Harsh Justice To Make You Shudder

In Bolivia, an accused rapist was seized by villagers and buried alive with his murdered victim.

The chief prosecutor says more than 200 furious local people seized Santos Ramos and buried him in the grave of his alleged victim.

He says residents blocked roads into the village to stop police arriving.

A reporter for a local radio station, who would only speak anonymously for fear of reprisals, told the media that Mr Ramos was tied up at the woman's funeral.

He said mourners threw him into the open grave alongside the woman's coffin and filled the grave with earth.

Hope the villagers got the right man. Vigilante justice, while swift, is often less than scrupulous about getting the right man.

h/t Mr. Brock at Free North Carolina.

"Only the People Can Restore Order"

The armed "vigilante" movement in southern and western Mexico.

Thousands of armed vigilantes have taken over a town in Mexico and arrested police officers after their 'commander' was killed and dumped in the street.

The self described 'community police' and arrested 12 officers and the town's former director of public security, who they accuse of taking part in the killing of Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of a local organised crime group. The 1,500-strong force has also set up improvised checkpoints on the major road running through Tierra Colorado, which connects the capital Mexico City to Acapulco, a coastal city popular with tourists less than 40 miles away.

The takeover comes amid a growing movement of 'self defence' groups in the region, which claim to be fighting against drug cartels.

The Tierra Colorado vigilantes have also been searching people's homes and are reported to have seized drugs from some properties.

The arrested former security official and police officers have been handed over to state prosecutors, who agreed to investigate their alleged links to organised crime.

The group's 'commander' Carbajal's body had been found dumped in the street in a nearby town on Monday.

The force's spokesman, Bruno Placido Valerio, said: 'We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities.

'We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander.'

One of those arrested by the group was Juan R. Escudero,police chief of the municipality. The vigilantes are part of regional umbrella group Union of Peoples and Organizations of Guerrero State. The Union is made up of residents in Tierra Colorado, as well as neighbouring towns such as Ayutla de los Libres, Teconoapa and San Marcos.

In January, hundreds of armed vigilantes made a series of arrests and imposed curfews in Ayutla de los Libres and Teconoap.

They also manned checkpoints and claimed they had arrested at least 30 suspected criminals. One of the masked vigilantes said: 'They kill, extort, rape. You do [sic] know if they are drugs dealers, thugs, who want to grab everything.

'We want to return peace and tranquility to the entire population. Only the people can restore order.'

If a government fails in its primary duty to protect its citizens, vigilante movements will always spring up. The wise government will seize the opportunity to purge its ranks of the corrupt and the inept and re-assume its duty, at which point the vigilantes usually disband. The unwise government will try and suppress the vigilantes rather than work with them.

Vigilantes In Mexico Force Government To Take Action Against Cartels

There comes a time when lawlessness and government indifference to it triggers a populace to take up arms and handle the situation themselves.

That point has been reached in two towns near Acapulco:

Several hundred civilians have taken up arms in two towns in a southwestern Mexico state and are arresting people suspected of crimes and imposing a curfew, leading authorities to promise to reinforce security forces in the area.

People wearing ski masks or bandanas and carrying small arms this week began manning checkpoints on roads into the municipalities of Ayutla de los Libres and Teconoapa in Guerrero state's Costa Chica area about 75 miles southeast of the Pacific resort of Acapulco. Leaders said they were acting against crime and insecurity.

Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre Rivero responded Friday by announcing that security in the region would be bolstered by sending in Mexican soldiers and marines and federal and state police officers.

People in the area said about 800 residents were participating in the armed groups acting as unofficial police. The vigilantes ordered a 10 p.m. curfew for the two towns and are looking for suspected criminals. Schools have suspended classes.

This is what happens when a government fails in its primary duty, which is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. It's not just a phenomenon from history. It happened in UK a few years ago, causing the government to promise reform and hastening Labour's downfall. A government that fails to keep its citizens safe from criminals swiftly loses legitimacy.

Quote of the Day

"Not having blood on your hands doesn’t mean you haven’t helped serve up the scapegoat."

December 22, 1984

I think that December 22, 1984 is when there came a fundamental change in the psyche of the average American citizen. That was the day in a New York City subway car that Bernhard Hugo Goetz shot four Usual Suspects who were preparing to rob him. The Goetz incident resulted in a couple of things, both of them good: it aroused sympathy for the normal, law-abiding citizen forced to defend himself when the State failed to defend him; and it reminded the State, in this case New York, of any government's primary responsibility: to protect its citizens from both external threats (war) and internal threats (crime).

The armed self-defense right now enjoyed by millions of Americans only came after the Goetz case, with Florida being the first to liberalize carry laws, just 2 years after Goetz. Now, in 2011, Illinois (the state that gave us President Obama) is the last state that refuses the law-abiding the right to go armed legally.

It was also after Goetz that New York City, shocked out of its complacency by the reaction to the case, began to clean itself up and crack down on street crime. Now the subways and Times Square are safe for the law-abiding to go, and the city has experienced a renaissance as people are willing again to live there.

All because a nerdy, nebbishy white guy decided one day in 1984 that he was tired of being a victim and not being in charge of his own destiny.

It Looks As If...

...the righteous pushback against Westboro Baptist Church has begun.

UK Newspaper Demonizes Burglary Victim As Vigilante

"'I don't regret killing that teenage burglar', says vigilante farmer Tony Martin."

Vigilante farmer Tony Martin has said he has no regrets about shooting and killing a teenager who broke into his farmhouse 10 years ago today.

The 64-year-old insisted he was right to kill petty crook Fred Barras, 16, and seriously injure his accomplice Brendan Fearon, 31, after they broke into his home.

'Regrets? I've got no more regrets than people who break into people's houses,' the eccentric vigilante said last night.

The UK is mired in the sort of liberal attitudes that the US saw during the 60's and 70's, when criminals were coddled and victims maligned. The abused working classes see Martin as a hero, while the elites see him as a vigilante and a menace. How would it sound if the genders and the crime were changed a bit?

Dirty whore Tina Martin has no regrets about shooting a teenaged rapist who broke into her farmhouse 10 years ago today.

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? I dont' like it the original way, myself.