‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
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Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#2To be clear, community murders like this happened all the time in US history. The thing that makes this special is that the man killed was white and actually guilty of crimes.
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#3This is a review of the documentary covering a 'Town Bully' who had evaded authorities and continued to harm people repeatedly. In order to protect the community, a group of vigilantes murdered them, and the community refused to issue any statements to authorities regarding anyone's involvement.
I think broadly, I wonder what the place of vigilanteism like this should serve. The sentiments to protect the community against a man who isn't being recieved adequate justice- this in my opinion seems to echo the justification of other movements I'm aware of. There's often community discouse online on what to do with known bad actors when moderatorship isn't adequate for example.
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#4To be clear, community murders like this happened all the time in US history. The thing that makes this special is that the man killed was white and actually guilty of crimes.
The parent poster is referring to race-motivated lynchings, of which there have been thousands over the decades.[1]
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#5This is a review of the documentary covering a 'Town Bully' who had evaded authorities and continued to harm people repeatedly. In order to protect the community, a group of vigilantes murdered them, and the community refused to issue any statements to authorities regarding anyone's involvement. I think broadly, I wonder what the place of vigilanteism like this should serve. The sentiments to protect the community ag…
it seems like a more extreme version of jury nullification. if it became widespread, it would essentially be the end of rule-of-law. but in isolated and rare situations, perhaps it's a beneficial escape valve? easy to suggest from my comfy office in a quiet suburb of course.
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#6To be clear, community murders like this happened all the time in US history. The thing that makes this special is that the man killed was white and actually guilty of crimes.
100% true. This is the history of lynching in America. Community murders where nobody saw a thing, and the justification was always that the murdered person was a degenerate who would not receive what the town thinks would be adequate punishment under the law.
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#7We Americans need to have the guts to do this as a nation.
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#8Over the long timespans of human evolution I’m willing to bet that this is a significant selective pressure.. bullies probably just disappeared or were kicked out of the community to fend for themselves
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#9> Britt Small, in fact, says that the only mistake made during the entire ordeal was not killing Trena too
Wait, what did Trena do to also be a potential target here? Just guilt by association? Or was she actually actively participating in the criminal acts (and not being coerced to do so, as I imagine one might be before/while/after marrying a violent criminal at age 12)?
The article couldn't, you know, delve into this a bit more?
Re: ‘No One Saw a Thing’: When a Midwest Town Banded Together to Kill the Town Bully
#10> frontier justice came for McElroy courtesy of the residents of Skidmore (population 440 at the time of the crime). Shaken by the man’s ability to evade jail even after being convicted of a near-fatal attack on a grocery store owner... Belkin also details Skidmore’s plague of subsequent violence ... the series persuasively contends that these crimes indicate that the McElroy episode taught younger Skidmore generations that doing as they savagely pleased was OK—and that they could get away with it, because their friends and neighbors wouldn’t speak out against them.
I'm not persuaded, at least by this text. Another possible interpretation is that the legal system around Skidmore was completely unable to convict a repeat violent offender (McElroy), leading to a widespread (correct) belief that the legal system would not also provide any kind of useful restraint to future offenders. Indeed, that interpretation seems more likely to me.
That doesn't make the actions acceptable, of course. But it does put a spotlight on the importance of having a working legal system that provides some reasonable level of protection to the larger community.