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April 09, 2005

Notes from the Garden Journal: When Is It Vigilantism

 

 

 

President Bush recently referred to the hundreds of men and women now volunteering in Arizona with the Minuteman Project as vigilantes. What action have they collectively taken to earn this title? They decided to sacrifice their personal comfort and time to sit outside for hours on end watching for criminal activity then reporting that activity to authorities.

 

Isn’t it strange how the word “vigilantism” now means this. It is one of those words which seem to have suffered some inflation over the years. For example in the 1980’s the definition commonly applied in the mainstream media was the one which referenced Bernard Getz, the New York man who shot his would-be mugger and instead found himself facing jail. It was then applied by those on the left or who favored a particular course of lawlessness (such as the unrestricted use of illegal drugs) to diminish the public stature of anyone seen by such as one directly responding even in the cause of immediate defense of person or property.

 

The definition by the way of “vigilante” according to Dictionary.com (for simplified reference) is as follows:

 

vig·i·lan·te   (vj-lnt)
n.

1.                               One who takes or advocates the taking of law enforcement into one's own hands.

2.                               A member of a vigilance committee.

 

 

So simply seeing and reporting crime now is vigilantism? If this is so then why aren’t there prosecutions en masse in Arizona today of these so-called vigilantes? Are they vigilantes or is the government simply siding with the lawless because it has become itself lawless.

 

But still the Bush administration is saying "vigilantism" applies to anyone who does nothing more than see a crime being committed and report it. By the President’s own definition, your quite legal local neighborhood Crimewatch runs afoul of the law and our valued social mores. Defense attorneys must be partying like there’s no tomorrow...

 

So calling these guys vigilantes makes about as much sense as this.

 

Posted by Martin at April 9, 2005 09:42 AM

Comments

Our Pres is teaming up with the ACLU again. Seems we elected a liberal in 04. In spit of W's attempt to underimne national security there is some good news. On Larry Elder’s show Wednesday night Larry said that the minutemen had reduced criminal immigration by 75%!. Or the rate of criminals crossing the border was only 25% of what it had been before the Minuteman Project! Sounds very positive!


Posted by: Rod Stanton at April 17, 2005 06:52 AM

Very positive indeed. In fact if you caught last night's Hannity & Colmes, you saw a great interview with Gilcrest and it even seemed as if Alan Colmes was unable to resist the compelling facts in this issue. Hannity also pointed out as I did that calling these folks vigilantes is as absurd as calling the grannies in your local neighborhood crimewatch vigilantes. I agree with you, this issue (and Bush's huge verbal faux pas) will become the biggest embarrassment of this administration - history will not be the kindest, I'm afraid. On the other hand I think it has shown us that we still have our American spirit intact and is it not we the people after all who made this country what it is? And just think - we will be voting in some key congressional races next year ;)

Posted by: Blogbat at April 19, 2005 12:50 PM