Fences and governments

Here's an interesting diagram from an interesting site: Subtopia -- a field guide to military urbanism. Take a look at this diagram of what appears to be a fence for the US southern border. What's interesting about this is it is two-sided -- in that it defends against both internal and external assualt. It's as if the only thing the government controls is the narrow strip that is considered the border.

Comments

[Ken Hagler]

I think they're just anticipating the day when the goal of "border control" shifts from keeping immigrants out to keeping Americans in.

[Priapo]

The design is quite similar to the new border fence the Spanish Government installed in Ceuta and Melilla (two Spanish sities in the African shore of the Strait of Gibraltar).

Instead of installing barbed wire they decided to place a tridimensional wire trap where inmigrants will get trapped giving time for the border police to arrive.

Here´s an explanation of what they installed:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2005/graficos/oct/s1/nueva_valla.html
And here's the official explanation:
http://www.elpais.es/elpaismedia/ultimahora/media/200510/06/espana/20051006elpepunac_2_Pes_OTR.ppt