Give the dog a bad name and hang him

Mob justice is always a thorny issue and most of the time, it can prove to be counter-productive. This occurs when a section of the society assumes the role of a vigilante for correcting a social wrong. Bloggers have been accused of doing similar things in the past; even desi bloggers as in the case of Rohan Pinto or IIPM (I beg to differ in both cases though). Even Bollywood, more recently Rang De Basanti, has long advocated the use of vigilante justice when they run out of all other feasible options. Such justice deliverance methods often arouse passions among people although they may be discounted as infeasible or even illegal.

More recently, camera phones have been used to out alleged sex offenders. The New York Post published a picture taken by a woman of a man who supposedly exposed himself in the subway. Although most of us would nod in agreement in ‘exposing’ the bastard but such methods can easily be subjected to abuse. I was informed that the some of the Blank Noise Project women also used this method to post pictures of men who allegedly harassed them. Although I severely deplore street harassment and any form of eve teasing, I am reluctant to employ such a method as a form of deterrence and justice. The tendency for posting a picture of a totally innocent man is highly likely and if you are branded as a sex offender especially in the United States, it is extremely difficult to get rid of the tag.

Every criminal however sleazy the crime may be is entitled to due process of the law and this fact forms the cornerstone of any civilized judicial system. Taking on the mantle of delivering justice by over zealous women or perennially-angry bloggers is certainly not the desired route. Mind you, I am not condoning street harassment or blog plagiarizing in any way or form.

Tweet This“Give the dog a bad name and hang him” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1299] was published Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 10:00 pm by Patrix, filed under Law, Society Culture, and tagged as , , , , , . Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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  • http://www.retributions.wordpress.com confused

    I agree….I did follow the Rohan Pinto story and I am not sure of any one expcept the bleeding heart lobby could have a problem with it-but then they have a problem with everything!

    Vigilante justice is tempting but very dangerous

  • http://alkyron.livejournal.com Neel

    what if the people are wrong ? mob justice is a whole lot of people running on their reptilian brains.

    but using cameraphones to snag offenders … can that be used as evidence in court ?

  • http://ipatrix.com Patrix

    Confused, the Rohan Pinto issue was the Indian blogosphere’s first brush with rampant plagiarism and I guess Rohan may not have expected such a backlash. Some bloggers did go overboard in criticizing and questioning his motives but I think overall, it had the effect of sending out a strong signal to other bloggers who might have considered plagiarzing content. I supported the movement against Rohan then but probably I would think again before launching a full blown campaign now. A harsh reprimand and threatening to expose offenders would work better today. If the offender is stupid enough to still carry on, then I guess he/she is asking for it.

    At that time, the desi blogosphere wasn’t as big as it is today but it still made an impact so I guess the bigger we get, the more ineffective (and wrong) the mob justice system gets.

    Without taking any names, the desi bloggers recently resisted another potential mob justice movement.

    Neel    , I am not sure if camera-pics will be allowed as evidence in court but then again they are simply pictures…the device used to take them should not matter as long as it doesn’t manipulate reality. I guess, I am against using them to hand out justice on your own…what if you are wrong? Due Process of the law does tend to minimize those chances.


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