Vigilante Politics

Vigilante politics is an organized effort outside legitimate channels to suppress or eradicate any threats to the status quo. Simply defined, it means deliberately taking the law into one's own hands.

The history of the United States is filled with many examples of "establishment violence." This form of violence was evident when ranchers lynched the cattle rustler and when the early Ku Klux Klan terrorized African Americans back into their "proper position." It is also apparent when urban co...