Vigalantes
VigalantesAll law stems from one source of order. In a time of anarchy and chaos a man brought for from a mountain top two stone tablets from which all law branches. Those two tablets, the Ten Commandments, were to be the seeds of lawful civilization. Those seeds have since become the roots of modern humanity. A prime example of this is the United States government. The phrase “In God we trust” is imprinted on every piece of legal tender and on most documentation.
The purpose of law and government is to “protect” the people, but the fact that punishment need be imposed only illustrates the fact that it does not protect. Punishment is imposed only after harmful actions against society have been carried out. In order for punishment and legal intervention to be applied there first must be a crime or an action that is the government’s responsibility to prevent from taking place. When law is applied the government has already failed to protect the individual; punishment will do nothing to help the victim after they have been victimized. Law does not, in truth, prevent such behavior; it only deals with it once it has occurred. Law does nothing to prevent socially harmful behavior, it therefore does not protect in accordance with the tenets set forth in the theory of the Social Contract. Why then, in such a modern civilization, do we have vigilantes? The answer is simple. The fact is that although humanity has advanced, law has failed to keep up.
The prime candidates for vigilantism are those who abide by the law. They acknowledge the existence of the law and respect it. They expect that if one day they are the victim of a crime the offender will quickly go through trial and be punished. The truth is that that is rarely the case. It can take months for an offender to even go to trial. The U.S. criminal justice system, however the best in the world, is not nearly efficient enough to properly handle the workload placed upon it. Still the situation comes up that even in a clear-cut case with hard evidence and witnesses, law enforcement will fail to properly pass down punishment to those who commit a crime. This is the time when people take the law into their own hands. Impatience and frustration drives and individual to do what he or she believes what the government has failed to do. It can happen to anyone. But can crime be prevented in the first place?
The law often frustrates teenagers and adults alike. The...
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