Vigilantes

[swan]

The problem with vigilantes is when the wrong people decide they're vigilantes.

[Teenwolf]

It's not an easy question. The PC thing to say is let the police and court of law deal with it. The reality is that I would likely strangle someone who abused or raped or did some other really bad thing to someone I love.

There was a thread about this on POF when I first joined, with fairly predictable results....

And what was that result? Deleted?

[apple]

ST- You ride, shoot, paint, have big hands, and like to bang.
HOT I say. Very HOT.

[Jo van]

then as long as you don't use "unreasonable force", you're perfectly entitled to hold someone, until the police arrive. You are not allowed to hit them, kick the sh1t out of them, or 'rough them up'... tempting, though it may be! The last time I did it (2005), I was charged with assault, but the CPS dropped it because there were enough witnesses to say I hadn't used "excessive force". I just held him.

well this is more reason that vigilante gangs might be the answer..if you hold down some violent braindeaded thug who has just beat a 80 year man or woman to death..then the police come and arrest you for assault while the mugger gets vip treatment and alot of tea and sympathy from the courts and the do gooders..then that aint justice or right..vigilantes are just doing the job the police or courts wont do and dishing out justice to those that deserve it..

Nooo! That's not what I'm saying Chop! He got arrested, not me!
Later he made an allegation of assault, the police HAVE to take ALL such allegations seriously, and i had to go to the station, and make a (second) statement. But I was never arrested.
If I'd battered him, (*Which I dearly wanted to! ) it would have been something else, you can't do that!
(I told him I would if he didn't stop kicking me and wriggling though! But I didn't have to, he was a 16 year old kid, I'm not a bully, just a psycho! )
He didn't get any VIP treatment, believe me! They were rougher with him than I was! And he was later found guilty, and got 150 hours Community Service. He came to my shop later and apologised for being "Out of order". Most of those kids just need to be told what's acceptable, and what isn't... and WHY. Most of them are under the impression that you "Can't touch them", that's just not true. He knows that now!

[HannaSolo]

if you hold down some violent braindeaded thug who has just beat a 80 year man or woman to death..then the police come and arrest you for assault while the mugger gets vip treatment and alot of tea and sympathy from the courts and the do gooders..then that aint justice or right..vigilantes are just doing the job the police or courts wont do and dishing out justice to those that deserve it..

Yeah, but I can still see this sort of thing going horribly wrong.

In the first place, unless you actually SEE someone beating an 80-year-old man or woman to death (while you were too far away to stop them, obviously), you really can't be sure the person you think did it actually did do it. The likely looking suspect kneeling over the body COULD be a do-gooder who walked around the corner seconds before the group of do-gooders who spot him and then beat the crap out of him or kill him came around the corner. Then another bunch of do-gooders have to hunt down and punish the first batch of do-gooders who, oh, dear, actually killed an innocent do-gooder. And so on and so on. That's why holding them, not beating them, is the only logical option. A quick investigation could prove the person couldn't have possibly been on the scene when the attack happened, but is a mob going to believe a guy saying: "It wasn't me! I was at work!" or whatever?

I also find it a bit difficult to believe sincere, sensible people who hold suspected criminals are being arrested while the criminal is getting VIP treatment. Sure if the cops come across a situation when two people are wrestling around on the ground, they're going to have to nab them both for a while until they get the story straight, but I don't see anything wrong with that. If they didn't, any creep could mug someone and then say the victim was the actually mugger, for example.

[lally]

It is a touchy subject. I just know that if I would have fought back when my first husband tried to kill me I'd be out by now.

I can identify with that...I was lucky enough that my youngest son woke up, because I couldn't fight, it was all i could do to keep ducking.

One of my faourite films is 'The Brave One'... I doubt there's anyone who wouldn't want to get hold of someone who had cold-bloodedly harmed someone they loved, if sure of their guilt, as in that film. I would totally sympathise, and hope the legal system would take the emotions into account. But vigilante groups, as open to suggestion, error and mass hysteria, frighten me, and I can't condone that sort of mentality.

[Indigo]

Do you think that there is ever any justification for vigilante action?

Batman seemed to think so! I could see how viligantism might become popular again if police forces are to be cut because of the financial debt situation. It's not something I would welcome. There are enough vigilante gangs on the streets already who actually breed more terror rather than contain it. I don't think you can choose one situation over another so I would have to say there is no justification for it.

If you were one of the parents involved, would you allow the police to (hopefully) bring the person to justice? Would you risk your own freedom in order to get revenge?

I'd let the police bring them to justice. If I risked my own freedom I'd also be risking my child being without a mother if I were to get hurt or died in the process or ended up in prison and that wouldn't be in my child's best interests.

[MahoganyRush]

Just finished reading a book that describes the action taken by a group of mothers who's town is torn apart by the brutal murders and sexual assaults on 5 of their children. Although the book was fiction, the writer describes the powerful emotions felt by the families as she herself was subject to years of assault at the hands of a family member.
My question is, do you think that there is ever any justification for vigilante action? If you were one of the parents involved, would you allow the police to (hopefully) bring the person to justice? Would you risk your own freedom in order to get revenge?

hmmmm, It depends on the sentence of the crime,It depends on the crime. Its easy to say we would or wouldn't do it, that's what debating is for, but its different for someone who is actually going through it.

I have a associate who's daughter was killed in a car accident by a guy who was 1) convicted of Drink driving and lost his license prior to the accident 2) was drunk when he drove and killed my associate daughter, the prick did get 10 years, but was out before the ten years was up.

There isn't a day where my associate doesn't think of hunting down this prick, but the laws in Canada are strict when it comes to Vigilante justice, but the hatred still brews inside, yeah all the right wing, PC people say, ahhhh forgive him, dont let it get to you blah blah blah, like I said earlier, its easier to comment when the shoe is on the other person foot.

[Humphrey Osmond]

The rules of vigilante justice are:

Do it yourself, involve no one else, don't talk about it, ...before or after.

Same as murder....

[chopper]

The rules of vigilante justice are:

Do it yourself, involve no one else, don't talk about it, ...before or after.

Same as murder

the do gooders always twist things around and take them out of context..we aint talking about murder now humph..so there is real no need to bring that word into it..we aint talking about the old wild west masked lynch mobs who hung the outlaws from trees..etc we are talking about (well i am anyway) organised vigilante groups who dish out punishment to persistent anti social and violent thugs who terrorise whole neighbourhoods and get away with it again and again..i was talking to a lady only a few days ago and she and her husband are trying to move house because they are under attack from a gang of chavs every night who smash there windows..smashed there car up..try to kill her dog..and give them nothing but threats and abuse every night..and the police wont do nothing but issue threats of asbos and sh*t to the offenders..now if this sort of thing would of happend in northern ireland 10 years ago..then the republican or loyalist paramillirity vigilante groups would of warned the gang off and told them to stop..and if there warning was ignored..then the offenders would be beaten with baseball bats and pickaxe handles..and then if the offenders kept offending..then they would of been kneecapped..and this is the sort of thing we need here..because the police and the justice system aint doing there job proper and protecting the people who need protection..somtimes its neccessery to fight fire with fire...im not talking about murdering people..but warning them off with the threat of action..and then a good fecking beating if the warning is ignored...