One of the great worries that I have, about both the problems caused by illegal migration and those caused by Islam, is that if the State doesn’t do anything about these problems, then the ordinary citizen will try to take the law into their own hands. As many readers of this blog will know I’m opposed to vigilantism. This is because this course of action has a nasty habit of hitting the wrong targets. ‘King Mob‘, history has shown, makes for a bad judge of guilt or innocence. Vigilantism is also a sign that the societal norms have broken down and fear and violent anger has taken the places of these norms.

However, despite my distaste for vigilantism, I can see why desperate people start to think that there is a need for desperate measures. This is apparently the situation that is developing in the Belgian port of Zebrugge. Stressed by a massive increase in crime attributed to illegal migrants and faced with what looks like inaction on the part of the local police, some local people are saying that if the police do not sort out these migrant crime problems, then the people will. This is not good and shows that public confidence in the police is dropping, in the face of a crime problem that is not being properly tackled by the usual authorities. According to press reports on the issue, police are appealing for calm from the public but I believe that this calm will only come when the police start to deal with the matters that are driving the public towards vigilantism.

Breitbart said:

Police in the Belgian coastal town of Zeebrugge have called for calm after members of the community threatened to take the law into their own hands over a series of robberies committed by delinquent illegal migrants.

The local residents of the small port, located just outside Bruges, have expressed outrage over an increased wave of robberies from cars and homes that have been attributed to illegal migrants, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.

Police have warned the residents against confronting the illegal migrants, many of which sleep in local playgrounds and on the streets, saying that they should call them before acting and not to blame illegal migrants for all of the recent thefts in the area.

I’m not surprised that locals are expressing outrage at what is going on and although the police are telling people that migrants are not solely to blame, the fact that 63 migrants were arrested in one week alone for various offences points to there being a heavy migrant and illegal migrant aspect to the crime wave that is afflicting Zebrugge.

Breitbart added:

“It is dangerous to assume immediately that the thefts are the work of migrants,” police said.

The police line was echoed by Mayor Renaat Landuyt who urged residents to “immediately report suspicious situations to the police. That is and remains the only correct solution.”

Normally I’d agree with the idea that some assumptions are both wrong and dangerous but it does seem that there is a serious problem with migrant crime in Zebrugge. Whilst I concur that in civilised societies the police should be the first port of call for citizens afflicted by crime, the sort of problems that have been imported to Belgium are becoming more than the police can properly manage. I’m exceedingly worried about the sort of breakdown in society that the calls for vigilantism coming out of Zebrugge represent. Unless the Western nations get to grips with the imported problems of Islam and illegal and inappropriate migration, then we could be seeing many more instances of people, as in Zebrugge, saying that they’ve had enough and are preparing to do the job that neither the police, the courts or the State is prepared to undertake.

I do not want to see the continent of Europe wracked by vigilantism. Such a policy will end up harming the innocent, by the very nature of vigilantism itself. We need our politicians, our courts and our security services to deal, harshly if necessary, with the current problems that our nations face. Failure to do that will make vigilantism or worse a constant feature of Europe’s future. I’d rather have trained and honest police officers dealing with these problems rather than a mob of angry people bearing flaming brands.