Turning a killer on himself...

[Jway]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Yeah, Boerseun. You should pray. The only thing you've got to lose is your life and the life and dignity of those you love.

Evidently you don't understand prayer as you linked to something so outdated, it makes me yawn.

I took on WWGHA forums and found it (the simplistic logic) too easy to overcome, and then left the site when I saw it was mostly, but of course not only, ad hom after ad hom after ad hom 'logic' at work.

Would like to see your proof or rationale that prayer leads to loss of life and/or loss of dignity in this case. Oh that's right, you don't have any. Fail!

[Moontanman]

Jway, just how is prayer going to affect the outcome of home invasion? Angels going to fly in and save you? Is praying just before rape, torture and murder going to help you in any way except to help you be at peace with your fate? Do you really think that if you hear someone breaking into your house that stopping to pray is going to help? I'm going to fight, with every ounce of my being, the perp had better be the one praying if I get the jump on him.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Jway

Evidently you don't understand prayer as you linked to something so outdated, it makes me yawn.

I took on WWGHA forums and found it (the simplistic logic) too easy to overcome, and then left the site when I saw it was mostly, but of course not only, ad hom after ad hom after ad hom 'logic' at work.

Would like to see your proof or rationale that prayer leads to loss of life and/or loss of dignity in this case. Oh that's right, you don't have any. Fail!

You made your point. This thread will not become a discussion on prayer. We have a thread for that in the Theology forum. Keep it on track or I'll do it for you.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Boerseun

The fact remains that once he's inside your house or yard, he's in unfamiliar territory.

No he isnt. If they have been 'casing the house' he is familiar.

Originally Posted by Boerseun

You have the advantage in that regard, at least. But what can be done to turn this even more in your favour? How can your familiarity of the surrounds be turned against this guy (or guys)? What other disadvantages would these sods have? Keep in mind that they have absolutely no fear of the police and/or being jailed.

Change your pattern. Most people leave for work at the same time, do farm chores at the same time and go to bed at the same time. So get up for two hours a night. Leave a light on with curtains drawn so someone cannot peek in and see. Be unpredictable.

Originally Posted by Boerseun

From a psychological viewpoint - how can you spin the situation in your favour? Any ideas? In the last week, there's been two murders and five housebreakings on the farms immediately surrounding ours. Our turn is coming up, and I'm not going to sit like a docile sheep and wait to have my throat slit for a DVD player.

Any ideas?

So what is their pattern? Why havent you been targeted? Whats different about your location and the ones who have been hit? Another thought, we had a rash of mailbox trashings and other vandalisms. I mean everyone had something happen to their property, except for a handful of people. What did that handful of people have in common? They had all treated one particular family very well and one of the kids in that family had control over the troublemakers. When that kid said "those guys are off limits" NOTHING happened to them or what they owned. That kid wasnt vandalizing anything but he had power over those who did and he was no one to mess with. A good friend to have.

You mention they are not afraid of the police, are you?

[Boerseun]

Hey - thanks. Good replies.

Jway, prayer won't help. It wastes valuable reloading time.

As to home security, I already have barbed wire, motion-detection lights, bars on the windows, slamlock security doors, and such. We're in contact with all the neighbours with CB radio, and have a remote alarm on the house roof which we can press with buttons that both me and Charlene carry around on our persons. We also have a courtyard at the back of the house which is pretty much safe with an elaborate palisade system blocking it off from the front yard. In other words, if they break in from the front we go to the back and vise versa.

When they "case the joint" they only know our routine, and what's going on outside. They have no idea of what's cooking inside the house, and that's where I reckon the advantage turns from surprise on their side, to familiarity on my side.

Moving is the one thing I really want to do. But it's impossible currently, due to business and family issues. Besides - if everybody were to move, the bastards have won.

Ironically, the best advice above (and the one I'm busy exploiting now) was offered by Galapagos in jest, with his "Scooby Doo Magic" comment. You have to keep in mind that we're not dealing with your everyday perps as you probably know from television series etc. based in Yankeeland. We are here dealing with a rather primitive people suffering from enormous superstition, more in the vein of Haiti voodoo than regular Western religion (and please save the racism allegations for another thread - come and visit here and judge for yourself). They blindly believe in witchdoctors, called "sangomas" over here, and will pay these "sangomas" loads of money for "muti" (medicine) that they rub on their chests so that the police and/or victim's bullets will harmlessly bounce off their chests. The "sangomas" will then in turn pay them huge amounts for human body parts to be used in their more "potent" mutis. It's a vicious cycle, really, normal housebreakers who wouldn't normally kill now have an incentive to hack you up and take your bits to the sangoma for cash. But be that as it may, they have a livid fear of the power of the sangomas. So much so that if it were known that a sangoma put a spell on one of them, they will develop all the symptoms the spell is said to cause. Don't even try to explain the placebo effect to them. But this is one angle I'm busy exploiting now. I'm busy tracking down one of the local sangomas (a notoriously difficult task), and I'm going to get him to put a spell on my house in full view of the local community. So that the bastards know that if they break into my house their dicks will turn green and fall off. Use the power of their idiocy to my benefit, so to speak. I don't give a rat's ass to bother with telling them that its hogwash; if it keeps me and my family safe, so be it.

As to guns, that's a no-no in these parts. The current government is so shit-scared that the whites will rise up and put an end to them totally screwing up the country through mismanagement, corruption, inability to render services and the blatant kleptocratic nature of their rule, that they have been actively disarming the whites through making gun license renewals virtually impossible. Through their idiotic rule, the only people now wielding guns are the criminals. Hunting rifles are still available, but are of no use in a close-combat scenario. Some people I know around here have been making makeshift homemade shotguns in their workshops. These "pipe-guns" are lethal in close combat, and very cleverly designed. The idea is to shoot the bastard, and before the cops arrive you put the gun in the corpse's hand for prints and then take it again in your hands, and you tell the cops that the guy broke in with the gun, there was a battle, you took the gun away from the housebreaker and shot him. The cops will then confiscate the gun as evicence, close the case as self-defense, and you get to make another gun in your workshop for $5.00. That's about as far as guns would be useful.

Am I a racist? No. The blacks in South Africa have all the ability as individuals that the whites or Asians anywhere in the world has. But as a group, they can't tell shit from shinola - because their culture is broken, and incompatible with the modern world. As a group, as a culture, they are still stuck in the Stone Age, and we should approach the matter from that angle. That's why I believe the Sangoma route the best on the short term. On the long term, they have to accept and understand the incongruous nature of trying to shoe-horn a Stone Age lifestyle into the modern world. It's gonna be either the one or the other. And looking at all the African States to the north of the Limpopo river, it seems as if the Stone Age outlook has been having the upper hand since independence were granted.

Okay - the last paragraph was a bit of a digression, possibly offensively so to the more liberal readers out there, but it does paint a bit of background as to the causes of the nature of these terrible crimes we're suffering under. You can make your own deductions from it, if you consider me a racist, please do - but save it for another thread.

[GAHD]

ok, other things you can do:
-Shatterproof your windows: these films when applied correctly provide another layer of security. even if someone unbolted your bars, trying to break a window with this laminate makes a lot of noise and takes a good dozen hits.

-reinforce your walls: standard construction practices make it viable for someone to bash through the wall next to the door if the door is heavily bolted and/or crossbared. a sheet of plywood, or even a thin sheet steel or intermittant bands of metal greatly increase fortification(illegal practice in my area, as is a fence over 8' tall from grade, anti-fortification laws)

-put brass rings around some nails and use them to install a floor covering. the idea is to make your floor squeak noticeably. This gives you auditory warning of where all motion in the house is.

[Moontanman]

I'm mostly liberal Boerseun, I wouldn't say you are racist, just practical. A good dog would still be a plus in your situation and not being able to have a gun practically breeds the situation you are in. If it works taking advantage of the superstitions of your opponents sounds like a great idea. Better security will help but without the ability to defend yourself it seems just a matter of time before you are dragged down as well. a great many people seem to be willing to take guns away from honest people where i live, we fight it at every turn, it's scary to see what can happen if guns are taken away from honest folk. Your idea of making a shot gun would seem to be valid in the worst case scenario, not being able to defend is crazy. Take all the security measures you can, a fire proof safe room might be the ony way out if they do indeed break in.

[InfiniteNow]

Any progress or changes on this front, old friend?

...or...

[Boerseun]

Yeah, well - they tried to break into my house the night before last. Palisade fencing, razor wire, alarm tripwires, beams, etc., all came to naught. They bypassed it like nothing, but were stopped by the Trellidoor security gate. I had my doubts about it, but it seems to be about the best thing in my house currently.

[InfiniteNow]

Wow. Glad you're okay. Were you home? Did you know they were there? Did you have the option to kill/maim anyone?