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Nobody's avatar

If there's going to be an academic discussion on vigilantism, everyone must consider the fact that many cities told the police to stand down during riots last year. I am in no way endorsing taking the law into your own hands, but when the police and fire department stop responding to 911 calls what else do you expect people to do?

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Shane Gericke's avatar

I know, right? People have the absolute right to defend themselves from death, injury, and financial ruin. If government abandons its role of keeping the peace so that does not happen, people will do it for themselves . . . and correctly so.

If we don't want America's new political slogan to be "a chicken and AR in every pot," then government MUST retake its role as public peacekeeper.

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Koshmarov's avatar

Cleaning your AR in a pot is to my way of thinking a poor idea, but to each their own.

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Notyours's avatar

HoppeтАЩs No 9 may be a piquant additive. May have to try it on a drumstick.

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Koshmarov's avatar

Hell yeah. Nashville Chicken #9.

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Shane Gericke's avatar

Hell, I'd try Nashville No. 9, paired with a fine bottle of Chateaux Ballister.

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Shane Gericke's avatar

LOL! Would make quite an oily chicken soup, though . . .

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Running Burning Man's avatar

Vigilanteism is a dogwhistle for racism -- you know, the kind taught ini CRT.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

haha it's subconscious bias toward racist ideals or some such shit.

Bunch of dumbasses.

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publius_x's avatar

Ask Charles Bronson.

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Dennis Mills's avatar

Your excellent point is one that too many people choose to ignore.

Those of us who live in rural and wilderness areas sometimes find the need to protect ourselves and our loved ones because the nearest law enforcement officer may be two hours away.

Open google maps and ask for Ashland, Maine. Then select satellite view and closely examine the northwestern third of the state. Now move westward and cross the border into Quebec, where you will see an that more closely resembles a more normal level of population density.

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Liz's avatar

In addition, without public support it is pretty hard if not impossible for the police to enforce any laws. As a resident of Minneapolis in 2020 I had the opportunity to watch this in action from my window a few times - basically police pull up, they try to work, a crowd chanting "murderers" materializes and they essentially have to choose to escalate or to back down. I watched them try to stop a fight between two men in the street - 7 or 8 cop cars eventually showed up but they all ended up leaving after the men fighting refused to comply. (The upshot was the two guys seemed to bond over their shared cop-hatred so I guess problem solved? ha.) Another time it was the aftermath of a stabbing, same story. These episodes were a few weeks after the riots, which were kind of the same problem x1000. There was a stand down during the first round of riots directly from the mayor's office, but the problem goes beyond that - and as you said, what else are people going to do when no one can help them? Thankfully it seems Minneapolis is making some progress towards accepting the idea that law enforcement is necessary to have laws - hopefully it's not too late.

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Nobody's avatar

I feel that the progressive position on crime, police and guns is not very coherent. Defunding the police is a very libertarian position while outlawing guns is authoritarian, and putting these two ideas together begs the question as to who will enforce the gun laws without police. I would think in order to sell gun control to the public you would want to instill confidence in the police rather than the opposite. SFO has gotten so bad that the San Francisco Chronicle is publishing propaganda saying burglary is simply a fact of life for urban dwellers and you should learn to barricade yourself in the evening.

https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1456638956204924928

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Not Me$'s avatar

Taking the law into your own hands." That is exactly must what must be done when the enforcement of those laws has been abandoned by the political structure. If people for whatever reason, are attacked in their homes or their businesses and property threatened by rioters taking the law into one's own hands is the only reasonable response. Ignoring the existing laws by those PAID to enforce those laws does not abrogate those same laws. Since when has rioting become an acceptable form of political action? Guess the Democrats have found another way to employ the gangster inspired Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals organizing ideas.

The lying was so outlandish in the Rittenhouse case that it can only be explained as an attempt to discourage or even outlaw actual self defense claims. The lies about his LEGAL gun possession and the "crossed State lines with a firearm" were so crazy that it can only be a pretext for passing gun ban laws under the "Rittenhouse" banner. Rittenhouse worked in Wisconsin, his family was there and the gun was legal and NEVER brought across any State line (not illegal) as it was stored in Wisconsin. Yet the lies are repeated on and on until they become "true" in the minds of the uninformed public. Leftists and ideologues worldwide have always been i. the business of disinformation since their ideas and programs are impossible to sell to the majority of the public so they must be imposed by either force or gaslighting.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

Especially if the rioters are a bogus color revolution being perpetrated by the Establishment to derail a sitting president and cause chaos and mayhem for political gain.

Cough* Portland's Summer of Love.

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Koshmarov's avatar

"bogus?"

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publius_x's avatar

"Excellent!"

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Madjack's avatar

Rittenhouse was tried, harassed, and smeared as a тАЬwarningтАЭ to the rest of us. Do not stand up to the mob, do not fight back. Fuck them

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

But he was acquitted.

So, it's a big win for self-defense, defending your own and your family's property and lives... and another big L for the establishment cunts and administrative weenies -no matter how they try to frame it and market it.

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Not Me$'s avatar

Maybe you missed the point. Putting an innocent person through the process of a trial is the punishment itself. That action in of itself has a deterring effect on anyone thinking of actually defending their homes, families, themselves or their property. The McCloskies never fired a shot but were indicted and needed to go through the mill before the Governor stepped in. Again the process is the punishment as many Trump supporters have found out to their dismay. Now the leftist Communists are trying to get the Federal Civil rights Division to further hector and attack Mr. Rittenhouse. They never let up until they receive a strong pushback that causes them to pay a price for their tactics and hectoring of others acting under the law.

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