It is being suggested that citizens responding to crime constitute vigilante justice. The latter more properly relates to calculated covert action against a perceived criminal who had escaped justice and, in the view of some, deserved punishment outside the law. In the present national circumstances when police officers neglect their duty flagrantly with full-pay benefits, citizens may well be legally responsible for dealing with crimes as much as a passing motorist is culpable if he does not stop to assist in accidents.
A citizen's arrest is lawful, and more imperative when paid officers refuse to perform their duty. Police are paid to serve and protect citizens, and their refusal to do so returns the duty to citizens. There can be no infraction of the law when citizens shoulder their own safety. The citizens who are in fact encouraged to form community watch groups, not as window dressing but to safeguard communities, must be protected from prosecution when their family or community is defended. If the law places liability on citizens who respond to criminal violence, it must be amended to permit untrammelled response to armed aggression.
MF Rahman
Via e-mail