Viable vigilante justice

“You may be asking yourself: Do I feel lucky?” and with a slight grin he clicks back the hammer of his magnum, “Well, do you punk!?” If you don’t know this line from this beloved American classic “Dirty Harry,” then your obviously not a fan of tough guy movies. In that case, you’re probably more familiar with lame “chick flick” movies like “Pretty Woman,” but I digress.

Anyway, if you’re an average red-blooded male like me, when you watch movies like “Die Hard,” “Braveheart,” or “The Boondock Saints” you feel a pressing need to either grab a giant pistol (or depending on the movie, a huge sword and kilt) and go out a blow away some bad guys. These movies get the testosterone flowing, and they make the idea of pursuing justice with a manly vengeance a truly appealing idea.

But in reality, you simply can’t go out and be a vigilante, simply because society frowns on the idea. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we should all have the right to put somebody down if they harm us, because that unfortunately allows ordinary individuals to take the law unnecessarily into their own hands. For example, if I was in a bank and it was being robbed, and I grabbed a security guards gun and started shooting, one of two things could happen. First of all, just like a movie, I could miraculously shoot all the bad guys, and then get to be hero, and then promptly hook-up with the beautiful girl who was standing behind me in line.

But the other thing that could happen is that I could accidentally hurt the wrong people and make the situation much worse. I am not a cop, so I have no reason to step in and make matters worse. In other words, we all can’t go around being the tough guy and beating up anyone who crosses the line because in the end you will end up crossing the line yourself. Yet what I will say is this, if an injustice is occurring, the worst thing you could do is nothing.

As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." So don’t go out and be the jerk beating up everybody left and right, but at least do the right thing, and stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.

Photo from MCT Campus