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Causing the Fight

Carl Lee Hailey murdered two white men who gang raped his ten-year-old daughter, and was acquitted from the said crime by the jury despite his obvious guilt. This was the story of a responsible father turned vigilante killer in John Grisham’s “A Time to Kill.”

Just like the reasons of the acquittal of Hailey, the vigilante killers and their supporters believe in putting justice in their own hands; that a crime is justified on the victim’s criminal record.

But what do we call these people who are solving crime through crime? Isn’t the definition of the word criminal, someone who is guilty of a crime? Isn’t the murder of a person a crime? If the answer to these questions is yes, then vigilante killers are criminals.

It was said that even implementors of the law tolerate and accept vigilante killing as a means of eradicating criminals. Many ordinary citizens are slowly approving the idea. No one knows, maybe tomorrow, vigilante killing will be legal.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ validity of laws depended on his proposed hierarchy which put the Eternal Law (supreme will of God) on top, the Natural Law (part of Eternal Law imparted to human beings) at second, Divine Law (the Bible) at third, and the Human Law at the bottom. This meant that a law could only be valid if it doesn’t contradict the laws on top of the hierarchy.
So even if vigilante killing is legal – or at least, legal in the eyes of its supporters – it is definitely an invalid law. We all know that one of the laws stated in the Ten Commandments is the prohibition of murder, the indication of a person’s natural right to live. Isn’t this a good enough reason to put vigilante killing out of the scenario?

We have heard all of them despise the National People’s Army for demanding reform from the government through arms, or the rebellious Moro National Liberation Front and Moro International Liberation Front, or even the Abu Sayyaf bandits. The vigilante killers are also like the rebel groups, fighting for a cause, but most often causing the fight

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