There’s an example of the sort of thing I’m calling vigilantism, right in the first paragraph of the article:
Years after she says she was raped, and once she realized the police weren’t going to pursue her case, she decided to make a public post on Facebook naming the alleged rapist. “MY VOICE WILL BE HEARD,” she wrote. “THIS IS FOR ALL THE VICTIMS OF THIS SICK MAN!!!”
Even if it was 100% true, this is an example of someone “taking justice into their own hands.” There’s no way of knowing what kind of “punishment” her target is going to endure because of this. Will it be proportional, or restorative, or anything remotely positive? Who knows? It’s not being done by any sort of regulated framework, like the justice system is supposed to be. Maybe he’ll just be embarrassed. Maybe he’ll get divorced and lose custody of his kids. Maybe he’ll be brutally murdered by someone else taking justice into their hands as well. Now add in the fact that we don’t know that what she posted on Facebook was true and we have a very poor approach to justice indeed.
Part of the solution is clear in the quote. She says she did this because she didn’t think the police were going to pursue her case. That’s what I was suggesting above - vigilantism arises in an environment where people don’t trust the “proper” justice system to actually function correctly. Same with the Longhorn case you describe, “she followed all the appropriate channels, and got nothing but grief for it.” The solution is to ensure that the appropriate channels work.
Insisting that we must change the system, while decrying the powerless’ efforts to do so, doen’t that seem a bit contradictory?
Where am I decrying the powerless’ efforts to change the system? I’m decrying their efforts to pursue vigilante justice. That’s not changing the system, that’s bypassing it entirely.
To address your last sentence, we should give up on the so-called justice system.
And so you’re advocating exactly that, too. What “promising, proven alternatives” are there to the justice system? Bearing in mind that I’m not advocating we should just carry on exactly as we are, I’ve already stated that I think reforms are needed to make things better.
Whatever form those take, though, they must never get rid of the presumption of innocence or the opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. That sort of “justice system” leads to very dark places.
There’s an example of the sort of thing I’m calling vigilantism, right in the first paragraph of the article:
Even if it was 100% true, this is an example of someone “taking justice into their own hands.” There’s no way of knowing what kind of “punishment” her target is going to endure because of this. Will it be proportional, or restorative, or anything remotely positive? Who knows? It’s not being done by any sort of regulated framework, like the justice system is supposed to be. Maybe he’ll just be embarrassed. Maybe he’ll get divorced and lose custody of his kids. Maybe he’ll be brutally murdered by someone else taking justice into their hands as well. Now add in the fact that we don’t know that what she posted on Facebook was true and we have a very poor approach to justice indeed.
Part of the solution is clear in the quote. She says she did this because she didn’t think the police were going to pursue her case. That’s what I was suggesting above - vigilantism arises in an environment where people don’t trust the “proper” justice system to actually function correctly. Same with the Longhorn case you describe, “she followed all the appropriate channels, and got nothing but grief for it.” The solution is to ensure that the appropriate channels work.
Where am I decrying the powerless’ efforts to change the system? I’m decrying their efforts to pursue vigilante justice. That’s not changing the system, that’s bypassing it entirely.
And so you’re advocating exactly that, too. What “promising, proven alternatives” are there to the justice system? Bearing in mind that I’m not advocating we should just carry on exactly as we are, I’ve already stated that I think reforms are needed to make things better.
Whatever form those take, though, they must never get rid of the presumption of innocence or the opportunity for the accused to defend themselves. That sort of “justice system” leads to very dark places.