There's been a billion books, a billion movies, and probably a ton of songs about this. This being Vigilantism. In case you don't know, it's basically taking the law in to your own hands, often for revenge. Popular vigilantes would be The Punisher, from comics. Hell, the Die Hard movies are focused around a vigilante.
Generally, through the books and movies, you see the good side. FIGHTING AGAINST CRIME. Sometimes, they show the cops trying to arrest the vigilante. But, generally, the cops sympathize, and let them go. This is generally because something horrible happened to them, and they're getting revenge now. Of course, there's some grandstanding political figure condemning the whole thing, but who cares about them. Nobody trusts the politicians, the legal system, or the government.
I mean, think about it. I'm reading a book, A Time To Kill, where a man's daughter is raped, and he kills the two rapists on the steps of the Courthouse. Honestly, I agree with him. If I ever become a father/husband, and my family is hurt....Well, let's just say I don't trust in the judgement of the Court. We've all seen the acquittals and the short sentences that people get. But that's scary. I don't know of one person who can really say that they trust our government to do what's best for us, or that the politicians aren't lying, or that the legal system is fair.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was, or is an increase in Vigilantism as a result of this. Maybe not, and I'm just looking too deep into it. But say something horrible happens to you, or the people you love...And you don't trust the authorities to do the right thing....What DO you do?
3 comments:
I dont know if I mentioned it to your class or not, but I have been there - a horrible tragedy to a loved one and not trusting the police. And honestly I still feel bitter about it - toward the police. The institution let me down. I don't feel as much animosity toward the jackass that did it, but more toward the detectives who just didn't care.
Vigilantes - the ultimate heroes, right? Screw the justice system, I'll tear up the entire city if I have to, crash a moped into a gas tank and blow up half a block in an impressive and entertaining shower of sparks and glory to catch the villain who hurt my loved ones!
I think not. They are looked up to because they regress into primal instinct and savage action. Revenge stories are loved by everyone (including me) because there are no consequences to actions.
You know what you do in that situation? Nothing. You can't, because although you don't trust the legal system to help you, you fear what it has the power to do to you once you are the criminal.
Those are my initial thoughts anyways - I said a lot of that with far too much confidence.
I don't think you've mentioned it to our class, Sal. My mom is like towards doctors, kind of. So I've seen what the effects are when something like that fails you.
The way I see it, and the best revenge stories/vigilante stories to me, are the ones where they're not heroes. Basically, they're people who lost something very very precious to them. And often, nobody cares enough, or is willing/able to do anything about it. So they do something about it.
And there are quite a few good vigilante stories. One I can't remember, was a movie. This guy loses his son to a gang initiation. So he takes revenge. And then it becomes a never ending spiral of revenge. It's really good, and new.
I think people don't look up to them because of the instinct and savagery so much, though that's certainly a part. (Manhood, anyone?) But I think they look up to them, because they did something. Most of us go through our lives mostly accepting shit from people, often authority figures who we feel we can't talk back to, or ignore the shit. So we accept it. And in many vigilante cases, they take on authority figures. They take on the system we feel so controls us.
That's my opinion anyway.
And don't be so quick to say people would do nothing. Losing a loved one and being snubbed and ignored...I think we'd all be surprised what that can bring out in a person. Or what it can make them.
I'll leave you this quote, and I've seen it applied in many vigilante stories, and life.
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
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