Viljoen wrote:
>> In South Africa, when you say "gated compound" it usually
>> means an expensive, high-security -compound- - one with 12 or even 14
>> foot high walls, barbed wire at the top, seismic sensors in the ground,
>> 24 hour armed patrols, an armored, guarded gatepost, very bright security
>> lights, etc.
> 
> Yeah. I've seen the car alarms that jet burning gasoline out the sides of
> the car, too. :-)

Hahaha! Though somebody did build that, it is definitely not a commercial
success. As far as I know its more a gimmick than an actual product. Nobody
I know off has been reported to have purchased one or even installed it.
There is a HUGE liability to it - imagine if you gave some innocent
criminal, all loaded with his human rights and holiness, second or third
degree burns to his legs with one. You'd go to jail and have to pay HIM
compensation - nevermind that he wanted to hijack and then shoot you.
 
> Here, we have a public walkway that goes thru the community, a city-owned
> sidewalk, basically, so we're not even allowed to keep out random
> strangers. When we didn't have a human watching the front entrance, we'd
> get random

This is the argument the government here made when some people wanted
to "gate up" their neighbourhoods. The streets and sidewalks are owned by
the city, so if you do that you are breaking the criminals' constitutional
right to free movement. So they were unable to gate up. Those who could
afford it then moved into one of these "compounds" that are privately held.

> strangers coming in and using the swimming pool.  Personally, I wasn't too
> bothered by that, except they'd start abusing the property since they
> don't care, letting the kids take a dump in the pool, getting into fights
> with the people who are supposed to be there, etc.

This is what happened to most public parks here. The neigbourhood to whom it
belongs can't use it, and "normal" people can't dare to go there after dark
or even near dusk. You cannot at all allow your kid to go play there, even
during the day. The gated communities parks and facilities are another
story, being guarded 24/7 and with no public access.
 
> But yeah, it's a real balancing act between effective government and
> abusive government, especially since it's so easy to go from ineffective
> government to corrupt worse-than-nothing government without passing thru
> the good government phase at all.

Yup, I agree totally. The trick is balance. Like the case Clipka made about
the whole "armed safe society" thread. I do agree too that freedoms (like
weapons) need to be limited, but I disagree as to the level of limitation.
A state (and a community?) only works if public and private rights are in
balance. Same with an oppressive, effective, or abusive government. 

-- 
Stefan Viljoen

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