As any regular reader of this blog will know, I favour the rule of law over the rule of vigilante mobs. I have documented many occurrences of vigilante mobs who have stepped in to deal with crime problems that the local police forces either have not bothered with or who are unable to cope or deal with. I have also in the past outlined exactly why I’m opposed to vigilantism and how these mobs have the potential to be unjust and how they are a symptom of societal breakdown.

In particular this blog has covered stories of vigilante groups that have sprung up to deal with Europe’s Islam related problems, problems that too often are not being acknowledged or dealt with to the citizenry’s satisfaction by governments. In these features, which can be found by searching for the phrase ‘I told you this would happen’ in this site’s search box, I outline the dangers posed by vigilantism. I also show how a perception by the public that Government’s are doing little to hold back the threat of Islam, and yes many people in Europe see this ideology as a threat, will help to create vigilante groups to carry out the task that some see their Government’s as failing to undertake. The most notable of these reasons to be concerned about the growth or creation of vigilante groups is the very real likelihood that vigilante groups will target innocent individuals or innocent groups of people who have nothing to do with whatever crime has motivated the vigilante action in the first place.

What has inspired me to write this article is both a recent article in the Daily Telegraph about a new ‘vigilante’ group in Birmingham and the positive reaction some have had to it on social media. Both the group itself and the public reaction to this group’s creation cause me some concern.

This latest vigilante group was set up following a rise in crime in the city and is planning to undertake patrols across the city. The group, We Stand Determined, set up a few weeks ago, stresses that the want to work with the police and were created following a failed attempt to get West Midlands Police to put more officers onto the streets of Birmingham. This group, as is obvious to me, is one that has been set up because local law abiding people are desperate to get some respite from crime and the fear of crime, that the police either will not put effort into dealing with, or are unable to due to budget constraints.

This particular group claims that they will only be monitoring crime and reporting it to the police and I concur with journalist Tim Pool’s assessment of this group that it is little more than a glorified Neighbourhood Watch entity. They will not be carrying weapons, they will have no powers of arrest over and above that held by the ordinary British subject and appear to be using the word ‘vigilante’ in order to garner publicity for their group, something that they have obviously achieved.

What worries me about this group is that although the intentions of those who started it may be good ones and so are their initial policies, that will not guarantee that all the members of this group will think the same way or act the same way. This is it needs to be said, a very large group when comparison with other groups, 400 members and supporters is considerable when it is considered alongside the relatively small numbers of members of the various ‘paedo hunting’ groups.

If only ten percent of We Stand Determined are dodgy in so far as they want to be the judge, jury and executioner of criminals then that is 40 people who could be a serious problem for the future and for the innocent people that they may end up targeting with either violence or harassment. Will this group be able to keep 400+ members disciplined and working within the law or will the hotheads and those who are under the delusion that they are the avenging character in the Death Wish films come to the fore? We do not know but I doubt that We Stand Determined will be able to manage this number of people effectively, especially people who may see themselves as ‘guardians of law and peace’. Although this group fits into the general history of policing in Britain, which makes use of engaged citizens to help detect criminals and prevent crime, it has the capacity to go badly wrong. I wonder how long it will be before we hear of the first misplaced accusation of crime or the first unjust beating meted out to some innocent person being committed by a member of this group? If other groups of this sort are anything to go by then it may not be long.

The other aspect of this story that bothers me is the large amount of combined enthusiasm for the vigilantes and disgust at the police that is being expressed out there in social media. I’m seeing a lot of people unthinkingly backing this group and approving of this and other types of vigilantism. I can certainly understand where this enthusiasm for vigilantism is coming from even though I do not approve of such enthusiasm. The support for such vigilante groups comes from those who feel all but abandoned by normal policing and police forces. These people are also angry at those in the police who should be keeping us safe spending inordinate and inappropriate amounts of time and resources on minor guff such as people saying unpleasant things on Twitter or other social media platforms.

Of course, I understand the frustrations of those who see the effects of real and dangerous crime every day, yet all they see of their senior police officers is them promoting various bits of diversity guff or hobnobbing with certain Islamic grievance mongers. It is very frustrating seeing the police forces that we pay to protect us wasting time like this and policing policies that do not reflect the priorities of the general public. It is very obvious to many of us that too many police policies and too many senior police staff are unfit for purpose, it is also plain that police forces are afflicted by the twin problems of not enough money being spent on them and poor management of the taxpayer’s cash that they do get. All of this contributes to a feeling that the police are useless at best and thoroughly bent at worst. Sometimes this judgement on the police is justified and sometimes it is not.

I fully agree that we have a great deal of problems with how our police are managed, trained and deployed. I also can see that our police forces have been starved of sufficient funding and rather too influenced by various forms of political correctness. However, the way to solve this problem is to have politicians who will put through Parliament decent, effective and equitable policing of a sort that I admit has been sorely lacking in recent decades. The ordinary beat officer to my knowledge does not decide for him or herself to put themselves into various time wasting and politically biased ‘diversity’ courses. The blame for this lies with the senior police officers, the out of touch ‘Ruperts’ of the various forces who are stuffed full of theoretical ‘Bramshill bullshit’ from police leadership courses. It is they who are pushing politicised policing onto their more junior officers and on the public.

The way to not solve the crime problems that Britain has is to put ‘King Mob’ in charge of them, which would be the effect of having widespread vigilantism. ‘King Mob’ makes for a very bad ruler as anybody with any sort of historical or political knowledge will well know. ‘King Mob’ is a very unjust leader and an even worse judge.

I would like to ask the large number of people who are waving the flag for vigilantism how they will feel when vigilantism inevitably goes wrong? Will they still be enthusiastic about it when some harmless but odd old man or an innocent lorry driver is murdered after being unjustly accused of being a paedophile? Will they still shout ‘yes let’s have some vigilantes please’ when some innocent but turbanless Sikh is beaten up in error because some bozo thought that he was the spitting image of a Muslim terrorist, rapist or drug dealer? I ask those who are showing misplaced enthusiasm for vigilantes, both in the context of the Birmingham group and as regards other similar groups whether they will still be as favourable towards the idea of vigilantism when the bodies of innocents start to pile up or will they be in my view rightfully ashamed of their mistaken adherence to the mores and edicts of King Mob?

The rule of law and the presence of an effective and professional police force, imperfect as they are, is plainly much more preferable to the rule of King Mob and certainly preferable to the gangs of often none too savoury and sometimes criminal thugs who want to see themselves as ‘avengers’. I would ask those shouting approval for the idea of vigilantism to be very very careful of what they wish for, as what they are wishing for has the stench of profound potential injustice surrounding it.

I think that it is both right and proper for citizens to help the police to monitor crime and anti social behaviour, I also think that it is right that such crime is reported to the police and assistance given to them in apprehending criminals. Such behaviour, part of a policy where the public are the police and the police are the public, has been part and parcel of policing ever since Sir Robert Peel created the Metropolitan Police in 1829. If We Stand Determined can control their members and be mere eyes and ears for the police then fair enough, it serves a legitimate and legal purpose. However I suspect that for the reasons that I gave above which include group size and potential for poor management, it could all too easily go very bad very quickly. I would not be at all surprised to find, maybe sometime in the very near future, that a member of this group or someone posing as one, is implicated in some tragedy where some innocent member of the public is either injured or killed by someone who mistakenly thought they were a criminal of some sort. I do not want the blood of innocent people on my conscience, therefore I cannot support vigilante groups even though I can plainly see the frustrations that are driving the creation of such groups.