There are so many problems in America today that you might
come to the conclusion that the age of vigilantes is a thing of the past. If
that is your thought, you would be wrong.
Arguably, vigilante justice started to expand during the
Reconstruction period, which led to the formation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1865.
After the passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act in 1871, the organization saw a
decline in membership.
In the early years of the 20th century, the Klan
saw a resurgence, and membership in the Klan reached its peak in the 1920’s.
The Great Depression led to another decline in membership, but
the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s caused membership to grow again, but far
less than the glory years of the 1920’s.
As the article below explains, Klan membership may be smaller
than it once was, but it has now been replaced by something called Christian
nationalism.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-klan-is-back.html
One of the key elements of the KKK was lynching, which peaked
in the 1920’s. However, lynching existed before that time, and one of its
victims was Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, who was hanged in
1844.
Between 1900 to 1931, there were 1595 lynchings of African
Americans in America. Although the first bill to ban lynching was introduced in
1918, it was not until 2022 that congress finally passed a bill to make it
illegal.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2014/01/
The Senate unanimously passed a bill in March that criminalizes
lynching and made it punishable by up to
30 years in prison. It sailed through the House of Representatives, and
President Biden signed it.
While it eased through both chambers of Congress this time with
virtually no opposition, the path to passage took more than 100 years and 200
failed attempts.
Under the bill, named the Emmett
Till Anti-Lynching Act after the
14-year-old boy from Chicago who was lynched while visiting family in
Mississippi, a crime can be prosecuted as a lynching when a hate crime results
in a death or injury, said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., a longtime sponsor of the
legislation.
"Lynching is a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of
racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white
hierarchy," Rush said in a statement Monday evening. "Unanimous
Senate passage of the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act sends a clear and emphatic
message that our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our
history and that the full force of the U.S. federal government will always be
brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/08/1085094040/senate-passes-anti-lynching-bill-and-sends-federal-hate-crimes-legislation-to-bi
Lynching was not confined to the south. The passage of the
Homestead Act of 1862 opened up thousands of acres in the west that quickly led
to a surge of farms in areas that had previously had not been fenced. This quickly
became a source of conflict with cattle ranchers, who were accustomed to free
access to the land.
Not all of the victims of lynching were guilty, as exemplified
by a book titled “The Ox-bow incident”, which was published in 1940, and made
into a movie (starring Henry Fonda) in 1943.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-ox-bow-incident.html
Although it’s tempting to say that vigilante justice is a
bi-partisan issue, that it no longer the case, as explained by Jamelle Bouie in
a recent New York Times article.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/opinion/neely-penny-perry-rittenhouse-desantis.html?searchResultPosition=1
It’s been nearly three years since the riots and
subsequent shooting in Kenosha, Wis., where a gunman — Kyle Rittenhouse, a
17-year-old from nearby Antioch, Ill. — killed two protesters in what a court
eventually determined was self-defense.
Among the most troubling aspects of the shooting was
the almost jubilant reaction of conservative media to the news that someone had
taken the law into his own hands and meted out lethal force. Tucker
Carlson praised Rittenhouse as
someone who decided “to maintain order when no one else would.” Ann Coulter
said she wanted Rittenhouse “as my president.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, then a candidate, called him an
“innocent child,” and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky praised Rittenhouse for
his “incredible restraint.”
Rittenhouse went on, after his acquittal, to become a
minor conservative celebrity. He met with Donald Trump
at Mar-a-Lago, got a standing ovation at
a Turning Point USA conference and earned the praise of the governor of
Florida, Ron DeSantis, who said, “Kyle
Rittenhouse did what we should want citizens to do in such a situation: step
forward to defend the community against mob violence.”
George Zimmerman achieved hero status in 2012, when
he killed an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin. Subsequently,
Martin’s family successfully sued the homeowner’s association where George
Zimmerman worked as a neighborhood watch employee.
The New York City subways made the news in 1984 when
Bernhard Goetz shot 4 unarmed black teenagers, and they did it again this past
week.
A former US Marine who placed a
passenger in a fatal chokehold on the New York subway has appeared in court to
be charged with manslaughter.
Daniel Penny, 24, is accused of causing the death of
30-year-old Jordan Neely on 1 May. He did not enter a plea.
His lawyers said he could not have known his actions
to subdue Mr. Neely would lead to his death.
Mr. Neely, who was homeless, was pinned to the ground
and restrained for several minutes on the train carriage.
He had been shouting at other passengers and asking
for money, witnesses said.
Mr. Neely was later found unconscious in the carriage
and taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. His death resulted from
compression of the neck, the city's medical examiner ruled.
Hands cuffed behind his back, Mr. Penny appeared at
Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday to be formally charged and was later
released on $100,000 in cash bail.
He must return to court on 17 July or a warrant will
be issued for his arrest, the judge said. He must also turn over his passport
and seek permission to cross state lines.
On the day Mr. Neely died, Mr. Penny was questioned by
police and then released.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65573879
This incident was eerily similar to the killing of
George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died because officer Chauvin knelt on his neck
for more than 9 minutes.
Although the actions of Jordan Neely were disturbing,
causing his death was not the appropriate response. Sadly, it didn’t take long
before Mr. Penny became a celebrity, and his defense fund has already swelled
to $2.5 million.
In a polarized America, Daniel Penny becomes a right-wing
cause as defense fund tops $2.5M (msn.com)
All of watch in horror on January 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump
supporters stormed the United States capitol and some of them were shouting “hang Mike Pence”.
To date, more than 900 people have been charged with crimes related
to the events of January 6 – and more will follow. You can call it an “insurrection”
(because it was), but the more accurate description would be that it is the
largest vigilante gathering in this country’s history – and it can never be
allowed to happen again.
