As a person with Black and Hispanic members of my family, as flawed as the law and law enforcement is, I’d be a lot less comfortable with vigilanteeism – hell, even as a woman, I’d be less comfortable. This behavior is a case of “strength makes us right” and none of my family are white guys with guns and muscles. So, I’d rather stick to the law and have less risk of losing people I care about. What happens when vigilantes get it wrong? The law gets it wrong, too, plenty of times – and people can get hurt by fellow prisoners. But at least in that case, you have some redress.

Yup, Michelle, it was the parents’ fault. Really? Remind me never to turn my back on my kids while you’re around.

This story is sickening. There are plenty of places in this world where vigilantes run unchecked and police have no power, and guess what? They’re not pretty. Anyone heard about the state of Guatemala these days? Mexico? Yikes.

Michelle, I used to teach in Kensington, and I can tell you that in that neighborhood, 11 year old kids walking around without adults is the norm. This sad story is a good example of why young children should not walk around without adults, but her parent(s) were probably just letting her do what is very normal for where they live. I’m sure they are feeling that “if I’d only been with her…” feeling, and it must be awful. An 11 yr old walking a younger sibling to school is a very common sight in many urban neighborhoods.

I agree that the residents should not have injured the man, but I’m so glad they detained him. The article says he has attempted to rape someone before, and that kind of piece of sh&t needs to be off the streets. Also, it’s easy for me to say they shouldn’t have beaten him. If I were that little girl’s mother, I would have been happy about it too.

An eleven-year-old being allowed outside without armed protection is not “neglect.” My brother and I were allowed to walk around our local neighborhood, to school, and to the store by the time we were eight and eleven and it was a great experience for us.

I can’t say I’m horrified by the rapist getting some of what was coming to him. He’s going to get a lot worse once he’s incarcerated.

It would have been nice to know if crime status went down in that neiborhood or up, after that vigilantism act. That would have determind weither or not that act of violence inproved that nieghborhood.

Our justice system is flawed but vigilanteism is not the answer. If anything our justice system has more of a problem with false convictions than nonconvictions or not punishing strong enough. As long as people are offered plea bargains for offering to testify against others this will be a problem, because if someone knows nothing they’re going to make things up to get a plea bargain and jurors will eat it all up and not know the difference. But at least in the justice system a person gets their day in court instead of a mob of people just suddenly deciding theyre guilty.