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Globall War of Terror - Charity and Grace
The math was brutally simple. We could not afford to feed, provide medical care to, house or secure (from each other!) thousands of people. Not a won't. A can't.
We could probably water them. Probably. But without security that wouldn't last long.
So we had to hold the perimeter and we had to hold it hard.
Our first perimeter was rolls of yellow caution tape along the perimeter roads, and white toilet paper - yes, really - along less trafficked areas. We backed it by printed paper signs every fifty feet, in ordinary 8 1/2" by 11" plastic protectors when we ran out of laminator paper.
[CLIENT] SECURITY
PRIVATE PROPERTY
NO TRESPASSING
DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED
In front of the perimeter tape we cleared - quickly, in some places with the tractor, in others with hand tools - a scraped line in the ground of bare dirt.
Our first six exterior posts were:
Post 1: South Gate
Post 2: South East Corner
Post 3: North East Corner
Post 4: North Gate
Post 5: North West Corner
Post 6: South West Corner
All posts were staffed during the day by employees with rifles. At night they were staffed by guards with the same rifles.
Reaction was the site pickup truck with two employees and a guard, one rifle and one radio.
The corner guards were responsible for two sides of the perimeter each. This gave overlapping coverage, backed by the gate guards.
The post would call in a problem. "Approaching" or "On Perimeter" or "Security Breach" or "Intruder." For the last two, the radio call was generally at the same time as the rifle fire.
The first few days were totally crazy. We had crews of employees push and flip disabled vehicles to create a north perimeter line on either side of the north gate. We continued to scrape the physical line in the dirt on the outside and the inside of the tape. Once this was completed all the way around, we widened it on both sides. Then we started installing fencing with whatever we could lay hands on - salvaged barbed wire, garden fencing, rolls of obsolete network cable, you name it.
Cross the first line, challenge with threat of deadly force. Cross the tape or the wire, authorized to open fire. Cross the second line, _required_ to open fire.
Any actual fencing we could spare went to the north and south gates. Signage was different.
[CLIENT] SECURITY
PRIVATE PROPERTY
EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS ONLY
-> IDENTIFY YOURSELF TO GUARDS <-
-> 100% ID CHECK <-
VISITORS MUST USE OTHER GATE
DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED
Yes, we had this sign at both the North and South Gates. If someone bounced back and forth, they were a visitor and we had no use for them.
At first, I camped at the North Gate with my tattered, six month old printed copy of the printed Personnel Directory. Then we managed to run an actual live network cable out to the North Gate and used a laptop to check the stored local copy of the electronic directory. (Later this was repurposed for cameras. Waste not, want not.)
When we permanently closed the North Gate to vehicles, we made a slight change to the signage.
PERSONNEL ENTRANCE ONLY
NO PARKING WITHIN 100 METERS
PARK FURTHER AWAY AT YOUR OWN RISK
And a little closer (actually about 90 meters):
STOP! ALTO!
VEHICLES MOVED PAST THIS SIGN
WILL BE IMMEDIATELY
DESTROYED BY GUNFIRE
A few people did actually park beyond the signs at first. I finally had a couple scrapped and one shot up car pushed out there so that people would see this and be discouraged.
The perimeter camp was my fault. In between Post #2 and Post #3, on the eastern perimeter, there was some existing cattle fencing separating client property from the neighbor's farmland. So when people were utterly desperate for somewhere to go, and wouldn't leave, and had some tenuous connection with the site but were not eligible to enter, they tended to congregate over there.
That meant we had to search the encampment for weapons. That meant we were providing a certain level of security. And when all else has turned to shit, a little security is a whole lot more than none.
When we finally figured out how to get the autotiller attached to the farmer's tractor, and used it to create bare earth outer perimeters, we ended up putting the perimeter camp _between_ the two roads. So the next step was to control access, identify and badge everyone inside, and require that any entry to the perimeter camp now be controlled through our gates.
I won't kick myself too hard. We arguably saved four hundred lives in that camp, at least for a time, and only had to shoot a dozen or so.
Other numbered posts were elsewhere on the perimeter. Lettered posts were associated with the appropriate building, or important spots inside. (Building "M" didn't exist; that was the Motor Pool. Ditto Building "S" for Fire _S_tation.)
It wasn't planned, not really. It just grew, revised occasionally based on our needs and occasional reaction to current events.
Such as truck bombings.
We could probably water them. Probably. But without security that wouldn't last long.
So we had to hold the perimeter and we had to hold it hard.
Our first perimeter was rolls of yellow caution tape along the perimeter roads, and white toilet paper - yes, really - along less trafficked areas. We backed it by printed paper signs every fifty feet, in ordinary 8 1/2" by 11" plastic protectors when we ran out of laminator paper.
[CLIENT] SECURITY
PRIVATE PROPERTY
NO TRESPASSING
DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED
In front of the perimeter tape we cleared - quickly, in some places with the tractor, in others with hand tools - a scraped line in the ground of bare dirt.
Our first six exterior posts were:
Post 1: South Gate
Post 2: South East Corner
Post 3: North East Corner
Post 4: North Gate
Post 5: North West Corner
Post 6: South West Corner
All posts were staffed during the day by employees with rifles. At night they were staffed by guards with the same rifles.
Reaction was the site pickup truck with two employees and a guard, one rifle and one radio.
The corner guards were responsible for two sides of the perimeter each. This gave overlapping coverage, backed by the gate guards.
The post would call in a problem. "Approaching" or "On Perimeter" or "Security Breach" or "Intruder." For the last two, the radio call was generally at the same time as the rifle fire.
The first few days were totally crazy. We had crews of employees push and flip disabled vehicles to create a north perimeter line on either side of the north gate. We continued to scrape the physical line in the dirt on the outside and the inside of the tape. Once this was completed all the way around, we widened it on both sides. Then we started installing fencing with whatever we could lay hands on - salvaged barbed wire, garden fencing, rolls of obsolete network cable, you name it.
Cross the first line, challenge with threat of deadly force. Cross the tape or the wire, authorized to open fire. Cross the second line, _required_ to open fire.
Any actual fencing we could spare went to the north and south gates. Signage was different.
[CLIENT] SECURITY
PRIVATE PROPERTY
EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS ONLY
-> IDENTIFY YOURSELF TO GUARDS <-
-> 100% ID CHECK <-
VISITORS MUST USE OTHER GATE
DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED
Yes, we had this sign at both the North and South Gates. If someone bounced back and forth, they were a visitor and we had no use for them.
At first, I camped at the North Gate with my tattered, six month old printed copy of the printed Personnel Directory. Then we managed to run an actual live network cable out to the North Gate and used a laptop to check the stored local copy of the electronic directory. (Later this was repurposed for cameras. Waste not, want not.)
When we permanently closed the North Gate to vehicles, we made a slight change to the signage.
PERSONNEL ENTRANCE ONLY
NO PARKING WITHIN 100 METERS
PARK FURTHER AWAY AT YOUR OWN RISK
And a little closer (actually about 90 meters):
STOP! ALTO!
VEHICLES MOVED PAST THIS SIGN
WILL BE IMMEDIATELY
DESTROYED BY GUNFIRE
A few people did actually park beyond the signs at first. I finally had a couple scrapped and one shot up car pushed out there so that people would see this and be discouraged.
The perimeter camp was my fault. In between Post #2 and Post #3, on the eastern perimeter, there was some existing cattle fencing separating client property from the neighbor's farmland. So when people were utterly desperate for somewhere to go, and wouldn't leave, and had some tenuous connection with the site but were not eligible to enter, they tended to congregate over there.
That meant we had to search the encampment for weapons. That meant we were providing a certain level of security. And when all else has turned to shit, a little security is a whole lot more than none.
When we finally figured out how to get the autotiller attached to the farmer's tractor, and used it to create bare earth outer perimeters, we ended up putting the perimeter camp _between_ the two roads. So the next step was to control access, identify and badge everyone inside, and require that any entry to the perimeter camp now be controlled through our gates.
I won't kick myself too hard. We arguably saved four hundred lives in that camp, at least for a time, and only had to shoot a dozen or so.
Other numbered posts were elsewhere on the perimeter. Lettered posts were associated with the appropriate building, or important spots inside. (Building "M" didn't exist; that was the Motor Pool. Ditto Building "S" for Fire _S_tation.)
It wasn't planned, not really. It just grew, revised occasionally based on our needs and occasional reaction to current events.
Such as truck bombings.