vigilante

The MOVE Organization surfaced in Philadelphia in the early 1970’s. The MOVE movement was one of “back-to-nature,” which was poorly understood by their urban neighbors and the local government and possibly by the organization itself (McCoy). John Africa, who is said to have been illiterate, founded MOVE. It was a loosely organized and sparsely populated organization. I argue that the failure of MOVE to “bow to the man” and the lack of police and government self-control, led to the abuse of power and police brutality that culminated on May 13, 1985 of which the magnitude Black’s theories fail to predict. Black’s theories on law, specifically “Socio Economic Status” and “Organization” and its bearing on the application of law, will be used

The first aspect of the uprising that the PBA report discussed is why did the uprising happened. They argue that “Brutality did exist, but it ran from the community to the police officers” and that the charges against police officers was “an

Jumping back into the past, Gregory Orr tells the incident when he and a group of five hundred of men, women, teenagers, and old folks assemble in Jackson, Mississippi. In Jackson for a peaceful demonstration, Gregory Orr and the rest of the group were arrested and taken away “to the county fairgrounds” (128, 1). Where they was beaten by officers of the law, Orr stated, “I emerged into the outdoors and the bright sunlight and saw them-two lines of about fifteen highway patrolmen on either side. I was ordered to walk, not run, between them. Again I was beaten with nightsticks, but this time more thoroughly, as I was the only target” (129, 2). Once freed from his captors, Gregory Orr gets in his car to head back north, but on his way back he was pulled over by flashing lights. Thinking it was the police; Gregory Orr pulled over and was approached by two white men. One of the white men said, “Get out, you son of a bitch, or I’ll blow your head off” (133, 3). The two white men takes Gregory Orr’s wallet and tell him to follow them, Scared for his life, Gregory Orr did exactly what the two men told him to do. After following the two men, Gregory Orr is back in jail in Hayneville. “Already depressed and disoriented by the ten days in jail in Jackson, I was even more frightened in Hayneville,” (136, 1) stated by Gregory Orr.

The use of vigilante justice is illegal but, at times it can be understood. Vigilante justice is considered legal when dealing with it as self-defense.. The term vigilante justice means someone has gone outside the law to carry out a punishment for a crime. In other words vigilante justice means that a citizen has taken justice into their own hands. One of the defining elements of vigilantism is a response that involves violence that exceeds the legitimate use of force in self-defense. These people who take justice into their own hands are called a vigilante.

It is interesting to note there was a stark contrast between day and night activities in the city of Kent. During the day, guardsmen casually patrolled and went about business as usual. In fact, there were even reports that throughout the daytime hours students would have long, peaceful conversations with the guardsmen. However, at night, the violence would break out while mass protests were held, forcing the students and guardsmen to quickly retreat to opposite sides. Once again, on the evening of May 3, non-lethal force was used and people were arrested as the guardsmen again struggled to take control of the violence erupting in the city of Kent Ohio.

The correctional officer chose to become whistle Blowers after the death of inmate Preston Tate, and after the other officer said that he was the attacker in this situation. However, the correctional officers main allegations was of “brutality that the correctional officer were exploiting racial tensions to stage fights between inmates for entertainment of the prison guards (Holding, 2009)”. The prison tape shows all of this illegal behavior going on, and the two whistle blower watch other officer cohorts their coworkers in how to alter their reports to make it justifiable for the shooting that took place in the recreation yards.

John Williams was recently incarcerated for the violent murder of three young women. Prior to his arrest, police were on edge because the small town in Arkansas had never experienced anything like that before. Each girl was taken within a week from each other, all while they were out after dark taking a short cut home. Sadly they were all found buried deep in the woods after weeks of searching. The town went into shock; citizens were exhibiting both fear and rage for the loss of the precious girls from their community.

When the judge, Bernard Kamins, who was Caucasian declared three of the four (also white) officers not guilty the public saw his decision very racist. The riots began in the evening after the judgment, and grew over the next two days, but they would continue for several days. Angry Los Angels residents went out to the streets to show their fury. “These people are angry and they have every right to be!” said a man to the news cameras during the destruction. Authorities failed miserably to control the people. As time went by the madness did not decrease but enlarged.

In the United States in 1931, during America’s Great Depression, nine African American boys faced what is now known as one of America’s most tragic trails in history. These young boys were accused of raping two white girls while riding a train through Alabama. This accusation brought forth a mob of white people in the town of Scottsboro. The boys spent years on trial for this. The first trial was thought to have been the final convention, little did they know it was only the beginning. A second trial was held for the nine boys that shook the entire nation. After the second trial a third one was held after the judge suspected that the evidence was not properly examined. The nine young boys, known as “The Scottsboro Boys”, spent their lives in and out of a courtroom and in a cell for a crime that today is known to have never taken place.

In 1992 the city of Los Angeles was one of our nation’s largest cities. It had an estimated population of over 9 million.1 The city had been in a deteriorating state for several years. There also had been tension growing between the citizens and the police for nearly the last 30 years. This had a lot to do with riots that occurred in Los Angeles back in the 1960’s.2

Every crime has a correlation with a theory in criminology. These theories explain why crime happens and some even go to the extent to come up with a solution to prevent or stop crime. This paper will explore how certain theories of criminology connect with the riots that happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Facts from different articles will be used to back up the theory. The theories will explain why rioters committed the crimes did. The paper will take the actions of the protestors and explain why they did what they did.

Around the mid 1800's, critical measures of foreigners started to move into the nation. This rush carried on for some time and still happens today just with substantially smaller numbers. With this extensive blend of individuals, hate crimes were normal. By the mid-nineteenth century, the crumbling of urban communities had prompted diverse laws that controlled public behavior and additionally made new open establishments including the police force. Nevertheless, this split up made a detachment between the law enforcement and citizens too. This ultimately resulted in racial, social, and ethnic profiling. Extensive scale incidents of brutality were related with work strikes, for example, the Steel strike of 1919, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Pullman Strike of 1894, the Hanapepe slaughter of 1924, and the Ludlow slaughter of 1914. (wordpress) Jumping to the mid 1900s, where

“With no police force in California’s cities, criminals from all over flocked to San Francisco.” (Saffer,1) This meant that the criminals could commit their crimes with little fear of punishment. The criminals felt as if they could steal someone’s belongings, and not get caught then they would be fine. So, that’s why many people went over there. The San Francisco Gang was a group from New York. They always took gold, money, food, etc. But, after awhile another group of people from San Francisco put them on trial, they were then put in prison for 10 years. However, there wasn’t any prisons they could stay in so, they just frightened the gang and they never committed a crime from then on. Along with the San Francisco Gang, another gang came and started causing more trouble again. That gang repeatedly stole from stores, and homes taking everything they could. Until a group of 180 men called “Committee of Violence” they captured and hung some of the members of the gang, and threatened all the others. It must have been horrible without safety from criminals but as more cities grew, more prisons were

There does not appear to be a legitimate government in place, and therefore they cannot hand them over to any legitimate authorities. When Worth interviews the militia rebels it appears time and again that the current setting they are in appears to be revenge on their former captors. They want them to suffer, live thru the misery and torture. One element of nonfiction prose that appears to be constant is this short story is how Worth makes use the individuals “Characterization”.

According to Luke J. Merrimen of Barrister and Solicitor Criminal Defense Litigation, “Outside the confines of [the] criminal justice system, an allegation often carries with it a presumption of guilt, and in the minds of some, an absolute certainty of guilt.” Due to the fact that each person is guaranteed to be innocent until proven guilty, vigilante justice often infringes upon this presumption of innocence because vigilantes often see the suspected lawbreaker as guilty before collecting facts about the supposed committed crime. This being the case, the suspected lawbreaker is given no chance to provide the vigilante with facts, leading to a hasty judgement by the vigilante. If vigilante based justice was allowed, there would logically be an increase in people being wrongly accused. Overall, vigilantism seizes the right of presumption of innocence given to each United States