Could You Restrict Outside Vehicular Access to Your Neighborhood?

During the recent multicultural events in London, a number of persons adopting a defensive posture against celebrants were overrun and killed by vehicles being driven by multicultural celebrants, who refused to be deterred. In such situations where there are too many multicultural partiers for ordinary law enforcement to contain, property owners and other non-celebrants must be able to somehow restrict vehicular access to outsiders. Otherwise they are apt to be overrun or burned out -- and thus become a statistic of the multicultural events in question.

The issue of how to restrict outsider access has been studied from a number of viewpoints. But for today we will just look at blocking access by conventional road vehicles.

This is a basic German vehicle barrier from WWII, simple and portable. It can be easily placed, but could also be moved out of the way if not fixed in the ground by some means. Such barriers could be placed in the evening according to a pre-arranged curfew, and removed at a designated time in early morning for outgoing commuters.

Welding Vehicle Barriers Together at US - Mexico Border
If separate simple vehicle barriers are welded together after placement, they are more effective against larger vehicles, and more difficult to move out of the way by intruders. These more permanent barriers would be appropriate to block rapid cross-country access along a property's flank, by nimble vehicles such as SUVs and motorcycles.

These are more sophisticated barriers which can be raised and lowered by electrical switch. They are also more expensive, and are likely to be totally ruined by one significant impact. Most useful over time as a deterrent.

Tirekiller
The "tire killer" barrier will destroy the rubber tires of an intruding vehicle, but may not actually stop the vehicle outside your perimeter if no other barriers are present. Be prepared to deal with anger issues on the part of the vehicle's driver.

Assortment of Vehicle Barrier Types

Passive vs. Active

Passive barriers can be used at entry points if traffic flow is restricted or rarely used. Passive barriers are normally used for perimeter protection.

Portability

What is involved if the barrier needs to be moved/repositioned? Some barriers are massive and heavy, requiring the use of heavy equipment for placement. Once placed, these barriers can only be moved by bringing in heavy lifting equipment, and cannot be quickly changed to allow access status for authorized vehicles. If portable, how easy is the barrier to carry, transport, stack, store, and put together/interlock? What is the time needed to deploy?

Width / Load Capacity

Are the appropriate widths available to fully protect while allowing passage of almost every type of vehicle?

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Operation

Barriers can be operated manually, electrically, pneumatically, or hydraulically. Can the system operate individually and in groups? Is there a manual override? Can the system work in manual operation in the event of power failure? Barrier direction should be instantly reversible at any point in its cycle from the control station(s). _Vehicle Barrier Design

There are number of different designs for both permanent and temporary vehicle barriers, depending upon anticipated needs. We will not discuss defenses for tracked vehicles or very large vehicles such as "tank traps," and save such topics for another time. Likewise we will not discuss caltrops or other lightweight and portable improvised barriers, for obvious reasons. For me to discuss improvised items such as defensive lines of braced wooden sticks with points on their ends placed at grill level -- like pikes -- would perhaps be going over the line, so I will also omit discussion of such things.

Regardless, the idea is to discourage outside celebrants from bringing an unwelcome party into your neighborhood, by vehicle.

The police will not necessarily approve of citizens taking their own protection into their own hands -- certainly the UK police were unhappy with such efforts by Londoners. But it is best to remind the police that in the event of multicultural celebrations of the type experienced by London, that their duty lies in preventing violence against law-abiding citizens, not in preventing law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves. Somehow UK police seem to have forgotten that obvious point.