“I was just looking out for everyone’s best interests.”
“They had it coming.”
“It’s not like the law was doing anything.”
Vigilantism is taking matters into one’s own hands and dealing it according to that one’s personal beliefs and judgment. These people have their own perception of right and wrong and how to handle situations that should be dealt with by law enforcements. They then use the reason that the law enforcers are not doing their jobs properly or that their one sacrifice is for the better of everyone else.
I am doing a scene in class about a sister, Nancy, killing a rapist who raped her sister. She states that she is putting him out of everyone’s misery and that she killed an animal, not a human.
There are many standpoints for this issue. In the case of my scene, the rapist is a repeated offender; therefore, Nancy’s one sacrifice spared the lives of many. This, in some eyes, is a heroic thing to do. Despite the heavy consequences, one person is willing to carry the burden to save the lives of potential future victims. On the other hand, some people may say that she wasted her life and caused her family more grief because they now lost two daughters.
Vigilantism is even found at school to students and teachers alike. When someone steals another’s property, a fight occurs or the stolen steals from the stealer. When a girl spreads gossip about another girl, that girl retaliates either physically or verbally by spreading more rumours. When a student feels like a teacher is rude or inadequate, they voice their opinions by talking badly about that teacher, talking back or slandering the teacher’s name. In all situations, the victims could have gone to the authorities and reported the incident. However, because they did not, they were just as worse as the committers.
As wrong as I feel vigilantism is, I can also see it in another’s perspective. Many times, people who are not on the good side of the law feel like they cannot rely on it because of the record they have. As a result, to bring something up in trial, they feel as if the verdict will be biased and against them. Sometimes, people are discriminated and are not represented to the best of the lawyer’s ability, so they lose a trial. From then on, how can they trust the law to act fairly? There are many reasons on why vigilantism is appropriate or not and I am in no position to say one is better than the other.
However, in my personal opinion and from my experience, I feel that we should leave the disciplining to law enforcers. By doing what a criminal does to punish them is stooping as low as they are. There will always be criminals on the loose. You cannot eradicate all of the wrongdoers in the world. When your family has enough to worry about because of a murder or a rape, they do not want to have to worry about you as well. They need your support in times like those and if you are in jail, how will you help them?
Ultimately, just think when you want to retaliate and ask yourself this: Will justice really be served?
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