Shadow Vigilantes
Page 28
18. Scheeres, “Vigilantes Troll for Pedophiles.”
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Operation Perverted Justice, http://www.perverted-justice.com/ (accessed June 20, 2017).
22. Murderpedia, s.v. “Michael Anthony Mullen,” http://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/mullen-michael-anthony.htm (accessed November 15, 2017); Tomas Alex Tizon, “Man Admits to Killing 2 Sex Offenders, Cites Idaho Case,” Los Angeles Times, September 07, 2005, http://articles.latimes.com/2005/sep/07/nation/na-vigilante7 (accessed June 14, 2017).
23. Michael Mullen's killing of the two sex offenders was similar in this respect to the killing by Scott Roeder of George Tiller, the abortion doctor. For sources on the facts of this case, see “911 Call Reveals Cold-Hearted Attitude toward MA Woman's Abortion Death,” Operation Rescue, December 6, 2007, http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/911-call-reveals-cold-hearted-attitude-toward-ma-woman%E2%80%99s-abortion-death/ (accessed June 20, 2017); “Abortion Blockades on Decline Trend Was Established before Buffer Zone Ruling,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 5, 1994, p. A3; Mary Mapes, “No Mercy,” Huffington Post, July 25, 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-mapes/no-mercy_b_209529.html?view=print (accessed June 20, 2017); Sara Rimer, “Abortion Foes in Boot Camp Mull Doctor's Killing,” New York Times, March 19, 1993, p. A12; Isabel Wilkerson, “Drive against Abortion Finds a Symbol: Wichita,” New York Times, August 4, 1991, p. 20; Angela Williams and Fiona Morgan, “The Murder of Dr. George Tiller Recalls the Long History of Anti-Abortion Violence,” INDYWEEK, June 3, 2009, www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-murder-of-dr-george-tiller-recalls-the-long-history-of-anti-abortion-violence/Content?oid=1215895&mode=print (accessed June 20, 2017); Tara Murtha, “No End in Site: Operation Rescue Takes Its Terror Tactics to the Web,” Philadelphia Weekly, January 25, 2012, p. 4; Georgia M. Sullivan, “Protection of Constitutional Guarantees under 42 U.S.C. Section 1985(3): Operation Rescue's ‘Summer of Mercy,’” Washington and Lee Law Review 49, no. 1 (1992): 237, http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol49/iss1/15://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol49/iss1/15 (accessed June 20, 2017); Monica Davey, “Closed Clinic Leaves Abortion Protestors at a Loss,” New York Times, June 8, 2009, p. A10.
24. Wilkerson, “Drive against Abortion.”
25. Murtha, “Anti-Abortion Group Operation Rescue.”
26. Williams, “The Murder of Dr. George Tiller.”
27. “Abortion Blockades on Decline Trend.”
28. Rimer, “Abortion Foes in Boot Camp.”
29. Operation Rescue published stories of abortions it claims Tiller botched, killing patients. “Christin Alysabeth Gilbert Died from a Third-Trimester Abortion,” Justice for Christin, http://www.justiceforchristin.com/ (accessed June 20, 2017). One article on its website is titled “You Can Help Put George Tiller in Prison,” which includes passages such as “You see, right now the infamous late-term baby-killer George Tiller is in the fight of his life!” See “You Can Help Put George Tiller in Prison!” Operation Rescue, http://www.operationrescue.org/noblog/you-can-help-put-george-tiller-in-prison/ (accessed June 20, 2017).
30. Williams and Morgan, “Murder of Dr. George Tiller.”
CHAPTER 8. COMMUNITY COMPLICITY WITH VIGILANTES
1. The information for this case came from the following sources: Nigel Cawthorne, Underworld U.K. Vigilantes (London: Quercus, 2010); Mark Gado, “The Slaughter of Innocence,” Crime Library: Criminal Minds & Methods, http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/pedophiles/2.html (accessed June 22, 2017); Gary Jones and James Fletcher, “We'll Shed No Tears; Murdered Sex Fiend Who Lived in Shadow of Hatred,” Daily Mirror (London), February 19, 2000, http://www.thefreelibrary.com/WE'LL+SHED+NO+TEARS%3B+Murdered+sex+fiend+who+lived+in+shadow+of+hatred.-a060292519 (accessed June 22, 2017); Mary Braid, “Uproar in Court as Paedophile Case Is Dropped,” Independent (London), November 29, 1994, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4689402.html (accessed June 22, 2017); “Witness Plea after Paedophile Killing,” BBC News, February 19, 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/648475.stm (accessed June 22, 2017).
2. Jones and Fletcher, “We'll Shed No Tears.”
3. Ibid.
4. Cawthorne, Underworld U.K. Vigilantes, p. 88.
5. Jones and Fletcher, “We'll Shed No Tears.”
6. Braid, “Uproar in Court.”
7. Cawthorne, Underworld U.K. Vigilantes, p. 88.
8. Braid, “Uproar in Court.”
9. Cawthorne, Underworld U.K. Vigilantes, p. 91.
10. “Witness Plea after Paedophile Killing.”
11. Cawthorne, Underworld U.K. Vigilantes, pp. 91, 93.
12. The information for this case came from the following sources: Harry N. MacLean, In Broad Daylight (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988); A. G. Sulzberger, “Town Mute for 30 Years about a Bully's Killing,” New York Times, December 15, 2010, p. A22; David Kajicek, “Ken McElroy,” Crime Library: Notorious Murderers, www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/ken_mcelroy/biblio.html (accessed June 22, 2017); Rod Mitchell, “Ken Rex McElroy: The Skidmore, MO Bully,” Talkguest.com, http://www.talkguests.com/mcelroy.htm (accessed June 22, 2017).
13. Mitchell, “Ken Rex McElroy.”
14. MacLean, In Broad Daylight, p. 68.
15. Sulzberger, “Town Mute for 30 Years.”
16. For sources on the facts of this case, see Adrian Maher and Kathleen Kelleher, “Destruction of Tables in Venice Draws Criticism: Vandalism: Despite Charges of Vigilantism from Youths and Others, Many Residents Say the Action Was Justified to Curb Noise and Violence,” Los Angeles Times, August 30, 1994, http://articles.latimes.com/1994-08-30/local/me-32826_1_venice-resident (accessed June 22, 2017); Lisa Richardson, “Breaking Up the Party on the Boardwalk: Venice: Hammer-Wielding Residents Allegedly Smash Picnic Tables They Say Are Used for Raucous Late-Night Meeting Sites,” Los Angeles Times, August 29, 1994, http://articles.latimes.com/1994-08-29/local/me-32582_1_picnic-tables (accessed June 22, 2017).
17. Richardson, “Breaking Up the Party.”
18. Maher and Kelleher, “Destruction of Tables in Venice.”
19. Ibid.
CHAPTER 9. THE COMMUNITY AS SHADOW VIGILANTES
1. Dave Caldwell, “Jury Decides Minot Man's Actions Were Self-Defense,” Minot (ND) Daily News, May 25, 2011.
2. “Our subjects may feel that the criminal justice system is not likely to apprehend criminals, convict them when it apprehends them, or justly punish them when it convicts them. They may feel that the criminal justice system is failing in its role of protecting citizens. Our present results may stem from a general sentiment that when the criminal justice system does a poor job in punishing offenders it is appropriate for individual citizens to do more in defense of self and property and in law enforcement. The more ineffective the system is seen to be, the more people may be willing to let victims take matters into their own hands…. The strength of the differences between community standards and legal code results that we found would indicate, at a minimum, that large segments of the population are deeply dissatisfied with the criminal justice system. These observed discrepancies may illustrate one of the ‘hidden costs’ to policies that fail to provide adequately funded police forces, or to court systems that fail to punish blameworthy offenders.” Paul Robinson and John Darley, Justice, Liability, & Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), p. 80.
3. Neil P. Cohen et al., “The Prevalence and Use of Criminal Defenses: A Preliminary Study,” Tennessee Law Review 60 (1993): 967. “The data reveal that in fact, self-defense was raised more frequently than any other defense included in the study.”
4. This narrative is drawn primarily from the following sources: Chris Bury and Howard L. Rosenberg, “Man Cleared for Killing Neighbor's Burglars,” ABC News, June 30, 2008, http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5278638 (accessed June 22, 2017); Brian Rogers, Ruth Rendon, and Dale Lezon, “Joe Horn Cleared by Grand Jury in Pasadena Shootings,” Star Chronicle (Houston, TX), Jun
e 30, 2008, http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/pasadena-news/article/Joe-Horn-cleared-by-grand-jury-in-Pasadena-1587004.php (accessed June 22, 2017); Rucks Russell, “Horn Death Threat Caught on Tape,” KHOU, December 10, 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20071214014744/http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou071210_tnt_joehorndeaththreat.302e7df.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
5. Bury and Rosenberg, “Man Cleared.”
6. Rogers, Rendon, and Lezon, “Joe Horn Cleared.”
7. “Crack Epidemic?” South Central History, June 22, 2017, http://www.southcentralhistory.com/crack-epidemic.php (accessed November 29, 2017).
8. “Uniform Crime Reports and Index of Crime in Los Angeles in the State of California Enforced by Los Angeles from 1985 to 2005,” Disaster Center, http://www.disastercenter.com/californ/crime/976.htm (accessed June 22, 2017).
9. Julia Dunn, “Los Angeles Crips and Bloods: Past and Present,” EDGE, July 26, 1999, http://stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/gangcolor/lacrips.htm (accessed June 22, 2017).
10. This narrative is based on the following sources: Douglas Linder, “The Rodney King Beating Trials,” Jurist, December 2001, http://www.jurist.org/j20/famoustrials/the-rodney-king-beating-trials.php# (accessed June 22, 2017); Warren Christopher, Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (Collingdale, PA: Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991), chap. 1: “The Rodney King Beating”; Lou Cannon, Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), p. 205; Sheryl Stolberg, “Juror Says Panel Felt King Actions Were to Blame,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1992, p. A1.
11. Christopher, Report of the Independent Commission, p. 7.
12. Cannon, Official Negligence, p. 205.
13. Linder, “Rodney King Beating Trials.”
14. Stolberg, “Juror Says Panel Felt.”
15. “Jurors: King Verdict Was Not Racially Motivated,” News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL), May 1, 1992, 7A.
16. Stanford University, “Jury Gave Endorsement of Police Brutality, Law Faculty Say,” news release, May 6, 1992, http://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/92/920506Arc2233.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
17. D. M. Osborne, “Reaching for Doubt,” American Lawyer, September 1992, p. 65. For an account of the aftermath of the acquittal in the Rodney King beating case, see the postscript.
18. The empirical studies similarly suggest great leniency toward citizens exercising law enforcement authority, even when they make mistakes in the use of force. Robinson and Darley, Justice, Liability, & Blame, pp. 72–81.
19. National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, 2010 Annual Report (Washington, DC: Cato Institute 2010), http://www.policemisconduct.net/statistics/2010-annual-report/ (accessed June 22, 2017).
20. Thomas Clouse, “Jury Acquits Spokane Officer,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), September 10, 2009, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/sep/10/jury-finds-officer-not-guilty-assault/ (accessed June 22, 2017).
21. Scott Sunde, “No Third Trial for Ex-Deputy Accused of Jail Assault,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 8, 2010, http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/No-third-trial-for-ex-deputy-accused-of-jail-886478.php (accessed June 22, 2017).
22. Haeyoun Park and Jasmine Lee, “Looking for Accountability in Police-Involved Deaths of African-Americans,” New York Times, July 13, 2016.
23. Robinson and Darley, Justice, Liability, & Blame, p. 79. See also Carolyn Sung and Catherine E. Shoichet, “Freddie Gray Case,” CNN, July 27, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/27/us/freddie-gray-verdict-baltimore-officers/ (accessed June 22, 2017).
24. Katy Holloway, Trevor Bennett, and David P. Farrington, Does Neighborhood Watch Reduce Crime? no. 3, Crime Prevention Research Review (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, 2008), p. 6; citing National Crime Prevention Council, The 2000 National Crime Prevention Survey: Are We Safe? (Washington, DC: National Crime Prevention Council, 2001).
25. Ric Simmons, “Private Criminal Justice,” Wake Forest Law Review 42 (2007): 911, 920–21.
26. This kind of community action, at least of the tamer neighborhood watch variety, is actually consistent with the commonly applauded trend in criminal justice toward greater community participation. At the trial and punishment phase, restorative justice has become extremely popular and has a broad political spectrum of supporters. Even community involvement in prosecution decisions and what has been called “community prosecution” have gained support. See Nicholas W. Klitzing, “Fixing the Unfixable: Community Prosecution as a Problem-Solving Strategy to Reduce Crime and Restore Order in East St. Louis,” Saint Louis University Public Law Review 32 (2013): 157–99. Community involvement in most aspects of criminal justice is on the rise, and the underlying shadow vigilante impulse will have an increasing number of ways to express itself.
27. The narrative is drawn from the following sources: Douglas O. Linder, “The George Zimmerman Trial: An Account,” Famous Trials, 2014, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zimmerman1/zimmermanaccount.html (accessed June 22, 2017); Douglas O. Linder, “The George Zimmerman Trial: Chronology,” Famous Trials, 2013, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zimmerman1/zimmermanchrono.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
28. Warner Todd Huston, “Citizens Band Together to Form ‘Glock Block’ Saying ‘We Don't Call the Police,’” Mr. Conservative (blog), June 18, 2013, http://www.mrconservative.com/2013/06/19406-citizens-band-together-to-form-glock-block-saying-we-don't-call-the-police/ (accessed June 22, 2017); Anna Sanders, “Welcome to the ‘Glock Block’: Vigilante Neighbors in Oregon Town Say They Are No Longer Calling the Police and Have Armed Themselves Instead,” Daily Mail (London), June 17, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2343491/Welcome-Glock-Block-Vigilante-neighbors-Oregon-town-say-longer-calling-police-armed-instead.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
29. The narrative is based on Denise Noe, “The Killing of Polly Klaas,” TrueTV, http://archive.li/4TXuD#selection-695.0-695.26; Mike Reynolds, “Three Strikes and You're Out: Stop Repeat Offenders,” Three Strikes, 2016, http://www.threestrikes.org/ (accessed June 22, 2017); Juan Ignacio Blanco, “Richard Allen Davis,” Murderpedia, http://murderpedia.org/male.D/d/davis-richard-allen.htm (accessed June 22, 2017); John Borland, “#184 Sentence Enhancement: Repeat Offenders,” California Journal (1994), http://www.calvoter.org/archive/94general/props/184.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
30. Noe, “Killing of Polly Klaas.”
31. Marc Klaas, in memory of his daughter, started two foundations named after Polly. The first, the Polly Klaas Foundation, is a “national nonprofit dedicated to the safety of all children, the recovery of missing children, and public policies that keep children safe in their communities.” (“Our Mission,” Polly Klaas Foundation, http://www.pollyklaas.org/about/mission.html [accessed June 22, 2017]). Mr. Klaas later founded Klaas Kids, which works to prevent crimes against children and lobbies for stronger sentencing for violent offenders (“About the Foundation,” Klaas Kids Foundation, http://klaaskids.org/about/ [accessed June 22, 2017]).
32. For the aftermath of this story, see the postscript.
33. Blanco, “Richard Allen Davis.”
34. On June 29, 1992, Kimber Reynolds, Mike's daughter, had just finished dinner with her friend at a nice trendy restaurant in downtown Fresno and was heading to her car when she was attacked. Two men on motorcycles approached her from behind and tried to grab her purse. As she struggled, one of the men pulled out a gun and shot her point-blank in the head. When Mike found out that his daughter's shooter was a drug addict who had frequently been arrested and charged with gun, drug, robbery, and assault crimes, he promised he would do all he could to stop these types of repeat offenders from murdering someone else's daughter. See Dan Morain, “A Father's Bittersweet Crusade,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1994, http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-07/news/mn-31132_1_mike-reynolds (accessed June 22, 2017).
35. Encyclopedia of American Politics, s.v. “Califo
rnia Proposition 184, the Three Strikes Initiative,” 1994, http://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_184,_the_Three_Strikes_Initiative_(1994) (accessed June 22, 2017).
36. Borland, “#184 Sentence Enhancement.”
37. Nicole Shoener, “Three Strikes Laws in Different States,” Legal Match: Find the Right Lawyer, last updated October 10, 2017, http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/three-strikes-laws-in-different-states.html (accessed November 30, 2017).
38. Ibid.
39. Kieran Riley, “Trial by Legislature: Why Statutory Mandatory Minimum Sentences Violate the Separation of Powers Doctrine,” Boston University Public Interest Law Journal 19 (2010): 285, 289–90.
40. Patrick Leahy, “Bipartisan Legislation to Give Judges More Flexibility for Federal Sentences Introduced,” press release, March 20, 2013, http://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/bipartisan-legislation-to-give-judges-more-flexibility-for-federal-sentences-introduced (accessed June 22, 2017).
41. Ellen Perlman, “Terms of Imprisonment,” Governing: The State and Localities, April 2000, http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/Terms-Imprisonment.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
42. Riley, “Trial by Legislature,” pp. 308–309.
43. Paul H. Robinson, Geoffrey P. Goodwin, and Michael Reisig, “The Disutility of Injustice,” New York University Law Review 85 (2010): 1940, 1973, fig. 1.
44. For a discussion of how this conflict could have come about in a democratic society, see ibid., pt. 3.
45. This factual account is based on Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway, “Three Strikes of Injustice,” New York Times, October 8, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/opinion/three-strikes-of-injustice.html?mcubz=1 (accessed June 22, 2017); Matt Taibbi, “Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of Three Strikes Laws,” Rolling Stone, March 27, 2013, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/cruel-and-unusual-punishment-the-shame-of-three-strikes-laws-20130327 (accessed June 22, 2017); Brooke Donald, “Stanford Law's Three Strikes Project Works for Fair Implementation of New Statute,” Stanford News, June 6, 2013, http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/june/three-strikes-project-060613.html (accessed June 22, 2017).