An unfortunately typical scene unfolds under the streetlights in a Buenos Aires suburb.
Shaking from fear, still dressed in her nightshirt, Zhao Fuzhong stands on the pavement outside her house. The 41-year-old, originally from China, has just been the victim of a violent break-in.
The masked gang entered her house through a door leading onto the flat roof. The gang smashed through the bars that had supposedly secured the door, shouting "Police! Police!"
Armed with revolvers, the men beat and threatened Zhao, whose husband was away on a business trip. Finally, when they turned their attentions to Chini, her three-year-old daughter, Zhao handed over her savings.
As the police, called by the neighbors who heard the commotion, arrive on the scene, the gang have long fled. There's little for the officers to do but offer what comfort they can to Zhao and promise to keep an eye on the house, at least for the rest of the night.
Zhao and her neighbors hold little stock in police promises. A ripple of unspoken agreement passes through the street, whose residents suspect that the gangs' shouts of "Police!" may have contained a grain of truth.
For residents of Buenos Aires, angered by a recent crime wave denied by authorities, the hardest pill to swallow is the lingering suspicion that bent cops may be to blame.
A recent demonstration against the rising tide of violence and what is seen as the administration's failure to get to grips with it saw some 150,000 protesters take to the streets on April 1.
The protest, which saw huge crowds bearing banners calling for a crackdown on crime and holding a candlelit vigil in front of the National Congress, was partially prompted by outrage at the murder of Axel Blumberg, kidnapped and killed last month.
In what was reported as a botched attempt to hand over a ransom, police opened fire on the kidnappers' car as they fled the scene. The body of the 23-year-old student was found a short time later with a bullet wound to the head.
Not a day passes in the sprawling Argentinian capital without new cases of kidnapping, extortion, armed burglary, rape or extortion being reported.
Despite angry calls for better protection and a growing sense of fear among the 12 million inhabitants of the city, police and officials point to statistics that show a drop in crime.
Not enough, say residents, who don't feel particularly protected by statistics.
It's on the outskirts of the city that the fear is most palpable. In the affluent suburbs of the north side the rate of kidnappings is more than one per day. Gangs in search of a quick buck snatch victims from the street, demanding relatively low ransoms but quick no- questions payment.
Sometimes it takes as little as US$1,000, and the victim is free within the hour.
South of the city lie the more middle-class neighborhoods, their residents' fortunes decimated by the economic travails of the past number of years.
Local media in these neighborhoods carry almost daily reports of residents shot and killed by criminals over a television, some jewelry, an old car. The lean years have led people to fight for what possession that remain to them with a passion that is beginning to cost lives.
In the face of this mounting disorder, more and more evidence is beginning to come to light that the crime lords have the Buenos Aires police in their pocket.
Observers have pointed out that many high- ranking police officers appear to be living high-flying lives of yacht clubs and luxury mansions, and enjoying a level of affluence that appears at odds with their official salaries.
The temptation to offer simple explanations for such anomalies, and therefore posit simple solutions to the social problems besetting Buenos Aires, is a big one.
In the aftermath of years of economic turmoil, one in three Argentinians of working age remains either un- or under-employed.
Meanwhile, in what is being seen as a reaction to last week's mass protests, parliament will this week debate a motion on toughening the penalties for criminal activity. Loud calls for harsher punishments seem to have been audible in the corridors of power.
The debate has been branded as ineffectual by a leading judge before it has even begun.
"It is an illusion," said Supreme Court Judge Eugenio Raul Zaffaroni, who maintains that no criminal takes into consideration the penalty for their crime, as no criminal believes that they will be caught.
Zaffaroni points out instead that criminals, victims and police alike are all members of an impoverished social class, brought low by economic upheaval.
As officialdom battles with ways to tackle the crisis, some who can afford it are engaging the services armed private security firms to protect their neighborhoods, while housing developments which feature "military-style" security schemes are reporting a surge in applications.
In post slump Argentina, it seems the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows ever wider, and efforts to leap it ever more desperate and violent.
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