British expats living in Spain are taking to handling their security themselves… and why not? Refusing to just throw your hands up in despair when the state proves unable to protect you is just acknowledging that you, not the state, are ultimately responsible for your safety. Vigilantes? Maybe, but why should that necessarily be a dirty word? Sometimes the reality is that ‘taking the law into your own hands’ is exactly the correct thing to do, and in any case these people are hardly hanging brigands they catch from the nearest lampposts.
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And they still insist on calling the Costas a ‘Shangri-la’.
Whether you are a victim or not, there are so many stories of all sorts of criminality, on an almost daily basis, that you are forever looking over your shoulder, and ‘on-the-alert’. Everyone knows someone who has been recently mugged, pick-pocketed or otherwise suffered vandalism, hardly conducive to what the ‘Immobiliaria’ like to call ‘an enhanced life-style’.
The whole of the Spanish Mediterranean coast is rife with crime, with various mafias from the Russians, Croatians, Moroccans, or any of the recent new EU recruits from Eastern Europe, being blamed. Drugs do seem to be a major cause. Of course, the rumours always seem to exagerrate, – until you become a victim!
The usual advice to ‘incomers’, who incidentally seem to be prime targets, having plenty of cash and valuables for the taking, is ‘be careful and you will be ok’. Just the sort of worry a retiree needs!…
The Costas are just another one of those places where the ‘good guys’ are locked up at night and the criminals are left free to do their worst. The only place where I have seen more locks on doors and windows was in New York at its worst in the 80’s.
I wonder just efffective an unarmed neighbourhood watch scheme will be against a drugged-up teen with a shotgun!
If you think that Coronation Street with sunshine is for you, then why not give the costas a try?
Who coined this idiot phrase? It’s our law! The corollary is that the law belongs to some ‘other’, to politicians, to judges or some other state-sanctioned goons. Anything but our law is intolerable.
From the link:
I don’t know Benidorm but have spent plenty of time down in Puerto Banus, Marbella and Benalmadena on the Costa del Sol. These are incomparably more civilised, less crime-ridden places than your average British town.
I’m not surprised that some will sandbag their streets against invaders. Those who have the spirit to work hard to enjoy life will work hard to keep what they have.
“…these people are hardly hanging brigands they catch from the nearest lampposts.”
More’s the pity. A little of that, and maybe the problem would cease.
One can make the case that this is the leading edge of what William Lind calls Fourth Generation Warfare: war by nonstate actors.
He has argued that Islamic terrorism, drug cartels, ethnic separatists, and immigrant gangs are all manifestations of fourth generation warfare – and traditional state military/police forces are poorly equipped to respond.
I’d highly recommend his columns here, irregardless of your political persuasion. This guy knows his military history.
Edward, I went to the site and will click on some links tomorrow, maybe, but can you give us a distillation? The essence? It sounds very interesting ..
Vigilantes? Where I come from (the USA outside of New York City), the term for such people is CITIZENS.
Thanks to the Founding Fathers and the Second Amendment!
Americans took the law into their own hands when they broke free from King George III. In the long run, it hasn’t worked out so well: Our own King George II has committed every one of the crimes listed against George III in the Declaration of Independence. In spades.
I’m greatly in favor of vigilantism–the government police seem largely to be attacking those of us who are or would like to be productive.
What is termed Fourthe Generation warfare in this particular case is simply a return to the 18th century when citizens had to go armed,brigandry was rife within and without the towns and cities.Wheras the the latter had a watch and patrols beyond the boundaries of most settlements was beset by knaves and robbers.Whilst there were County militias and Crown officers who could apprehend criminals law enforcemen was piecemeal and within county boundaries.
Since those times a professional police force has developed and we have the most integrated police service we have ever had, this force has an absolute monopoly on law enforcement and the State a monoploy of criminal law…and now we are back in the 18th century again,with its,cutthroats, pickpockets,highwaymen.The drug problem is almost the equialent of the “Gin Lane” dedacle,where a man would sell his wife for gin,and in one case had to take her back because she drank too much.
If those who are monopoly suppliers of a commodity fail to supply that commodity then they should lose that monopoly.Law enforcement is no different.
They reject the “Costa del Fear” epithet, saying that despite sensationalist claims in the British press of violent crime Spain is still a safer place to live than Britain.
That ain’t saying much these days, is it?
Let’s see
A bunch of recent ethnic minority immigrants are complaining that the local police are ignoring their concerns, and they are getting picked on my the local thugs. Gosh my heart bleeds.
These people freely emmigrated to Spain, maybe they should have checked to see what the security situation was like first. I’m sure the vast majority of these people are not Spanish citizens, and I don’t see why Spain particularly owes them anything.
They come for cheap houses and a good climate, and they provide income for the local economy. If they don’t like it they can leave. If they leave, the local economy (may) suffer, and then the locals, who are citizens, can ask their goverment to do something about it.
Ever heard of the EU? Spain provided a massive YES vote on the now dead constitution so the logic of that is that they want people from other EU nations to be able to live there.
For good or ill, if they are entitled to live there, are they not entitled to the same protection as others there? Also by that logic, presumably if a tourist gets mugged in Britain, the police should just stand by and do nothing because the victims are not UK nationals.
Why? If they have invested in housing adn other things, surely they should fight back rather than just cut and run at the first problem. I think the whole point of Perry’s article was that these people are doing it themselves because the state has failed them, and that is good. I have a Samizdata wallpaper on my computer as I type this which says it all:
“The state is not your friend”
You will usually find that ex-pats (I have had dealings with Brits , Germans and Dutch) living in Spain tend to very careful about paying their Spanish taxes in full to avoid problems. The locals outside the big cities tend to find this funny as they exist in a mostly cash economy where tax evasion is a popular hobby.
What appears to have happened is that as Spain has become a popular destination to live all kinds of shady characters have moved their bringing with them their criminal skills from home. This seems to have taken the Police in the rural areas totally by suprise and for now they are unable to cope. That said I am sure they will adapt eventually but that might take a while.
More worrying for me would be the fact that their seems to be a growing property bubble in many areas of Spain and their property laws seem to date from the 18th century. Houses can be bought without deeds (which you don’t need for a mortgage) and there have been cases of crooked lawyers working with crooked property developers to rip off ex-pats.
But its still a lovely country !
If the police refuse to catch criminals, and the courts refuse to convict those who are caught, and the prison authorities automatically release early those who are convicted, then law abiding citizens will have to arrange for their own defence.
However, there is little downside in vigilante actions. You are unlikely to get caught, or serve jail time if you do.
And if you are that unlucky 1 in 100 that has to serve time for your “crime”, then console yourself that during a couple of stress-free years spent in prison you can perhaps learn a language, write a best selling book, tone up your body, and make some excellent contacts for future vigilante action.
Yet few things sting the cops into action faster than their monopoly on inaction being threatened by outsiders.
J seems to be arguing that a “bunch of recent ethnic minority immigrants” – note the implied sneer – have no real reason to complain, should put up with their lot or leave. That is fatuous.
If said immigrants are entitled to live in the country in which they reside – as legal immigrants are, by definition – they are also entitled to protect their life and property from attack.
I would be justly angered if I heard that a recent legal immigrant had been afforded less protection by the law because he/she had not been living in Britain for many years.
1327,
If it was only the rural areas that were suffering from criminality! The worst affected areas are the overdeveloped areas within say, 30 kms. of the coast.
Most of the crime is attributed to immigrants from eastern Europe and north Africa.
Re Spanish land law, the Spanish government recently passed laws that ensbled a form of compulsory purchase, but without the compensation. There are many stories of folk buying a property in a rural setting, only to find years later, that some developement company has virtually commandered the property to make way for yet another golf course developement, complete with the latest in ‘shabby chic’ slum housing.
The rule seems to be ‘ Grease the Mayor’s palm’, and you can do what you like.
The Spanish redefine the meaning of corruption!
Um, where is the “vigilante” action? It sounds like these people are blocking their own streets and crying fruitlessly for help. Maybe that’s vigilante in the Spanish sense, but it’s just complaining in English. Which is unfortunately the typical modern British response, cry to Nanny.
Thanks for that VH . What I see in the area I visit most often isn’t crime by outsiders but crime by local junkies who seem to target foreigners either because they have more money or because they know a crime against a local would increase the chance of being caught. The locals do seem keen to blame the Africans while ignoring the junkies.
The local mayors/town councils do seem to have almost unlimited power though and I’m glad I down own property out there.
Well, vigilante is a Spanish word, so why shouldn’t they take vigilante action in Spain? Also, the sandbags fit in with the real meaning of the word, which is watchfulness.
While in Spanish “vigilante” may simply mean watchman/guard, the generally understood meaning in English includes exacting one’s own punishment. The Telegraph reporter shouldn’t have described them in English as “vigilantes” if all they are doing is defending themselves and their property but not exacting justice/punishment. A distinction should be made between enforcement and the law/justice itself. This seems to be purely an enforcement issue, and anyone in any society has moral rights of enforcement to the extent of defending themselves and others (which includes capturing and detaining suspected criminals where necessary). If there’s any serious problem with the local legal/justice system then that would be a separate issue – only in this case could real vigilantes possibly be justified.
Anyway, this is life in the EUSSR. The taxpayers pay for services which do not serve them.
I see our old friend Ian Blair lost his case against two white policemen accused, with the full glory and might of the Met, of “racism” [Memo to Ian Blair: Islam is not a race. Write this out one thousand times.] One of the officers had called a female colleague’s hijab “a teacosy” and the other had referred to Shi’ites as “shitties”. WHOA! Crime against humanity! Get those men off the streets of London before they run amok in the streets with guns blazing!
Anyway, Ian Blair lost his shitty case against the two men and now the Met is, quite rightly, being sued by these two former officers for millions. Way to go, Ian! Bring fruitless, pointless cases against your own staff, lose because the case was too bloody vaccuous to be considered, and pee millions of taxpayer pounds away in compensation. Then give interviews complaining about “lack of resources” for fighting real crime in London.
Speaking of DIY security:
Armed robber gets extreme makeover(Link)
It was a beauty school knock-out.
An armed robber brandishing a revolver and some tough talk entered Blalock’s Beauty College demanding money Tuesday afternoon.
He left crying, bleeding and under arrest, after Dianne Mitchell, her students and employees attacked the suspect, beating him into submission.
Mitchell tripped the robber as he tried to leave and cried aloud “get that sucker” as the group of about 20, nearly all women, some wielding curling irons, bludgeoned him until police arrived.
Oh, John, thank you for that! I had tears running down my cheeks! The Shreveport police chief said the robber would be booked into jail as soon as he was released from hospital. One of the women held onto his legs as he tried to escape by wriggling away. Oh, god, that was funny!
So that’s 1 reason why a lot of Brits are giving up on Spain and buying in Orlando.
Sandy P,
Only one problem with that scenario, you can make a permanent home in Spain, a much more difficult thing to do in the home of ‘our best friend’, where the British in particular are the least welcome of any potential immigrants, particularly retirees. They do not allow Britons to even enter the annual green card lottery. Some friend!