some of the scoundrels lived in Las Conchas. The guards had nothing to do with it.
Great point. Let's all get real here:
Guards and gates can not (and will not) prevent crime. What guards and gates do is increase inconvenience, making external criminals more likely to go expend their efforts elsewhere, where it is easier to get in and out of; but guards can not prevent interaction (even criminal interaction) amongst the "residents" of a community, any more than having more cops can reduce crime in Rocky Point (or anywere else) as a whole...
Assigning any blame or responsibility for crime to the guards (or cops) is silly.
The lessons of human history (5000 years worth) teach us that there are 2 effective ways to reduce crime in a community:
1) Promote free will, economic freedom, education, and judicial balance among a population that maintains the personal right to arm and defend itself (like the early American colonies did)
-or-
2) Oppress the population under the constant threat of excessive violence and/or death by an active "government" as the consequence of criminal behavior.
It is not mere coincidence that the territories conquered by Ghenghis Khan had some of the lowest recorded crime rates in history once they were under the control of the warlords.
There was no crime because everyone lived every minute in fear of being beheaded for making a wrong move. Zen and YinYang are extremely efficient in stripping empathy out of the equation when it comes time to decide whose timer gets to keep ticking, and whose timer is expired...
As a human society, we are closing in on the moment that we (as an entire species) will have to CHOOSE which system we prefer to exist within.
I will choose free will, and I will live with the possibility of crime as a necessary cost of my freedom.