My wife calls me “Her Redneck Vigilante”.. A term of endearment. I am very active in the neighborhood watch program, and I am also one that takes NO CRAP from the hood dwellers that think they own MY neighborhood. I can get pretty confrontational about things like graffiti, vandalism, robbery’s, car thefts and pretty much ANYTHING to do with the gangbanging POS’s that seem to be cropping up around here.

Let me first layout some definitions:

1) A vigilante is a private individual who illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker

2) Members of neighborhood watch programs and others who use legal means of bringing people to justice are not considered vigilantes.

While I have NO problem confronting ANY tagger (s) when I catch them, and I have no problem holding them until the PD arrive, nor do I have any problem doing recon and investigations and relaying my findings on to some good folks in LE. I do not engage in any vigilante type actions.(I do however retain the right to my self defense and I take that part very serious)

As I have heard in several interviews of people by the media, the term “VIGILANTE” is usually used by media types. Either to pin the label on the good guy, or to allow them to deny it. It usually occurs after an incident involving self defense, home defense or an interdiction into a crime by a citizen that results in the demise or injury of a criminal.

A person that goes out LOOKING for nefarious actions in and around his/her domicile and calls the cops if/when it is noticed, IS NOT a vigilante. That would be called a helpful eye on the area and will result in a very good relationship with local law enforcement IF it is done correctly. (Not calling the cops for every little petty thing or bugging them for stupid stuff)

A person that goes out looking for nefarious actions and takes action in physical form against those he/she spots without alerting police will result in poor relationship with PD and possibly law suits.

I take my neighborhood watch responsibility very serious. I am an able body man, with a fairly large skill set. I can do things the cops don’t have the manpower to do. I can be involved without being physical and I can affect a POSITIVE change for my neighborhood.

I am not alone either. There are several of us that have our eyes open. We in California are in a rock and a hard spot. We live here, we pay taxes here, we the right to be safe here and we have the right to NOT be vandalized, robbed, or threatened… We hold the key.

Now all that being said, I would gladly accept the role of INTERROGATOR if my local PD would care to drop one of the morons they catch that won’t talk at my house.. I’ll make em talk, I guarantee….

I bring this topic up because of this interview of a man that shot and killed a home invader.

I can’t embed the video so here’s the link to “Front Sight” that has both the video and the DA’s video.

If you notice in that interview the man had to defend against the accusation of “Vigilante” although he was in his own house. WTF? This is the age of media we are in.

Personally I think with all the budget cuts to our PD’s across the nation, and the revolving doors on our prison system perhaps a few vigilante’s are what’s needed. We may have to get Charles Bronson out of retirement soon if the idiots in government keep taking cops off the street to pay for slugs and drug addicts…

Anyway, wish us luck around here. The economy is starting to show it’s demise of society. People around here are becoming desperate and crime stats are going up accordingly. Our Officers in blue are doing what they can but they are far outnumbered….