Battleangel

Vigilance committees seem to be on the rise (DN, Swedish) and are cheered on unilaterally by the right side of the political continuum. Be they “liberals” or “liberal conservatives.” It is hard to see the logic here, even if one is fully versed in the political ideologies that fester in their ranks. Supposedly, in the right-wing utopia, the state still has the ability to, violently if necessary, protect the liberty of its citizens. So why would they be so eager to outsource that ability, apart from obvious election ploys to demonstrate by example how poor the legal system works? Did they cherry pick their Mill or Nozick or simply think that cheering the cluster bombing of human beings not “in the maturity of their faculties” is enough to qualify for politics?

I used to find vigilance committees more entertaining in the past, chainsaws and everything. But I guess there comes a time for everyone to grow up and draw some lines that cannot be crossed. For one, if you don’t want armed gangs prowling the streets, then you probably don’t want armed vigilance committees either. Setting up such a committee would require a careful selection of its members as to avoid hotheads, training and cooperating with authorities and realizing that as a citizen one has very few extralegal, gung ho powers. If one breaks the law to uphold the law then why even bother. Do not pass go, just enter the “war of all against all.” Lets bring out the chainsaws already.

As for the vigilance committee mentioned above, they sure made a great start on their journey towards the liberalism and conservatism of old. They armed themselves with nightsticks and golf clubs a la Grand Theft Auto and jumped innocent kids whom they believed were perps of some sort. I bet. In high society vigilance committees, kids on the sidewalk are frowned upon. I mean, shouldn’t they be locked up doing child labour in a sweatshop somewhere according to free market principles? Just loitering is very suspicious.
They also have the recent spree of burglaries all figured out. Unlike the police, who seem bent on investigation and other ineffective methods and who are also concerned with upholding basic liberties (for everyone), the committee blames the emigrants. So you have a racist vigilante group violently undermining the legal authority of the state machinery. It’s a right-wing wet dream.