A vigilante], [viʒiˈlɐ̃tʃi]) is a civilian who undertakes law enforcement with or without
legal authority.
Vigilante behavior "Vigilante justice" is rationalized by the
idea that adequate legal mechanisms for criminal punishment are either nonexistent or insufficient.
Vigilantes typically see the government as ineffective in enforcing the law; such individuals
often claim to justify their actions as a fulfillment of the wishes of the community.
Persons alleged to be escaping the law or above the law are sometimes the victims of
vigilantism. Vigilante behavior involves various degrees
of violence. Vigilantes may assault targets verbally, physically, vandalize property,
or even kill individuals. In a number of cases, vigilantism has involved
targets with mistaken identities. 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.
In Guyana in 2008, Hardel Haynes was beaten to death by a mob who mistook him for a thief.
In South Africa from the period 2002 to the present there has been an increase in vigilantism
against the mining sector in response to perceived failures in the mitigation of acid mine drainage
in the Witwatersrand Goldfields and Mpumalanga Coalfields.
History 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 dueling
was considered a class privilege of the sword-bearing aristocracy before the formation of the modern
centralized liberal-bureaucratic nation-state. 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 vested in folkloric heroes and legendary outlaws. Vigilantism in literature, folklore
and legend is connected to the fundamental issues of dissatisfied morality, injustice,
the failures of authority and the ethical adequacy of legitimate governance.
During medieval times, punishment of felons was sometimes exercised by such secret societies
as the courts of the Vehm, 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 As boom-towns, or mining towns in California
because of Gold Rush, started appearing towards the 1850s, vigilantes started putting justice
in their hands because no forms of government were established in these towns. These people
would assault accused thieves, rapists and murderers. When they assaulted these thieves,
they would take all their gold and give it to the accuser. Other than reports and newspapers,
there are not many records of vigilantes. No names or groups known.
Later in the United States, vigilante groups arose in poorly governed frontier areas where
criminals preyed upon the citizenry with impunity. The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27,
1844, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. In 1851 and 1856, San Francisco Vigilance
Movement sought to eliminate crime, an element of this movement focused on immigrants like
the Sydney Ducks. 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.
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.
In October 1862 in northern Texas, several Unionist sympathizers were arrested and taken
to Gainesville, Texas for trial on charges of treason and insurrection. Seven were tried
and hanged, and 14 were hanged without trial. A few weeks later, Unionist sympathizers were
hanged without trial across northern Texas. Known as "The Great Hanging at Gainesville",
it may have been the deadliest act of vigilante violence in U.S. history.
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 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski,
Tennessee by a group of six Confederate War veterans. The KKK or "Klan" sought to use
extralegal force to resist Reconstruction in the post Civil War South of the United
States. The KKK became a leading agent of racist and nativist violence in the United
States. In 1868 between 60 and 70 vigilantes broke
into the New Albany, Indiana jail and lynched three Reno Brothers.
In 1881, a mob lynched an outlaw who goes by the nickname of Big Nose George, who shot
two local law enforcement officers years before. Big nose George was in prison awaiting execution
at the time of his death. Active in 1883–1889, the Bald Knobbers 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
Lynching was the most common form of vigilantism in the US in the 20th Century—it was practiced
through the early years of the civil rights movement, extending through the late 1960s.
In the early 20th century, the White Finns founded the Suojeluskunta as a paramilitary
vigilante organization 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.
After World War II, several alleged Nazi collaborators were beaten up or killed for their activities.
In 1954, the Thai Border Patrol Police formed the Volunteer Defense Corps to provide law
and order and emergency or natural disaster response. In 1974 it was expanded by the Internal
Security Operations Command 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. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland late
1960s-98, the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army were
known to administer punishment beatings and kill any suspected criminal or drug dealer
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.
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". In 1985 the formation of Anti-Fascist Action
groups throughout Britain came about whose goal was to combat the issue of neo-fascism.
During the 1990s, the group City without Drugs publicly beat and brutalized drug dealers
and forced addicts to go cold turkey in the city of Yekaterinburg, Russia.
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 instrumental 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
to what tourism organizations there now call "the most peaceful city in Southeast Asia".
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".
Formed in 2000, Ranch Rescue is still a functioning organization in the southwest United States.
Ranchers call upon Ranch Rescue to forcibly remove illegal aliens and squatters off of
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. Formed in 2002, the Revolutionary Front is
a Swedish anti-fascist organization. Members have been known to orchestrate attacks against
known/suspected Neo-nazi/nationalist individuals. The attacks usually involve damaging property,
or even attacking the person themselves. 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. 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". Driving whilst using a mobile is a criminal offense in the UK,
but critics feel the law is little observed or enforced.
Irish National Liberation Army, 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. 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 organization 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." On 15
February 2009 the INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting dead of Derry drug-dealer
Jim McConnell. 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. 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. 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. In 2010 The Real Irish Republican Army shot a man
in the legs in Derry. The man was a convicted sex offender. 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.
Republican Action Against Drugs or RAAD are an Irish Republican vigilante organization
active predominantly 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. 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". Since then RAAD have claimed responsibility
for no less than 17 shootings as well as countless pipe bomb attacks.
In October 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. On April 15, 2011 a group of women in Cherán
armed with rocks and fireworks attacked a bus carrying illegal loggers armed with machine
guns in Michoacán associated with the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana. They assumed
control over the town, expelled the police force and blocked roads leading to oak timber
on a nearby mountain. Vigilante activity has spread to the nearby community of Opopeo.
The government of Mexico has recognized Cherán as a self-governing indigenous community,
but criminals continue to murder residents in the forest.
On June 13, 2014, Darius, a 16-years-old Rom residing in France and who has been several
times interrogated by the police on the account of suspected burglaries and larcenies, has
been kidnapped, beaten up and then left in a supermarket trolley by an unknown party
after rumors on him being implicated in an housebreaking which happened several hours
before circulated in the city of Pierrefite-sur-Seine. Works of fiction
See: List of vigilantes in popular culture Vigilantes have been central to several creative
fictional works and in some cases have been depicted as heroes and retaliatory forces
against wrongdoers. Vigilantism is a common theme in fiction, across a wide range of genres.
In particular, vigilantes feature prominently in comic books and Hollywood movies.
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 Historical Deadwood Newspaper accounts of
George Keating and O. B. Davis hung by vigilantes for stealing horses 1878
Comfort Ero, "Vigilantes, Civil Defense Forces and Militia Groups: The other side of the
privatization of security in Africa," Conflict Trends: 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.
Tom O'Connor, "Vigilantism, Vigilante Justice, and Victim Self-help"
Stephen Faris, "Nigeria's Vigilante Justice," Mother Jones
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
Vincent Moss, "The Paedo Vigilante", Sunday Mirror
American Right To Life, "Abortion Vigilante Worksheet" designed to deter clinic violence