In Arrow’s case, his emergence resulted from urbanization and its consequence of high crime rate. As the first cities were built in US with the colonial settlement, regions with no supervision and no true authority emerged. In an environment lacking an organized system of crime control, an alternative was created by the residents of these cities. They were called ‘vigilante mobs’ and were notorious for hunting down and capturing criminals to ensure justice. This consisted of impromptu sentencing and a lack of opportunity to appeal as the criminal was judged and even executed. Though this practice was later abandoned, the crime rate started to rise again around 1960s. In 1980s, the street crime rate became an all-time high. To reform the legal system; ineffective conventional prison sentences were viewed. With the difficulty of making any major bureaucratic change, and the ineffectiveness of existing measures, vigilantes became a hopeful alternative. A more organized vigilante response to crime, one example is the unauthorized crime patrol, “The Magnificent 13 Subway Patrol”, also known as the Guardian Angels, emerging in 1979. They patrolled the subways of NYC, wearing red berets and using martial arts.
Their popularity
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The whole concept of vigilantes bears the question: Is it better to trust in the legal system, even with all of its faults, or should the citizens lower the crime rate themselves? Some might say that street crime is a serious problem and should not be dealt by average citizens, but trained officers. In addition, keeping a set of laws is the only thing that keeps the society the way it is. On the other hand, we can argue that anyone who is pushed to a point of anger or desperation may go out to pursue the vigilante way. And if there indeed is a potensial vigilante in each of us, are we going against our