Vigilante justice shall reign

[reels18]

Vigilante justice shall reign
By Jackson Rohrbaugh
March 4, 2008

The solution to the recent wave of violence in the U-District may be a proactive one. Our fellow students are getting pounded with hammers, robbed at gunpoint, punched in the face, antagonized and accosted. We are consequently forced to fear unseen assailants who would seek to harm us. In the dark of the U-District night, can you really walk without wariness and trepidation? Our well-being is at risk, and we must do something to remedy it. We must be responsible for our safety.

Imagine getting an e-mail from the UW Police Department that read like this: “A 20-year-old female student was walking home late last night, down a dark dilapidated alleyway that she should have avoided, when out of the shadows came a suspicious male in a hooded sweatshirt, demanding her purse and brandishing a monkey wrench. She ran, and he gave chase. But suddenly, a cadre of nine mixed-gender students appeared out of the alley’s dark corners and intercepted the assailant. He was promptly waylaid, walloped and fustigated by the students, who were armed with cudgels and staves. The purple-clad posse disappeared into the night after seeing the girl safely home. After an anonymous tip, the assailant was apprehended the next morning. He was found in a dumpster, covered in honey, ketchup and pigeon feathers.”

I wish this was the way every criminal attack turned out, but it’s not the case. We have to avoid walking alone because muggers feel they deserve our hard-earned money.

When I walked home one late night last week, the only weapons I had were groceries. To stop an assault, I would have had to stun an attacker with a well-pitched tuna can, and then incapacitate them by force-feeding them vanilla yogurt. It would have been humiliating to the criminal, but extremely unlikely. I don’t know if I have what it takes to dish out culinary justice.

I’m considering getting a firearm, or at the very least a knife. I need a means of defending myself that doesn’t involve glib remarks, which aren’t very funny to gun-toting bandits.

An armed citizenry can have a debilitating effect on criminal activity. In 1966, the Orlando Police Department sponsored firearm-training programs for women in response to a drastic increase in the rapes and violent crimes that year. By 1967, rapes had decreased by an astronomical 88 percent, according to a 1983 article from Law & Policy Quarterly. The programs were publicized in the city, and this deterred criminals who were aware of the widespread arms training. It was a well-informed and trained populace that spurred a decrease in crime.

I do not advocate an army of rifle-toting Huskies to police the streets, although it would be fun to read about criminals getting their just deserts while terrorizing the innocent. But there’s nothing wrong with responsible individuals taking steps to protect themselves. This includes owning a firearm, taking safety courses and understanding proper self-defense and reasonable force measures as defined by our state and federal laws.

A concealed weapons policy on campus could be necessary. After the chilling shootings that have taken place at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, many advocacy groups have sprung up to encourage student firearms rights, such as Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. An armed and smartly trained student body would be a tremendous deterrent to a glory-seeking killer. What if the next college massacre was averted by an armed student or teacher? If it saved even one innocent life, it’d be worth it.

Last December, an armed civilian stopped a gunman’s rampage at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The civilian was trained in safe handgun usage and possessed a concealed weapons permit. Further tragic bloodshed was halted by an informed citizen and not by waiting for police to respond.

Police are not even obligated to protect us. The case Warren v. District of Columbia states that police are “not generally liable to victims of violent criminal acts for failure to provide adequate police protection.”

Although we have increased police patrols in our neighborhood, and more attention diverted to seeking out suspects of violent crimes, it doesn’t serve as a strong enough deterrent to potential criminals.

In Police Have No Duty to Protect Individuals, Peter Kasler argues that it is “a fact of law and of practical necessity that individuals are responsible for their own personal safety, and that of their loved ones. Police protection must be recognized for what it is: only an auxiliary general deterrent.”

You are ultimately responsible for your own protection. No increase in campus patrols, police officers, or neighborhood cameras is going to stop a criminal who has firmly decided to rob or harm you.

But criminals who are afraid for their own safety won’t act with impunity. How can we deter them? We could uphold Suzzalo Library’s gothic aesthetic by decorating it with the heads of crooked and evil men. We could execute by firing line in Red Square to boost the plaza’s totalitarian charm. But in lieu of being barbaric, we should know our rights, understand the law, and carry weapons if necessary. Do your duty to protect yourself and challenge the fear that pervades our neighborhood.

[Reach columnist Jackson Rohrbaugh at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]

[625]

purple-clad posse

fustigated

That's just beautiful writing skill there. Gotta love it.

Oh, and we need more journalists like this. How many more mass killings will it take to prove that "gun free" zones are only target rich zones that are free of any means of self defense?

[knight0334]

I'm all for people's justice until the person is held over in a jail - then its a lynch mob.

It really isn't vigilante justice either since it is OUR laws and we have the right and duty to uphold OUR laws. Police powers derive from the people's will, we give them the authority to uphold the laws as a profession. We all have a responsibility to uphold the laws of the land, not just constitutionally but also through centuries of common/case law that this country adopted from Roman and English times.

You think some LEO's dont administer some pre-court justice? lol.. A good mahogany massage, a "trip & fell", an "oops, you forgot to duck while getting in the backseat", and a vast many other actions get divvied out each day - which most people smile over when we know that person receiving it was guilty.

I've seen my neighbors in Tampa scatter drug dealers with loads of #9 bird shot from street corners, also seen LEO's turn a blind eye to it too. I've seen a kiddy offender get the living crap beat out of him before the police arrived.

We all are responsible for our own safety and protection - not the police. Police cant act until a law is broken - by then it's too late.

[angus]

A man is assaulted, fears present death, from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him that assaulteth him; if he wound him to death, this is no crime, because no man is supposed, at the making of a Commonwealth to have abandoned the defence of his life or limbs, where the law cannot arrive time enough to his assistance.

- Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan

Ol' Tom said it pretty well.