vigilante action?
After last week's 15,000+ Asian protest against crime, the people of South Auckland, including the protest organiser Peter Low, are threatening to take the law into their own hands, if nothing has done by the government.
I did not go to protest. I do not like any protest, political group and other stuffs that is racially divided, especially on crime, which is an issue that concerns every single person of the community regardless of their ethnicity, so limit the range to just "Asians" will likely to make other people feel "it's non of our business."
Also I'm quite interested about the organiser Peter Low - my gut feeling tells me he's more than just a boat building businessman from Singapore. I'll run my own sort of background check and see if there is anything interesting pop up.
It's just a gut feeling, though.
I personally support tougher sentencing(except capital punishment), but the trend of setting up vigilante groups really worries me that the movement against crime has just gone out of course.
The suggestion of using triads to combat crime gathered considerable amount of support from Chinese community, although it's very likely a misinterpretation of what Mr Low said.
I hope this will never happen in New Zealand.
However, it is in my opinion that any vigilante groups not controlled by the government will eventually become another style of mobs and gangs.
I believe citizens has the right to take the law into their own hands - when they are personally in danger, which we call this "self defence".
But not anything beyond that.
A vigilante group without proper control is to undermining the authority of the police. This will encourage use of excessive violence to criminals, but most importantly, to residents of the area - well unless the group runs their own jail, which is quite unlikely.
Police and Law may not be right all the time and lock up a wrong guy, so does the vigilante group. What if the group has beaten up a wrong guy?
Vigilante action itself is not a bad thing, especially when the crime is out of control it might be the last resort to combat the crime. However, it has to be properly controlled and regulated by law, otherwise it's a huge risk to allow citizens take the law into their own hands.
If residents feel the urgent need to have such a group, it's better to found the group in the form of a security company.
I think it is still better to put a stop on this. However, the government just cannot say "stop" to stop vigilante actions - the best way to prevent citizens take the law into their own hands, is to reduce the crime level in South Auckland - there's no point to have a vigilante group if South Auckland is a peaceful, crime free area.
