FT. MADISON, Iowa - Let's take a look at vigilantism spawned by the bipartisan "crime-hysteria" campaign. There were three actions in particular this year that, each in their own way, show the direction of capitalist politics in the '90s.
William Masters is a self-styled crime fighter in Los Angeles. At 1:00 in the morning last January, Masters confronted two young Hispanic men spraying graffiti on a freeway overpass. Masters killed one of them, Cesar Acre, shooting him in the back with a 9-millimeter pistol. Masters claimed the two men pulled a screwdriver and tried to rob him, though the surviving graffiti artist denied that.
Masters told the New York Times that he had long relished the chance to whip out his pistol and yell "Freeze!" at some "criminal." He has also made the talk show circuit, using a racist slur to describe the two men and pushing the button of those who fear and resent the working class and its large immigrant component. Police say Masters acted in self-defense and refused to charge him.
Teaching a lesson to robbers was also the reason security guards gave for stripping naked and flogging four Black youths with belts and bamboo canes. The guards beat the youths, aged 12 to 16, at a Dallas shopping mall. They suspected the youngsters had stolen a cash register and $55 from the store. A member of the Nation of Islam, which provided the security force at the Black-owned mall, told police the youth "were whipped because they did wrong. They broke in here. Therefore, they were disciplined. We take care of our own."
The police charged the youngsters with burglary, but it was the arrest of the security guards that brought out protest demonstrations by the shopkeepers, Nation of Islam members, and others.
The third vigilante outfit that caught my attention is Sheriff Joseph Arpaio's "posse" unit in Phoenix, Arizona. Arpaio has deputized 2,300 people to serve in his posses, 800 of whom are armed. They wear uniforms and carry badges, handcuffs, radios, and Mace, which they buy themselves. There is a 400-member "executive posse" made up of doctors, lawyers, and other white-collar types who organize street patrols and harass "suspicious-looking" folks, such as alleged prostitutes.
Arpaio hams it up for the media, which portrays him as a no-nonsense crime fighter. His accomplishments at the county jail mirror Alabama's chain gangs: no more hot lunches, no cigarettes allowed, and inmates living in tents in the desert.
I noticed characteristics common in each of these cases. The vigilantes deem the accused to always be "guilty" and punishment gets dispensed on the spot, from verbal threats to beatings and executions.
And the accused are from the most exploited and oppressed part of the working-class - Hispanic, Black, or female. The vigilantes get support from enraged shopkeepers, doctors, lawyers, and other middle-class elements.
In none of these instances were the vigilantes themselves punished with more than finger wagging by the cops and prosecutors.