In a case reminiscent of Bernard Goetz, pharmacist Jerome Ersland was held up by two gun-wielding men, shot one of them in the head, and then, when the other had left, shot the prone man several more times, killing him (store security video). Now he's being charged with first-degree murder, and is the center of intense controversy about whether he engaged in legitimate self-defense by making absolutely sure his attacker was incapacitated or in an unjustifiable vigilante-style execution. Complicating matters is the fact that Jerome is white and the robbers black.
posted by shivohum on May 30, 2009 - 178 comments

Freezing Blade, Quiet Moon and Bronze Mustache. A tale from modern China of betrayal, vigilantism and general woe in WoW and Real-Life^TM.
posted by grabbingsand on Jun 1, 2006 - 9 comments

Throw Away The Key dot org seeks to lengthen the sentences of criminals on the premise of their mission statement: "Incarceration Works!" From their site: "If you believe a girl should be able to walk down the street in broad daylight without being abducted and murdered by a convicted felon, then it is time for you to get involved."
posted by fandango_matt on Nov 29, 2005 - 28 comments

Vigilante justice, Caribbean style.
posted by h00dini on Mar 25, 2004 - 16 comments

Vigilantes troll for pedophiles in chat rooms, set up meetings and videotape them. Then they out them at Perverted-Justice.com. The ensnared men sometimes exercise their "right of reply" to explain their actions. Huh.
posted by Slagman on Mar 18, 2004 - 26 comments

Vigilantism Taken To The Extreme Man guns down "career larcenist" as he's ransacking his car. No one in the neighborhood is crying for the criminal, who had 47 arrests. They're going to be character witness for the killer, who's charged with 2nd degree murder. Should I feel guilty that I'm not terribly sorry New York is minus one thug this morning?
posted by darren on May 9, 2001 - 60 comments

Behold the power of slashdot. When slashdot ran a story about an ISP shutting down a guy hosting a FBI spoof video, the owner of the single person ISP became inundated with hate mail. It's seems like this is happening fairly often: slashdot runs a story based on some early information that may or may not be checked, the zealots get fired up and go on the rampage. The last time I remember it happening was the bogus Dreamcast telnet story that resulted in numerous angry calls to Sega's tech support lackeys. It's sad to see that even a group of mostly educated geeks often reacts with pack mentality before thinking of the implications of what they're doing.
posted by mathowie on Nov 30, 1999 - 0 comments