Video of the day -- when the state breaks down

In my review of the film Agora, I noted its depiction of the frightening situations which develop when the state (in that case, the declining Roman Empire) becomes too weak to perform one of the most critical functions of the state -- maintaining law and order.  Here's what the same problem looks like in a modern-day context.


Twenty years after the end of apartheid, South Africa remains a massively unequal society, while police are swamped by horrific levels of violent crime.  The prosperous minority (still disproportionately white) live in fortified enclaves festooned with barbed wire and security cameras, and protected by private security companies -- whose manpower exceeds that of the police and army combined -- while the poor who cannot afford private security are largely left to the mercy of criminals.  It's a hint of what our own society could someday look like, if those who constantly strive to defund and delegitimize the state's law-enforcement power, promote policies that concentrate ever more wealth in the hands of a few, and foment racial polarization, get their way.