Dirty Harry

I was an big supporter of vigilanteism. Then my brain began to work again.

The America of today (as opposed to the America I grew up in, meaning barely America at all) is obsessed about safety. The average citizen feels surrounded by enemies, even in their gated communities. In the aftermath of 911 which nobody will ever forget despite the drastically low number of fatalities in comparison to everything else in the world, everyone's lives were affected, but not mine because I am two time zones separated and don't really give a damn.

I just needed to let that one out. I am the most unamerican patriot ever sometimes.

Anyway, because of our growing fears many other great evils are allowed onto our soil despite things like 'rights' and 'fairness' and 'common sense.' Much of this is hypocritical to boot.

One of the main problems are that Arabs actually live in this country. I'm serious, actual Arabs. What's more, some of them are Muslims too. I asked my dad and he said, "Yep, there are Muslim Arabs living in our great nation." And he knows something about Muslims, I tell you. After 911 Muslims, especially Arab Muslims became the enemy of our nation. Therein lies the problem. Many Arab Muslims are honest, law abiding, and productive members of our society. But evil Arabs exist as well. This means we have to assault them and constantly hassle them as threats to our security until the Struggle Against Extremism is finally over.

When I speak to people about the racial profiling they don't really seem to care taking either, "Well, it isn't happening to me" or "well, most terrorists are Arabs, so it is natural." Then I start laughing.

Think of all the big terrorist actions on U.S. soil. How many of them were actually Arabs, or even people with tans? The unibomber- white. Oklahoma City Bomber- Also white. First attack against WTC- Arab. 911- Arabs. Anthrax Scare- I don't think we actually caught them. Um... Hell, I can barely remember anything else... Lots of embassies, but I'm not counting them because they weren't on U.S. soil.

So terrorism is like, fifty fifty disgruntled whiteys Arab extremist.

Really, I think a lot of this comes from people thinking, "Hey, who can lose out because of this except for the bad guys?" Which is wrong, and not just because Orwell said so.

Which brings me back to how I started this odd and rambling tirade about a tangent.

Many states (Mostly Red states, because that matters, inexplicably) pass laws that allow people to shoot people whenever they feel threatened and or confronted. Some states have reasonable restraints such as "The individual is on your property and poses a direct threat to yourself or your property." In which case I would be more than happy to let them shoot the bastard. I would. Some states are less clear and often just mean 'shoot minorities, or maybe people with really bad tans.'

Sometimes in the news there is a story were somebody goes free after shooting people who raped a family member or something like that when the cops did nothing. I've heard at least two such tales. The masses cheer for their hero.

People usually complain when people don't get convicted, often on a technicality.

Then I wonder why we have such feelings. In the end I have to blame Clint Eastwood. (One of my heros, actually.) Not just his fault, but Dirty Harry pretty much brought the general feeling to a cusp. In TV and movies it is always the renegade good guy trying to fight the system who loves the bad guy more than anything else. Of course, the part everybody forgets is that in the movie of course it is actually the bad guy. Nobody watches the movie and in the end the gritty cop goes, "Oh... Shit... I guess you really didn't do it. I'm terribly sorry! Let me buy you a beer."

And when you go back into the real world it suddenly doesn't work like that. People do actually end up being innocent, or they were on the property as a misunderstanding, or they needed help (mental or otherwise) and now they are dead.

It is nice to have bounty hunters. They are licensed individuals that can be held accountable for their actions and whatnot. A vigilante on the other hand usually ends up being some fool with a Desert Eagle who is simply dangerous because he thinks he is on the side of good.

I think in the end it is that people just forget why there is due process, and that it doesn't fail as often as TV makes it seem. Watch CSI, they get the people without running them down in an alley and torturing them.

Basically, I would support vigilanteism if people weren't so damn stupid all the time.

One bold stride against vigilanteism lately has been a congressional ban on lynching. Because murdering black people with no trial is bad. (Not that murder isn't already a crime, but lets forget that... they need to do some ass kissing for the minorities lately.) But, honestly, whoopdifuckingdoo. (Edit, Nevermind this part, although the whoopdifuckingdoo still applies.)

I think people do need guns to protect themselves and their family and property, but giving them an excuse to start wasting people on the slightest excuse just gets good people killed.