"Neil Harrington" wrote in message
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"tony cooper" wrote in message
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On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 13:14:07 +0100, Chris H wrote:




I do understand but having seem FOX news and many others the same
pictures with slightly different words can portray a very different
scene.

I recall during the floods in New Orleans there was a comment that there
were gangs of black criminals looting and white vigilantes trying to
keep the peace and get supplies for people.

I don't believe this either. The meaning of the word "vigilantes"
would be understood by any professional journalist, and not used to
describe "keeping the peace". A description using "vigilantes" would
be as negative as a description using "looters".

Not necessarily. "Vigilantes" implies a group of citizens that "take the
law into their own hands," to use the common phrase. Sometimes that is the
necessary and proper thing to do.

Do you know where and when the term got started?

In the mid-19th century, San Francisco, then a relatively small town, was
much troubled by crime and violence. Honest men and women were attacked
and robbed, businesses were too, streets and homes were unsafe, and the
local judges and peace officers were worse than useless -- basically the
local law was in cahoots with the criminals.

Eventually the local citizens got fed up with this and formed what they
called a "vigilance committee." (This of course is where "vigilante" comes
from.) One day the committee rounded up a number of the most notorious
crooks, including some of the local "law" I believe, gave them a speedy
trial and hanged them.

The effect on San Francisco was salutory. Criminals and corrupt law
officers alike fled the city post haste, and it became (for a while) a
peaceful, law-abiding and orderly town.

As I recollect, the citizens of San Francisco had to do that twice, and on
one occasion federal troops were called in to protect the corrupt local
law, with mixed results.

These very interesting and even instructive events are extensively covered
in the book "The Barbary Coast," by Herbert Asbury, published in 1933 --
about five years after his better known book, "Gangs of New York." The
latter of course was what the silly movie of that title with Leonardo
DiCaprio was supposedly based on -- though to even suggest that there's
any similarity between the book and the movie should be made a criminal
offense. Both books are an excellent read and may still be available -- I
have facsimile reprints of both, haven't read them for many years but must
do so again soon.


In other words gang warfare but the very subtle differences in the words
portrayed one group as criminals and the other as upholding the law

The word "vigilantes" does not mean upholding the law. Vigilantes
operate outside of the law and contrary to the law. Any use of
"vigilante" has negative meaning and negative connotation.

It has that meaning and connotation for you, because of the way it is
generally used and because you presumably don't know how the term
originated.. But when there is no law organization doing the job the law
is supposed to do, and peaceful, honest citizens are being attacked,
robbed and worse -- as obviously was the case in New Orleans -- then the
vigilante in one form or another becomes necessary. What else can people
do to protect themselves? Remember that in New Orleans during Katrina,
many of the police fled the city (two of them stole a police cruiser and
were arrested in Texas) and the mayor fled also. Whatever police remained
seem to have been absolutely useless.


Long before Katrina, the New Orleans Police Department was well known for
its corruption......