"Vigilante justice is domestic terrorism."
- Special Agent Lundy, Dexter
The idea of the vigilante in our culture has been covered very thoroughly. The oldest images we have are those of Robin Hood and Don Quixote, brave (and occasionally foolish) men going out on their own to correct the injustices in society and try and even the score between the criminal and the just. In more modern examples, the images of superheroes like Superman and Spiderman, who are noble and good through and through, sacrifice their own happiness and desire for a normal life to try and set things right. Even Batman, who as we can c
learly see in the new film The Dark Knight has a very dark side, is fully dedicated to the preservation of the citizens of Gotham City, and is willing to risk his life for them.The most complex of these modern day vigilantes, and one of the most realistic, is Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan from the show Dexter. Hall's character is a charismatic serial killer who finds redemption for his terrible crimes by working for the Miami Police Department by day and choosing to only murder other killers by night. The character struggles with the most obvious of dilemmas, including: is murder acceptable when it is used against other murderers? And: can bad deeds be erased by performing a larger ratio of good deeds?
Dexter's psychosis is a result of a traumatic childhood in which he witnessed the murder of his mother and was trapped for three days sitting in a pool of her blood before being rescued by a police officer named Harry Morgan. Harry adopts Dexter and raises him as his own, recognizing Dexter's dark side and helping him craft his rage into a tool of justice by creating a code for him to live, and others to die, by. Dexter never strays from this code, always venting his rage on the members of society who were worse than him; the murderers (of innocents), rapists and child molesters. When Dexter's evil deeds are discovered, his own police department begins a man hunt to find the fiend responsible for the deaths of all people, regardless of their criminal records. While members of the press call the anonymous butcher "a hero", the police call in the FBI to try and apprehend the serial killer to stop him from taking justice into his own hands.
The idea of "an eye
for an eye" justice is as old as its source and implemented in a more sophisticated manner in today's society with the death penalty. Of course, this punishment is doled out only after a fair trial in which innocence is decided by a group of the accused's peers. However, as we have all seen in history, it is possible for the legal system, which is in place to protect all citizens of this country, to have flaws and allow innocent men to go to jail and guilty ones to slip through the cracks. This is where the idea of the vigilante is so powerful and romantic. Their laws and rules are more relaxed or easily broken or bent than those set forth in the constitution.
If we are willing, as a society, to execute known criminals because an assembly of ordinary people has chosen their fate, why is relinquishing this job to a vigilante so dangerous? If they have proven they operate by a set of morals and guidelines, like our own but without all the bureaucracy, why not give them carte blanche to do what our justice system cannot? These, of course, are dangerous questions to be asking and all logic says that we cannot put power into the hands of anonymous do-gooders without giving up a bit of freedom. But cops and lawyers and judges are people too, perhaps they have received more schooling and training on these particular subjects than me or you, but they are still human. Cops are given guns and the authority to use deadly force according to their best judgement and if a criminal kills a cop as opposed to a "regular" person, the criminal is sought after with more intensity and fervor. Judges and lawyers spend years tucked away in universities and courts, not on the streets where the real people live and the real hardships of the criminal life are played out. Why should they be the authority on the incarceration of criminals when they are mostly isolated from those they lock up?
The fact is, it seems more reasonable to have someone from the streets, someone who exists amongst the rest of us, on our level with our common education, that decides the fate of these neer-do-wells. Vigilantes like Dexter, while thankfully fictitious, have a great deal of clout in their harsh but fair decision to clean up what the legal system leaves behind. Other than all these philosophical questions, Dexter is a great show. Check out the third season on Showtime starting up again in September and the first and second seasons which are available on DVD.
for an eye" justice is as old as its source and implemented in a more sophisticated manner in today's society with the death penalty. Of course, this punishment is doled out only after a fair trial in which innocence is decided by a group of the accused's peers. However, as we have all seen in history, it is possible for the legal system, which is in place to protect all citizens of this country, to have flaws and allow innocent men to go to jail and guilty ones to slip through the cracks. This is where the idea of the vigilante is so powerful and romantic. Their laws and rules are more relaxed or easily broken or bent than those set forth in the constitution.If we are willing, as a society, to execute known criminals because an assembly of ordinary people has chosen their fate, why is relinquishing this job to a vigilante so dangerous? If they have proven they operate by a set of morals and guidelines, like our own but without all the bureaucracy, why not give them carte blanche to do what our justice system cannot? These, of course, are dangerous questions to be asking and all logic says that we cannot put power into the hands of anonymous do-gooders without giving up a bit of freedom. But cops and lawyers and judges are people too, perhaps they have received more schooling and training on these particular subjects than me or you, but they are still human. Cops are given guns and the authority to use deadly force according to their best judgement and if a criminal kills a cop as opposed to a "regular" person, the criminal is sought after with more intensity and fervor. Judges and lawyers spend years tucked away in universities and courts, not on the streets where the real people live and the real hardships of the criminal life are played out. Why should they be the authority on the incarceration of criminals when they are mostly isolated from those they lock up?
The fact is, it seems more reasonable to have someone from the streets, someone who exists amongst the rest of us, on our level with our common education, that decides the fate of these neer-do-wells. Vigilantes like Dexter, while thankfully fictitious, have a great deal of clout in their harsh but fair decision to clean up what the legal system leaves behind. Other than all these philosophical questions, Dexter is a great show. Check out the third season on Showtime starting up again in September and the first and second seasons which are available on DVD.
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