Myself & Swmbo were involved in the aftermath of a vigilante attack today
Driving through town we came upon an Astra slewed across the pavement & a cyclist laid flat out still entangled in his bike frame with one leg at an unnatural angle through the front forks. There were two men present, neither taking care of the cyclist & one, who turned out to be the Astra driver pacing back & forth in a highly agitated manner shouting & muttering in turn. After checking the cyclist for Vitals, visible wounds, possible neck/spinal injury etc, we covered him with blankets & placed one under his head to make him comfortable as possible, and I had to jam my right hand, palm open between the cyclists spine & the rear gear cogs & wheel spindle to keep them from sticking in him. We then had to await the Police & Ambulance. The other guy had been travelling behind the Astra & told us it had been following the cyclist & suddenly cut in front of him across the pavement & mowed him down!
He then had to stop the driver from assaulting the cyclist
The Astra guy was very clearly high on drugs & or drink and extremely agitated & erratic and kept screaming,"He's a Paedophile, i've made a Citizens Arrest, you're all my witnesses." The single Policeman who arrived on scene first was a very impressive guy, had the scene sorted quickly and very professionally, definately the kind of bloke I would want on my side in any hairy situation
In no time at all, we had two Pandas, one Paddy Van & a Traffic car in attendance! there must have been a lull in activity in town!
The downside was there were no ambulances available for twenty plus minutes & when it did eventually arrive it was called immediately to a more urgent job! A free ambulance eventually arrived after 35 minutes & they too did a splendid job & with our help disentangled the guy from the bike frame & had him on a spinal board & away to hospital in short order
The upshot of all this was the Astra driver said he had seen the cyclist watching some kids playing in the street & had seen him "licking his lips"
and had run at him screaming obscenities at which point the cyclist rode off very quickly (no shit, sherlock! that's what i'd have done too!
) The guy had then jumped into his car and gave chase until he had the opportunity to catch up, at which point he knocked him off the bike with the car! It turned out the cyclist had left his disabled wife at home while he popped out to buy cigarettes & a couple of videos & on the way home the carrier bag had split & he had stopped so as not to lose its contents, at which point the assailant had put the fear of god into him & he 'legged it'!
Now put yourself into the cyclists position, what would you have done in his place?
Now put yourself in our position, stopping to help at an accident scene & being told the injured party was a 'Paedophile', what would your reaction have been? Would you have taken things at face value, given the injured guy the benefit of the doubt & helped regardless? Walked away & done nothing? or helped the Astra driver in giving him a good kicking?
I've often thought and said that I would take the Law into my own hands given the provocation, but today's incident has given me much food for thought. A man is lying in hospital tonight because someone high on drugs/drink or both made a snap diagnosis of what he thought he saw & acted impulsively. He could just as easily have been stone cold sober & made the same misjudgement. That's why Vigilantism is Outlawed & why i've changed my view on the matter.
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Topic: Vigilantism (Read 3999 times)