How Do We Take Responsibility for Our Own Security?
Community solutions to crime.
(1) COMMUNITY SECURITY
Make sure that you are well integrated into the local community with strong friendships among your neighbors. You will need to call upon each other in a time of need. If your neighborhood community perceives you as separate, they are less likely to come to your aid. The more integrated your family is, the more likely an attack will be perceived as an invasion of the community. Community connections may avoid robberies from occurring. Not only may a thief in the neighborhood hesitate robbing you because of personal friendship, but neighbors that care about you could keep an eye on your property. Connections may also lead to warnings if someone in the community is talking about breaking into your house, or they are observed casing it. Your community connections can also help with capturing criminals after a crime was committed.
(2) HOUSEHOLD PREPAREDNESS
Start with yourself, your family, your property.
Keep valuables in your home hidden.
Keep a limited amount of cash on your person, in your wallet or purse. In the case of theft, less is lost.
Consider metal doors, bars over windows, a better perimeter fence and similar security measures.
(3) CIRCLE THE WAGONS
In many circumstances robberies take place in isolated areas, where the family could not be heard easily by their neighbors.
An important action is to cluster yourself with other families living in close proximity to each other. If you can have these families watching out for each other, robbers will likely avoid such places.
In the event of an attack you are more likely to have someone within earshot who can hear a cry for help and get assistance to chase off assailants.
(4) NEIGHBORHOOD DEFENSE
Share some meals with your neighbors. Talk about your families. Find some common threads.
After building some trust, come up with a neighborhood community security plan. You may want to engage the local barrio (neighborhood) president to co-organize strategies.
Neighborhood Alarm Systems
Set up a phone tree messaging network where an emergency help message can be sent to neighbors at the push of a button. You will need to collect contact information for everyone in your neighborhood.
Consider putting in alarm systems in houses in your neighborhood. Make sure that everyone knows that when they hear the sound of the alarm, everyone needs to show up armed and they need to contact everyone else in the area. Your plan may also include calling the police.
Neighborhood Security Teams
Talk to your barrio (neighborhood) about organizing a neighborhood security team. Select a team of 10 people from the neighborhood. This could include first responder medical care, someone who can manage the team well, someone to negotiate with someone that is dangerous and several people that can investigate a crime scene and capture criminals.
In the event of a robbery or violent crime, people in the neighborhood could contact their barrio president. And the barrio president would then contact the security team to respond. Everyone in the community should have the contacts for several members of the security team in case the barrio president is not available in an emergency. The barrio would decide on the appropriate punishment for crimes committed. When dealing with a gang or other organized criminal group, the barrio president can call upon the whole neighborhood to respond using the emergency calling tree. The neighborhood president can also call upon other neighborhood presidents that have organized security teams. Multiple security teams could be brought together to create a citizen defense force of 20, 30, 40, 50 or more personnel. A security force of this size should be able to sequester any gangs or criminal groups operating in our area.
Taxi Security Network
Alternately, we could set up a network of trusted taxi drivers as first responders. A selected group, perhaps with military training, could be hired as a security team by a neighborhood or other community group.
Taxi drivers are typically contactable, have vehicles, some have 4-wheel-drive and they know where most people live.
If a group of taxi drivers can be armed as private security and coordinate a rapid team response in an emergency then this might serve as an effective private security force, while providing much needed income to these taxi drivers.
(5) SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS
Often the most important evidence in solving a crime is photos of the criminals. Installing high quality cameras in hidden locations is the best way to get pictures. These pictures can be circulated on social media to ask for help in identifying the suspects. People in the community often know who is committing crimes (unless it is outsiders). Most neighborhoods know who is selling or using drugs, who is part of a gang or who is otherwise causing problems.
An Important caveat: wireless security systems using Wifi or Bluetooth are extremely harmful to the body. The microwave transmissions from wireless devices damage cells in the body and cause all manner of health problems over time.(1) Make sure to use a surveillance system connected only by wires. Disable all wireless functionality (remove the antenna modules or buy a wired-only system). You can use a radio frequency meter to check your system for transmissions.
Also, any system that is connected to the Internet wirelessly or via Ethernet cable can be used by the manufacturer of the surveillance system to monitor your family and collect data.(2) Governments are increasingly gaining access to your video feed through agreements with technology companies.(3) They can know when you are at home, and who is visiting your house. Many of these cameras also have hidden microphones, so that your conversations can be recorded.(4) There is a massive and growing market to collect and buy your personal data. International government agencies and corporations are paying for data on everyone.(5) Criminals can also hack into your system (if it is connected to the Internet) to know if you are at home.(4) Wireless and Internet connected surveillance systems are insecure. If you can connect to your surveillance system using your phone it is connected to the Internet - and therefore insecure. When all of the private and public cameras are integrated using Artificial Intelligence, transnational forces can use these devices to create SMART Cities that transform our towns and cities into concentration camps controlled by the elite. This is being done in China and elsewhere(6) … including Ecuador.
Do not use a surveillance system with wireless functionality and make sure it is not capable of connecting to the Internet. Talk to your equipment seller and ask for a system that does not have the hardware ability to connect to the Internet. Avoid systems with Wifi or Bluetooth logos on the package. Avoid SMART surveillance technology. Read the manual for the surveillance system to understand how it works and make sure the camera system is not feeding your data into the Internet.
You will need to store recordings on a SD card or something similar hidden on site, not in the Cloud. Be sure to hide any wires that lead to its location, so that burglars do not steal the video recording.
(6) PERSONAL DEFENSE
Consider the purchase of firearms for your family. Undergo basic firearms safety training so that you are familiar with how a gun works, and do not let it be used against you.
I understand that some people may be uncomfortable with this idea as they are peaceful folk or have had sheltered, comfortable lives. But if you have to make a decision between shooting someone in defense of a loved one or seeing a family member raped or killed, you may want to have the option to take down the intruder.
If Vilcabamba remains a soft target the home invasion problem will not go away. When this area becomes dangerous for criminals to operate in (i.e. they consistently end up shot upon breaking in), then they will look elsewhere for more susceptible prey.
Start a local gun club to teach each other, practice, and improve your abilities. Shooting competitions and other events could be organized.
If you have land, you could host a monthly shooting practice on your property among friends. The neighbors will know that you are armed. This may have a deterrent effect upon crime. You can also be of more use when you hear your neighbors call for help if your family can show up with firearms. Invite your neighbors to come over and shoot off a few rounds. This may encourage them to get armed as well, strengthening neighborhood security.
(7) IMPROVED POLICING
A trusted community member could maintain a list of police contacts that are trustworthy, honest, have integrity, are principled and motivated to stop criminals. In the event of a crime, this police liaison could form a team of officers to do an actual investigation, take finger print samples, look for tracks in the dirt to get the shoe size and pattern, and collect other forensics. This community liaison or the selected group of officers can take a crime victim through the process of filing a police report. The contact number for this liaison could be circulated widely to the community. This liaison could become the preferred number to contact in the event of an emergency because of the quality of care and service offered. This could address the issue of the often disappointing level of help offered by the police that show up late (if at all) from a 911 call.
Community fundraising for the police could be more intentionally directed to this group of honest and active officers.
(8) CRIME MAP
A community crime map could be generated. One idea is to place the locations where robberies have occurred on a map to understand patterns and geographical concentrations. This information could be made available to the community.
While it is possible that some families could use this map to select a safer location to live in, for most neighbors, they can use the map to plot patterns or trails used by criminals.
(9) GLOBAL SITUATION
As planetary moral deterioration continues in its downward spiral, we face a humanity that is increasingly operating without consideration for others. Violence and crime is glorified in music and media. Electronic devices, poor nutrition, and chemical pollutants are damaging the body and the minds of individuals. This leads to increased crime and anti-social behavior.
Our collective environmental health determines our social health. It is our responsibility to rid our communities of agrochemicals; to assure that people are eating nutrient dense, healthy, fresh, organic, local food; to eliminate electromagnetic radiation exposures (such as wifi, cell phones, bluetooth, and cell towers); to keep our waterways clean; to sleep well; and to keep our thinking positive.
In order to protect our children from the dangers of these times, we can discourage their use of cell phones, monitor their exposure to violence in movies or video games, turn off wifi in the home, and encourage their involvement with friends, sports, and nature. We can keep alive family traditions based on caring for one another and participating in community safety.
We can choose to stand for our community values and culture. We have this power as responsible citizens. Begging national authorities to protect us gives them the power. Very often, our local authorities answer to higher authorities, who answer to those above them ... all the way to the global level. If it so happens that their allegiances are not with us, we can expect their solutions to our calls for help to be answered with cameras and other technologies that will be used against us and a free society. If you decide to make appeals for help to authorities outside of the community, be sure to be clear that you do not want government camera surveillance infrastructure in response to crime in the area.
We (this includes you) need to take control of the situation. We need to be responsible for finding solutions. The world is the way it is because we have allowed others to make decisions for us. We have let others represent us and by doing so we have given our power away. If we want the situation on Earth to improve we need to take back control of our communities.
REFERENCES
(1) BioInitiative Report: A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF), 2022: https://bioinitiative.org/
(2) Ecuador’s All-Seeing Eye Is Made in China: The country's pioneering surveillance and response system is entirely Chinese-built and funded, August 2018: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/09/ecuadors-all-seeing-eye-is-made-in-china/
(3) EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRISM: A cheat sheet for the NSA's unprecedented surveillance programs, July 2013: https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/17/4517480/nsa-spying-prism-surveillance-cheat-sheet
(4) The tech flaw that lets hackers control surveillance cameras, June 2023: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65975446
(5) 'The goal is to automate us': welcome to the age of surveillance capitalism, January 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/20/shoshana-zuboff-age-of-surveillance-capitalism-google-facebook
(6) Inside China's Massive Surveillance Operation, May 2019: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-chinas-massive-surveillance-operation/
Read more of the…
TECHNOCRACY SERIES
Do Surveillance Cameras Control Crime?
Surveillance Cameras in Vilcabamba
How do we Take Responsibility for our own Security? (this article)
How to Avoid and Eliminate the Beast System’s SMART Technology