Page 210 - Essencials of Sociology

Reactions to Deviance 183

thinKinG CritiCAlly

Vigilantes: When the State Breaks Down

any of us chafe under the coercive nature of
the state: the IRS, Homeland Security, the
Mmany police agencies from the CIA, FBI,
and NSA to who knows how many other groups sum-
marized with three capital letters. Little cameras litter
society, seemingly watching our every move.
We certainly have given up a lot of freedoms—and we
are likely to give up many more in the name of security.
We can chafe and complain all we want. This is the wave of
the future, seemingly an unstoppable one.
There is another side to what is happening. As
many fear, the many guns that the many uniformed
and plainclothes men and women are carrying can
be trained on us. But for now, they bring security.
They indicate that the state is operating; perhaps
overreacting, but operating effectively nonetheless.
What happens when the state fails, when men and
women in an official capacity carry guns and shields
but can’t be effective in protecting citizens from the A boy walks past a member of the unofficial “community police” in Cruz Grande,
bad guys who are carrying guns—and using them to Guerrero, Mexico.
enforce their way?
One reaction is vigilantism, people taking the law into their own hands. This is what
happened in what we call the Wild West. Citizens armed themselves, formed posses,
chased the bad guys, and dispensed quick justice at the end of a rope. You’ve seen the
movies.
And this is what is happening in Mexico right now.
The state in Mexico has failed at all levels, from the local to the national. Citizens
live in fear since the bad guys, in this case the drug lords, have gained much control.
They have infiltrated the police, from the local cops to the federales. Even the head of
Mexico’s national drug enforcement agency was on the drug lords’ payroll. Army gener-
als, supposedly part of the war against drugs, take money to protect drug deals. They
even use army vehicles to transport drugs. The corruption goes beyond belief, reaching
even into the presidential palace. (But why the rush to judgment? Perhaps the presi-
dent’s brother was given a billion-dollar tip by some taxi driver who said he was a good
passenger.)
The arrests are countless, the executions (shooting deaths by the police and the army)
in the thousands. The death toll continues to mount, now over 60,000 police, drug
dealers, and regular citizens.
The result, other than the many deaths? Failure to secure the people’s safety.
The Mexican people, then, have begun to take the law into their own hands. In the
state of Guerrero, country folk have grabbed their old hunting rifles, put on masks,
raided the homes of drug dealers, and put them in makeshift jails. They have set up
blockades on the roads leading to their little towns. They won’t let drug dealers, or any
strangers, in. They won’t even let the federal police, the state police, or the army in.
These “enforcers of the law” are too corrupt, they say. We can trust only the neighbors
we grew up with.
The reaction of the local police, the honest ones? “Maybe they can do something
about the problem. We can’t. If we try, the drug dealers will go to our homes and kill
our families. They don’t know who these masked men are.”
The reaction of the state governor? “Good job.”
The reaction of the regular citizens? Relief. And pleasure at being able to go out at
night again and drink a little tequila and dance in the town square.