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Do you believe in vigilante justice?

Do you believe in taking the law into your own hands if necessary to do justice?

  • 1. Yes.

    Votes: 14 46.7%

  • 2. No.

    Votes: 14 46.7%

  • 3. Depends, and I will explain below.

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Total voters
    30
Missy

Missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
56,758
If morally and ethically justified would you support this?
If a goal is morally important enough is any method of achieving it is acceptable?

We all know that the law is flawed and justice not always served.
There are loopholes and there are miscarriages of justice both ways.

If you knew, without doubt, someone was guilty of a horrible crime and got away with it, and you could do something about it and not get in trouble....would you?

Does the end justify the means?
Is acting with the greater good in mind ethical?
 
missy said:
If you knew, without doubt, someone was guilty of a horrible crime and got away with it, and you could do something about it and not get in trouble....would you?
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Do you mean that they were never caught, or that they were caught, prosecuted, and found not guilty?

If never caught, and I knew they were guilty, I'd turn them in and provide what I knew about their guilt. If they had been prosecuted, and found not guilty (when in fact they were) I would of course be demoralized, however I still believe that it's better for a guilty person to go free than an innocent person to be wrongly convicted/imprisoned.

To me, laws are what keep society civilized, or at least that is the purpose. Although the justice system is imperfect, so are people. One person acting alone based upon their perception of the truth, to me, is more dangerous than an imperfect justice system.
 
GoldenTouch said:
If someone hurt my child - yes
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I agree with this. I will add if someone hurt my husband, parents, sister, nieces, cats. Or dear friends. I would (if I could) exact what I considered to be justice. If the justice system failed us. And if I could do it and not ruin my life and the life of my loved ones. Of course this question is theoretical and I doubt any of us would or could exact justice and get away with it safely. So we wouldn't. But it is a theoretical question.


Lookinagain said:
Do you mean that they were never caught, or that they were caught, prosecuted, and found not guilty?

If never caught, and I knew they were guilty, I'd turn them in and provide what I knew about their guilt. If they had been prosecuted, and found not guilty (when in fact they were) I would of course be demoralized, however I still believe that it's better for a guilty person to go free than an innocent person to be wrongly convicted/imprisoned.

To me, laws are what keep society civilized, or at least that is the purpose. Although the justice system is imperfect, so are people. One person acting alone based upon their perception of the truth, to me, is more dangerous than an imperfect justice system.
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I mean if they were caught and then released. If they weren't caught, I too, would turn them in. And I agree with you. Laws keep society civilized. This is just a thought exercise. Laws fail us more often than I like to think. What would you do if a loved one was killed and their murderer not brought to justice and you could do something about that? Would you still feel the same way and allow them to be free while your loved one was gone forever. And justice not served?

I am, for the record, not talking about perception. I wrote in my first post that without question the person was guilty and you could get away with taking care of them. Would you take that option or would you still stand by what you wrote above? I am giving you a chance to make the system more perfect. No judgment on my part either way. Let your heart and brain guide you.
 
missy said:
What would you do if a loved one was killed and their murderer not brought to justice and you could do something about that? Would you still feel the same way and allow them to be free while your loved one was gone forever. And justice not served?

I am, for the record, not talking about perception. I wrote in my first post that without question the person was guilty and you could get away with taking care of them. Would you take that option or would you still stand by what you wrote above? I am giving you a chance to make the system more perfect. No judgment on my part either way. Let your heart and brain guide you.
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I could never take someone else's life, no matter what. Perhaps if could figure out a way to ruin them financially, or something more like that, I would because I'd like to see them suffer. But I don't consider that vigilante justice, more like revenge. I don't even think I could hire someone to take "care" of them. And it wouldn't bring back my loved one so I don't think I would feel any satisfaction in their death.
 
Lookinagain said:
::)I could never take someone else's life, no matter what. Perhaps if could figure out a way to ruin them financially, or something more like that, I would because I'd like to see them suffer. But I don't consider that vigilante justice, more like revenge. I don't even think I could hire someone to take "care" of them. And it wouldn't bring back my loved one so I don't think I would feel any satisfaction in their death.
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All good points. Until I’m in that situation (and hopefully none of us ever are) I won’t truly know if I could do it. Right now I pass out at the sight of blood. ::)
 
missy said:
Right now I pass out at the sight of blood. ::)
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Yep, and have a hard time killing anything other than perhaps a house fly or a spider.
 
Lookinagain said:
Yep, and have a hard time killing anything other than perhaps a house fly or a spider.
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I can kill flies too but I can’t kill spiders. I get greg to catch and release if possible. Roaches I kill but with terror. They are sneaky monsters. :errrr:
All this to say I agree with you. Taking life is not something I take lightly. Just a thought exercise under impossible circumstances.
 
I couldn’t do it…I would wish something bad happened to them....but I couldn’t kill them…There’s a possibility I could snap and kill them…I guess we would never know unless something like that happened to one of our loved ones.
 
Theoretically yes but what if you shoot the wrong person etc

Only if you were a super assassin like in the movies or comic books.
 
mellowyellowgirl said:
Theoretically yes but what if you shoot the wrong person etc

Only if you were a super assassin like in the movies or comic books.
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Haha yes, exactly what I intended. In an ideal situation where you would not hit an innocent person and the intended target is guilty of a heinous crime etc etc would you do it. Theoretically and under a situation where everything went according to plan. I rather like your analogy to a super assassin. :)

Screen Shot 2021-07-03 at 10.48.36 AM.png
 
missy said:
Haha yes, exactly what I intended. In an ideal situation where you would not hit an innocent person and the intended target is guilty of a heinous crime etc etc would you do it. Theoretically and under a situation where everything went according to plan. I rather like your analogy to a super assassin. :)

Screen Shot 2021-07-03 at 10.48.36 AM.png
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Totally!!! If I had mad super assassin skills I'd be Batman but actually kill people off (none of this nonsense of leaving villains to survive and plot revenge on me/the city etc).

Or be a super sniper! I'd totally snipe anyone who was guilty of a heinous crime.

But all this assumes I have no family and live with a bunch of golden retrievers. Because I don't want my family to get into the whole "living with a vigilante" debacle.
 
I didn’t vote. As a straight definition, no. As with most things it depends on the situation. As a person who fought off a violent attack, yes, some situations imo there are exceptions. But our laws can’t be gray can they.
 
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I legally carry a weapon. As much as I would not WANT to take a life, push comes to shove I would do what I had to do.
 
In theory no
never
but when those dogs that killed the kitten on my driveway .... if Gary's shot gun had been handy ....

But we have to have faith in our justice systen even if we have pitifully short sentences here in comparison to the US
And i don't kill spiders
 
missy said:
What would you do if a loved one was killed and their murderer not brought to justice and you could do something about that? Would you still feel the same way and allow them to be free while your loved one was gone forever. And justice not served?

I used to imagine that I would. I now know that I would not. I must morally live in such a way that I can live with myself. The person walking around free did not win, I believe we will all be judged.
 
There is no justice in the criminal system anymore so it might become more common.
 
No.
Follow the laws.

Elect better lawmakers, and write to them when they are in office.
 
I have mixed feelings about this, however, I can appreciate why it can be justifiable on certain circumstances.

DK :confused2:
 
DH & I have had this same discussion before & we both agreed that if someone harmed either of us, our Son or any of our animals we would exact revenge & it would be severe. If we ended up in prison at least we would know that the guilty party was no longer on this earth
 
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