Dear William J. Bratton,

The United States legal system is one that we, the people, have followed and modify frequently. Without it, we wouldn’t have the same U.S we have today. Fortunately, we have great law enforcers which we need and are more than fortuitous to have. Wistfully,there are few individuals who take “justice” into their own hands and sometimes by unjust methods. In some cases, when person or persons handle said situations, they can lead to violent, fatal, humiliating, but most illegal and disproportionate actions. While seldom, law enforcers have request assistance by some vigilante justice groups either through the vigilantes themselves or by their methods since it may be effective in dealing with a case. The concept itself is labeled what it’s labeled just from it’s illegal techniques alone. I still heavily disagree with any assistance from these people despite the situation because, it doesn’t seem right to excuse and use some vigilantes practices while punishing others. Vigilante justice, while effective in some cases, is not an acceptable or excusable way to deal justice.

Vigilante justice, for the most cases can make law enforcement more difficult, which can be seen through countless individuals words, “...many law enforcement officials say the site leads to few arrests and may even impede growing efforts to police the web” (Marisa Schultz-2). In most cases over the web or in this case, regarding catching pedophiles, it generally turns out to be very difficult for law enforcers to handle and can often result with someone’s private information getting out. It also doesn’t do much good for police, “"What people don't realize, if a person pulls over drunk drivers and then turns them over to the police (for an arrest), we didn't witness that," Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said... how do we know who that is with certainly?” (Schultz-4). So, while individuals who track these people down do so with the best intention, in a way it hinders police advancements and may actually have been beneficial for the person being accused of crime, despite the humiliation. Not only does doing this hinder law enforcers work but from some people’s eyes, it’s practically a crime to try to catch law violators and deal with them, themselves,  “...From a law enforcement standpoint, those people should be in jail. It’s one thing to put their picture up on the web site and embarrass them, it’s another to make them pay for the crime they committed...” (Schultz-2). Here, Liczbinski, who is one of four investigators in the county's Internet Crime Unit featured, demonstrates how people shouldn’t try to take judicial matters into their own hands.

Another important aspect to remember is that vigilante justice typically involves publicly humiliating people and or violent or fatal actions. While I’m sure law enforcement would not excuse a fight, beating, or murder, that is simply an example of why you shouldn’t excuse other forms of vigilante justice from time to time like, catching pedophiles on the internet while humiliating them.  An example of this can be taken from this,  “In Mobile, Ala., an ongoing, racially charged neighborhood dispute culminated in the brutal beating of matthew owens, who is white, by a large group of black men, one of whom reportedly announced, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon” as he was leaving” (Tucker 1). This quote shows people attack a single, innocent, man for something that he had no involvement in but the people wanted something done and felt like that was right. While I don’t think anyone would excuse this, I believe that this is a great example of why other acts of vigilante justice that isn’t as bad as this shouldn’t be excused. Vigilante justice is vigilante justice no matter how you look at it.

The point that needs to get across is that vigilante justice is an immature and unjust way of dealing with personal problems or even problems that have nothing to do with the people at all and that it should not be tolerated or excused by any means. Despite the fact that it may be beneficial in some ways or cases, it shouldn’t just be excused for that when it's verily illegal and would not be tolerated if it was a different, worse, act of vigilante justice. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to simply hear me. I greatly appreciate it and all that you do.

Respectfully,

Christopher G.