Vigilantism And The Law: Article Analysis

Becoming a criminal : Vigilantism and the Law
In the movies, superheros are able try to fight crime and save the day. But some people try to replicate these heroes and become vigilantes. However these vigilantes are not fictional superheroes and end up causing trouble. For this reason, vigilantism is wrong for society because vigilantes are not above the law, there is always the authority to intervene, and since vigilantes are untrained and fueled by emotion, they are more likely to end up causing harm to themselves and others. Vigilantes try to take matters into their own hands and try to seek justice, however they see fit, however even though a vigilantes are not above the law. This idea even crosses over into the game of baseball. In the …show more content…
When something tragic occurs to you or one of your loved one's,emotions can cause you to do some reckless actions. This same scenario occurred in the article “Vigilante Justice: So,is it murder” by Susan Filan when the wife of Jonathon Edington called him on her way home from work telling him that their neighbor had allegedly molested their two-year-old daughter. This led to Edington to grab a knife and stab his neighbor to death. The jury decided that the fact that their two-year-old daughter telling the wife that the neighbor molested her set her husband off enough to kill him, meant that the household was emotionally unstable. This unstableness caused Edington to seek justice based on revenge. People might argue that since his neighbor did something so vile as molesting a defenseless child that would most likely cause trauma for the rest of her life,that acting on vigilantism and killing him was the right thing to do. However Edington killing his neighbor had more negative effects than positive. Edington was sent to jail, their two year old daughter lost their father, and the neighbor's family lost one of their family members. So if you were put in Edington’s position, would you call the police? Or would you use become fueled by rage and seek justice by means of lethal …show more content…
Many of these vigilantes don’t realize this fact when they are out seeking justice. This same idea applies to the article “Vigilante Justice: So, is it murder” when Jonathan Edington stabbed his neighbor to death. The reason he stabbed him? Because his neighbor allegedly molested his two-year-old daughter. But the problem with Edington killing his neighbor was he became just as horrible as the man he killed. This led him to be put in jail for ten to twenty years. Some people might try to defend Edington's actions, saying while yes, he may have committed a crime to stop one, that morally the neighbor deserved death because molesting a defenseless child is wrong. Yet the problem is that while the child might be scared for the rest of her life, she can get better and live life. For the murder victim, that is not an option. Another example of vigilante becoming a criminal is the case of Gail Gerlach. Where Gerlach attempted to stop a criminal stealing his SUV by firing a deadly shot and killing him. Unfortunately for Gerlach he ended up committing manslaughter and taking away another human's life. These examples show that vigilante justice causes more crimes and causes more harm to others. However people on the opposing side of this idea might say that in order to get