Vigilante

A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker.^[1]

Members of neighborhood watch programs and others who use legal means of bringing people to justice are not considered vigilantes. For example, in 1979 Curtis Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels in New York City, a recognized crime fighting organization that now has chapters in many other cities.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Vigilante behavior 3 History 3.1 Colonial era in America 3.2 19th century 3.3 20th century 3.4 21st century 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Etymology

Spanish for watchman, guard, from vigilante vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans .^[2]

Note that the term vigilanties is a derivative of vigilante, that derives from vigilant, like the word vigilance. The term vigilante was introduced into English from the northeast United States. Vigilantism is generally frowned upon by official agencies and the law (who would otherwise encourage vigilance on the part of citizens), especially when it gives way to criminal behavior on the part of the vigilante.

Vigilante behavior

"Vigilante justice" is spurred on by the idea that criminal punishment is either nonexistent or insufficient for the crime. Those who believe this see their governments as ineffective in enforcing the law; thus, such individuals fulfil the like-minded wishes of the community. In other instances, a person may choose a role of vigilante as a result of personal experience as opposed to a social demand.

Persons seen as "escaping from the law" or "above the law" are sometimes the targets of vigilantism.^[3] It may target persons or organizations involved in illegal activities in general or it may be aimed against a specific group or type of activity, e.g. police corruption. Other times, governmental corruption is the prime target of vigilante freedom fighters.

Vigilante behavior may differ in degree of violence. In some cases vigilantes may assault targets verbally, physically attack them or vandalize their property. Anyone who defies the law to further justice is a vigilante, and thus violence is not a necessary criterion. On the more extreme end of the scale, groups such as People Against Gangsterism And Drugs, (PAGAD), have resorted to tactics that have had them blacklisted as terrorist organisations.

In a number of cases, vigilantism has come in for criticism where mistaken identity is found to be involved.

• Businessman Leo Frank was accused of murdering one of his workers in 1913, and was eventually kidnapped from prison and lynched in 1915. Frank received an official pardon decades later, in 1986.
• In Britain in the early 2000s, there were reports of vandalism, assaults and verbal abuse towards people wrongly accused of being pedophiles, following the murder of Sarah Payne. [1] [2] [3] [4]
• In Guyana in 2008, Hardel Haynes was beaten to death by a mob who mistook him for a thief. [5]
• In 2009, Philadelphia's Michael Zenquis was severely assaulted by a group of locals who mistook him for a rapist on the loose. [6]

History

Several groups and individuals have been labelled as vigilantes by historians and media. Vigilantes have been central to several creative fictional works and in some cases have been depicted as heroes and retaliatory forces against wrongdoers.

Vigilantism and the vigilante ethos existed long before the word vigilante was introduced into the English language. There are conceptual and psychological parallels between the Dark Age and medieval aristocratic custom of private war or vendetta and the modern vigilante philosophy.

Recourse to personal vengeance and duelling was considered a class privilege of the sword-bearing aristocracy before the formation of the modern centralized liberal-bureaucratic nation-state (see Marc Bloch, trans. L. A. Manyon, Feudal Society, Vol. I, 1965, p. 127). In addition, sociologists have posited a complex legal and ethical interrelationship between vigilante acts and rebellion and tyrannicide.

In the Western literary and cultural tradition, characteristics of vigilantism have often been noted in folkloric heroes and legendary outlaws (e.g., Robin Hood^[4]). Vigilantism in literature, folklore and legend is deeply connected to the fundamental issues of morality, the nature of justice, the limits of bureaucratic authority and the ethical function of legitimate governance.

During medieval times, punishment of felons was sometimes exercised by such secret societies as the courts of the Vehm [7] (cf. the medieval Sardinian Gamurra later become Barracelli, the Sicilian Vendicatori and the Beati Paoli), a type of early vigilante organization, which became extremely powerful in Westphalian Germany during the 15th century.

Colonial era in America

Formally-defined vigilantism arose in the early American colonies.

• Established the mid-18th century, for instance, the Regulator movement of American colonial times was composed of citizen volunteers of the frontier who opposed official misconduct and extrajudicially punished banditry.

19th century

Later in the United States, vigilante groups arose in poorly governed frontier areas where criminals preyed upon the citizenry with impunity.^[5]

• In 1851 and 1856, San Francisco Vigilance Movement was an example of secret groups of vigilantes who cleaned up city streets of crime with a segment focused against immigrants like the Sydney Ducks.^[6]
• Los Angeles and the surrounding counties had outbursts of vigilantism from the early 1850s as many of the criminals driven out of San Francisco and the Gold Country came into the less populated Southern California making the city and surrounding countryside a dangerous place for many years.^[7]

• In 1858 San Luis Obispo vigilantes ended the murderous reign of the bandit gang of Pío Linares on El Camino Real between San Luis and Santa Barbara.

• From late December 1863 to 1864 the Montana Vigilantes were formed by citizens of Bannack, Virginia City and nearby Nevada City to fight lawlessness in the gold mining region of Montana. Over the next month, 21 men were hanged, including, on January 10, 1864, Henry Plummer the sheriff of Bannack, who was also the leader of a major gang of highwaymen. The last man hanged by the vigilantes may have done nothing more than express an opinion that several of those hanged previously had been innocent.

• In 1868 between 60 and 70 vigilantes broke into the New Albany, Indiana jail and lynched three Reno Brothers.

• Active in 1883–1889, the Bald Knobbers (or "Baldknobbers") were masked men who retaliated against invading marauders and drove out outlaws in Taney County.

• In March 1898 the "101" of Skagway, Alaska posted handbills and held meetings trying to free the town of a bunco gang known as the "Soap Gang" under the control of the infamous Soapy Smith. Four months after its creation the 101 shot and killed Soapy in a shootout on Juneau Wharf.

20th century

• In the early 20th century, the White Finns founded the Suojeluskunta (Protection Corps) as a paramilitary vigilante organisation in Finland. It formed the nucleus of the White Army in the Finnish Civil War.
• In the 1920s, the Big Sword Society of China protected life and property in a state of anarchy.
• In 1954, the Thai Border Police formed the Volunteer Defense Corps (also called the Village Scouts Thai: ลูกเสือชาวบ้าน) to provide law and order and emergency or natural disaster response. In 1974 it was expanded by the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) to urban areas to fight left-wing political activism. The Village Scouts were subsequently involved in the Thammasat University massacre of 1976. Their 21st century Internet censorship vigilance groups are called ลูกเสือบนเครือข่ายอินเทอร์เน็ต or cyber scouts.^[8]

• Formed in 1977, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been increasingly active against whaling and fishing vessels which they see as violating international laws, regulations and treaties, particularly where whaling is concerned. It endorses an active policy of scuttling fishing and whaling vessels while in harbor, and ramming and sinking vessels engaged in the killing of whales.
• During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army were known to administer punishment beating to petty criminals and drug dealers in order to deter crime.
• The Guardian Angels organization was founded February 13, 1979 in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and has chapters in 15 countries and 144 cities around the world.
• Recognized since the 1980s, Sombra Negra or "Black Shadow" of El Salvador is a group of mostly retired police officers and military personnel whose sole duty is to cleanse the country of "impure" social elements by killing criminals and gang members. Along with several other organizations, Sombra Negra are a remnant of the death squads from the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.^[9]
• In 1981, a resident of the rural town Skidmore, Missouri fatally shot town bully Ken McElroy in broad daylight after years of crimes without any punishment. Forty five people witnessed the shooting, but everybody kept quiet when it came time to identify the shooter.
• In 1984, Bernhard Goetz was approached on a New York City subway train by four men intent on mugging him. He shot all four and fled, earning him the media appellation "the subway vigilante".
• Formed since 1996, the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs of Cape Town, South Africa fights drugs and gangsterism in their region. They have been linked to terrorism since they bombed some American targets in Cape Town.
• Formed since 1998, the Bakassi Boys of Nigeria were viewed as the frontmen in lowering the region's high crime when police were ineffective.
• Formed in 1996, Mapogo a Mathamaga of South Africa provides protection for paying members of this group. Leaders have been charged with murder, etc.
• Los Pepes was a shadowy group formed in Colombia during the 1990s that committed acts of vigilantism against drug lord Pablo Escobar and his associates within the Medellin Cartel.

21st century

• Current vice mayor of Davao City, Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is noted for transforming the city from the murder capital of the nation^[10] to what tourism organizations there now call "the most peaceful city in Southeast Asia".^[10] He's been suspected of being involved with the vigilante outfit Davao Death Squad and has been criticized by human rights groups and by Amnesty International for tolerating extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals. Time magazine has dubbed him "The Punisher".^[10]
• Formed since 2000, Ranch Rescue is a still functioning organization in the southwest United States ranchers call upon to forcibly remove illegal aliens and squatters off their property.
• In the early decade of the 2000s, after the September 11 attacks, Jonathan Idema, a self proclaimed vigilante, entered Afghanistan and captured many people he claimed to be terrorists. Idema claimed he was collaborating with, and supported by, the United States Government. He even sold news-media outlets tapes that he claimed showed an Al Qaeda training camp in action. His operations ended abruptly when he was arrested with his partners in 2004 and sentenced to 10 years in a notorious Afghan prison, before being pardoned in 2007.
• Operating since 2002, perverted-justice.com opponents have accused the website of being modern day cyber vigilantes.
• The Minuteman Project has been described as vigilantes dedicated to expelling people who cross the US-Mexico border illegally.^[11][12]
• Salwa Judum, the anti naxalite group formed in 2005, in India, is also considered by many as a vigilante group and its policies are suspected to be helping the security forces in their fight against naxals.
• In Hampshire, England, during 2006, a vigilante slashed the tires of more than twenty cars, leaving a note made from cut-out newsprint stating "Warning: you have been seen while using your mobile phone".^[13] Driving whilst using a mobile is a criminal offence in the UK, but critics feel the law is little observed or enforced.^[14][15][16]
• The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have been dubbed vigilantes by multiple news agencies.^[17]
• Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group, maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on local alleged petty criminals.^[18] In 2006, the INLA claimed to have put at least two drugs gangs out of business in Northern Ireland. After their raid on a criminal organisation based in the north-west, they released a statement saying that "the Irish National Liberation Army will not allow the working class people of this city to be used as cannon fodder by these criminals whose only concern is profit by whatever means available to them."^[19][20] On 15 February 2009 the INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting dead of Derry drug-dealer Jim McConnell.^[21] On 19 August 2009 the INLA shot and wounded a man in Derry. The INLA claimed that the man was involved in drug dealing although the injured man and his family denied the allegation.^[22] However, in a newspaper article on 28 August the victim retracted his previous statement and admitted that he had been involved in small scale drug-dealing but has since ceased these activities.^[23]
• Other Irish republican paramilitary organizations have served and continue to serve as vigilantes. Óglaigh na hÉireann for example in 2011 claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a taxi depot on Oldpark Road, Belfast, which led to the owners fleeing the country. It claimed that the owners were using the depot as a cover for drug dealing.^[24] In 2010 The Real Irish Republican Army shot a man in the legs in Derry. The man was a convicted sex offender.^[25] The Continuity Irish Republican Army in 2011 were blamed for the punishment beating of a heroin dealer in Clondalkin, Dublin, the man had previously been ordered to leave the country.^[26]
• Republican Action Against Drugs or RAAD are an Irish Republican vigilante organization active prodominantly in and around Derry. Although often attributed as being a front for "Dissident Republican" groups by the media, the organization claim to have no allegiance to any particular Republican party or paramilitary. Formed in late 2008 RAAD originally offered an "amnesty" to all drug dealers, asking them to make themselves known to the group before giving an assurance that they had stopped dealing.^[27] In an interview with the Derry Journal in August 2009, the group's leadership explained: "We would monitor the actions of those who have come forward and, given an adequate period of time, interest in those drug dealers would cease and they could start to lead normal lives".^[27] Since then RAAD have claimed responsibility for no less than 17 shootings as well as countless pipe bomb attacks.^[28]
• In November 2010, Alejo Garza Tamez, a 77 year old Mexican hunter and businessman from the state of Nuevo León, Mexico, killed four and wounded two other members of the organized crime band Los Zetas, when they tried to take away his ranch from him. He is considered as a folk hero in Mexico.^[29]
• In October of 2011 on the United States, a Vigilante operating in Seattle, named Phoenix Jones was arrested and forced to reveal his true identity, after a confrontation with two groups who were fighting.

See also

References

External links

• From Border Stories, a profile of a Minuteman Project volunteer in Campo, CA
• From Border Stories, a video on the American Border Patrol
• Lyrics to Vigilante Man by Woody Guthrie.
• Historical Deadwood Newspaper accounts of George Keating and O. B. Davis hung by vigilantes for stealing horses 1878
• Comfort Ero, “Vigilantes, Civil Defence Forces and Militia Groups: The other side of the privatization of security in Africa,” Conflict Trends (June 2000): 25-29.
• Martha K. Huggins, editor, Vigilantism and the State in Modern Latin America: Essays on Extralegal Violence, Praeger/Greenwood, 1991.
• Bill Ong Hing, “Vigilante Racism: The De-Americanization of Immigrant America”, Donkeyphant, Vol. 9 (Summer 2002).
• Tom O’Connor, “Vigilantism, Vigilante Justice, and Victim Self-help”
• Stephen Faris, “Nigeria’s Vigilante Justice,” Mother Jones (April 25, 2002)
• EyeWitness to History, “Vigilante Justice, 1851”.
• Steven F. Messner, Eric P. Baumer, and Richard Rosenfeld, “Distrust of Government, the Vigilante Tradition, and Support for Capital Punishment,” Law & Society Review (September 2006)
• Vincent Moss, “The Paedo Vigilante”, Sunday Mirror (June 25, 2006)
• American Right To Life, “Abortion Vigilante Worksheet” designed to deter clinic violence