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Vigilante justice - the supreme oxymoron
Published: Monday | October 1, 2012 5 Comments
By Garth A. Rattray
Every mob killing or the extrajudicial killing of someone at the hands of an accuser always brings back vivid memories of a night when an irate cabbie and his entire 'load' of passengers wrongfully accused me of hitting his recently repaired taxi and trying to escape into the night.
The furious driver made two serious attempts to chop me to death. In the end, both the cops on the scene and those at the Half-Way Tree Police Station proved to the fellow that it was impossible for my car to have done any damage, let alone so much damage to his car and still remain totally free of any scratches or dents.
I could have been history simply because an irate driver and his car full of passengers made a terrible mistake and felt justified in killing me for something that they thought that I did.
'Vigilante justice' is the ultimate oxymoron. No vigilante (punisher of a perceived lawbreaker) can carry out justice (the act of applying or upholding the law). Vigilantism occurs whenever persons either have no respect for the law, no access to the law, very limited access to the law, or where no law exists.
ACTING ON EMOTION
Certainly, the law exists and is easily accessible in Zion, near Falmouth, yet a group of people there took it upon themselves to accuse a young homosexual man, living in a nearby community, of abducting two boys, aged seven and 10 years old, buggering, then murdering them and dumping their bodies in the Martha Brae River.
When the vigilantes decided to act, the only thing that they knew for certain was that the boys were missing for days and were eventually found naked, having drowned and floating in the river with their abandoned clothes nearby. At that time, there was speculation that there MAY have been some trauma to their bodies, but after six days, post-mortem and floating in water, one wonders. Perhaps the little boys decided to doff their garments and go for a swim and accidentally drowned.
Not only did the group accuse the young homosexual man of the heinous crime, they tried him in absentia and sought to exact 'justice' (in this case, the death penalty) on him. They were so enraged that they went to the home of his family members living within their community, firebombed it, and ended up killing his totally innocent stepfather and injuring his stepsister. They would have killed the entire household, but the others escaped.
Extremely inhumane
Every time that I think I've seen and heard the worst barbarism imaginable, people do something to prove me wrong. Humanity can be extremely inhumane. People are capable of just about anything, and we should therefore expect just about anything at any time from anyone.
Domestic disputes/disagreements rank pretty high among the causes for violence and murder. I have always thought that we should officially create an appointed or elected post occupied by a trusted member and permanent resident of each community with whom people could, and should, seek to settle serious interpersonal problems before things get out of hand.
It should also be legislated that if the people involved in the dispute/ disagreement ignore the community member in that post and commit any crime arising out of said dispute/disagreement, there should be an additional charge (with serious consequences) for not seeking the intervention of the appointed or elected community member mentioned above.
Of course, if the disagreement is with the resident so appointed or elected, the person occupying that post from the nearest neighbouring community should be sought out.
We cannot foresee every possible spurious criminal activity, but we must think outside the box in an attempt to reduce them.
Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.
Published: Monday | October 1, 2012 5 Comments
By Garth A. Rattray
Every mob killing or the extrajudicial killing of someone at the hands of an accuser always brings back vivid memories of a night when an irate cabbie and his entire 'load' of passengers wrongfully accused me of hitting his recently repaired taxi and trying to escape into the night.
The furious driver made two serious attempts to chop me to death. In the end, both the cops on the scene and those at the Half-Way Tree Police Station proved to the fellow that it was impossible for my car to have done any damage, let alone so much damage to his car and still remain totally free of any scratches or dents.
I could have been history simply because an irate driver and his car full of passengers made a terrible mistake and felt justified in killing me for something that they thought that I did.
'Vigilante justice' is the ultimate oxymoron. No vigilante (punisher of a perceived lawbreaker) can carry out justice (the act of applying or upholding the law). Vigilantism occurs whenever persons either have no respect for the law, no access to the law, very limited access to the law, or where no law exists.
ACTING ON EMOTION
Certainly, the law exists and is easily accessible in Zion, near Falmouth, yet a group of people there took it upon themselves to accuse a young homosexual man, living in a nearby community, of abducting two boys, aged seven and 10 years old, buggering, then murdering them and dumping their bodies in the Martha Brae River.
When the vigilantes decided to act, the only thing that they knew for certain was that the boys were missing for days and were eventually found naked, having drowned and floating in the river with their abandoned clothes nearby. At that time, there was speculation that there MAY have been some trauma to their bodies, but after six days, post-mortem and floating in water, one wonders. Perhaps the little boys decided to doff their garments and go for a swim and accidentally drowned.
Not only did the group accuse the young homosexual man of the heinous crime, they tried him in absentia and sought to exact 'justice' (in this case, the death penalty) on him. They were so enraged that they went to the home of his family members living within their community, firebombed it, and ended up killing his totally innocent stepfather and injuring his stepsister. They would have killed the entire household, but the others escaped.
Extremely inhumane
Every time that I think I've seen and heard the worst barbarism imaginable, people do something to prove me wrong. Humanity can be extremely inhumane. People are capable of just about anything, and we should therefore expect just about anything at any time from anyone.
Domestic disputes/disagreements rank pretty high among the causes for violence and murder. I have always thought that we should officially create an appointed or elected post occupied by a trusted member and permanent resident of each community with whom people could, and should, seek to settle serious interpersonal problems before things get out of hand.
It should also be legislated that if the people involved in the dispute/ disagreement ignore the community member in that post and commit any crime arising out of said dispute/disagreement, there should be an additional charge (with serious consequences) for not seeking the intervention of the appointed or elected community member mentioned above.
Of course, if the disagreement is with the resident so appointed or elected, the person occupying that post from the nearest neighbouring community should be sought out.
We cannot foresee every possible spurious criminal activity, but we must think outside the box in an attempt to reduce them.
Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.