Reply #14: Sure, I could mindlessly applaud them, however I prefer to take the long view on such matters

[MadHound]

And in the long view, this increasing use of vigilante justice to catch crooks is not a good one. For instance, let's look at the drug war, back when they first started allowing piss tests and forfeiture laws to come into play. Most people thought that these moves were a good thing, and after all, if you weren't a drug user, you had nothing to worry about, right. Fast forward to today when forfeiture laws are now being used in all sorts of criminal, and civil cases, using the drug war as precedent. Also, piss testing has now gone high tech, and now includes hair testing and other intrusive tests, and the results aren't only being used to determine whether or not you're using drugs, but also whether or not you should get hired and get the health care benefits.

The same pattern could very well play out with this use of vigilante justice. At first it is only used against those that society deems reprehensible, then after people get used to it, it will creep into more and more cases until we could very well wind up with police forces who aren't out there to serve and protect the public, but are out there for fun and mainly profit.