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Approval of vigilantism and murder

I stumbled across a news footage video that had by chance caught the murder (or attempted murder, I'm not completely sure) of a captured child kidnapper and possible rapist by the child's father. Some police officers were escorting the perpretrator in handcuffs, and the father was disguised in some kind of public telephone booth, from which he proceeded to shoot the perpeptrator with a gun. Clearly it was not something that was done in the heat of the moment, but something planned and premeditated.

I made the error of reading some of the youtube comments. In the first several pages every single comment, every single one of them, praised that father's actions. Most called it rightful justice, some called him a hero. Not a single comment of disapproval.

This is just crazy in my opinion. I see two major problems with this:

1) His son had been through a horrible experience that would probably haunt him the rest of his life. He was probably emotionally destroyed and in severe need of support. What does his father do? He risks everything and is ready to go to jail, possibly for life, away from his son. What possible good would that have done to anybody? Not only was his son experienced a really traumatic event, but now his father would put him through another, namely his own father going to jail rather than be at home supporting him?

That man is not a hero. He is an idiot. I don't care how distressed and mad he was about what happened to his son, he is still an idiot. I have no sympathy for him. Making things potentially so much worse for his son after such an ordeal deserves no respect nor admiration.

2) People's basically unanimous approval of his actions is just preposterous. This was not self-defence, nor was it an overreaction done in the heat of the moment. It was premeditated, cold-blooded first-degree murder. The man had clearly prepared for the situation and planned his actions. Yet most people think that what he did was justified, and a good thing.

I can't believe that in the modern society people are so eager to defend murder, vigilantism and taking matters to your own hands. Screw fair trials, screw basic human rights, screw law and order. Someone murdering someone else in revenge is ok according to these people.

And no, I'm not exaggerating here. I commented on the video about this, and several people defended their position, and in fact emphasized it. Some even said that this kind of action should be legal.

What kind of world do these people envision? We have long ago left behind the times when the people of a village stoned someone to death that they didn't like, and rightfully so. Murdering people in revenge, especially people who have already been captured by law enforcement, is barbaric.

Someone asked me "don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing in his position". I answered along the lines of: No, I would have not. I do not believe in the death penalty, and I especially do not believe in vigilantism and taking matters into my own hands, especially when the perpetrator has already been captured. If you support death penalty, that's your pregorative, but if you want death penalty in your country, you should impose it through the proper democratic channels, in other words, by voting or by becoming a representative. You do not take matters into your own hands, become a vigilante and start murdering people you don't like, bypassing the law and authorities.

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