Frontier justice
Appearance
Frontier justice is extrajudicial punishment that is motivated by the nonexistence of law and order or dissatisfaction with judicial punishment.[1] The phrase can also be used to describe a prejudiced judge.[2] Lynching,[1] vigilantism and gunfighting are considered forms of frontier justice.[3]
Examples
[edit]United States
[edit]- March 20 to April 15, 1882: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday tracked and killed 4 cowboys said to be responsible for Morgan Earp's death, which would later become known as the Earp Vendetta Ride.[4]
- Late 1800s: A group of self-appointed lawmen called "stranglers" lynched around sixty horse rustlers and cattle rustlers along southwest North Dakota's Little Missouri River.[5]
Brazil
[edit]- April 1991: José Vicente Anunciação murdered a co-worker during a drunken knife-fight in Salvador, Bahia. Witnesses to the crime were not able to provide evidence in court. Anunciação was set free and then dragged from his bed at night by a mob of forty people who beat him to death with bricks and clubs. Previously, a mob of 1,500 people stormed and set fire to the Paraná prison where Valdecir Ferreira and Altair Gomes were being held for the murder of a taxi-cab driver.[6]
See also
[edit]- Citizen's arrest
- Divine retribution
- Gjakmarrja
- Hanging of Patrick O'Connor
- Jungle law
- Noble cause corruption
- Ochlocracy
- Range war
- Rough music
- Victim blaming
- Victimization
- Witch-hunt
References
[edit]- ^ a b Gonzales-Day, Ken (2006). Lynching in the West: 1850–1935. London: Duke University Press. ISBN 0822337940.
- ^ Bryant, Wilbur Franklin (1887). The Blood of Abel. Gazette-Journal Company. p. 100.
- ^ Mullins, Jesse (May 1994). "To Stand Your Ground". American Cowboy.
- ^ "Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Posse". History.net. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
- ^ Kingseed, Wyatt (2002). "Teddy Roosevelt's Frontier Justice". American History. 36: 22–28.
- ^ "Brazil's frontier justice". The Economist. April 27, 1991.