Vigilante justice remains part of the West's traditions

[caption id="attachment_4465" align="alignleft" width="227" caption="Wyatt Earp"][/caption]


GHN News Editor - A
recent case in the State of Arizona reveals vigilante justice continues
to be the way some people settle problems, but that doesn't mean it
something the law allows, as in the case of border vigilante Roger
Barnett.
Barnett, it is said, accosted a group fo 16 illegal

immigrants in 2004 near Arizona on State Highway 80.  He held the
immigrants at gunpoint until Border Patrol arrived.  This is that vigilante justicethat historically took place in border towns of the past.

He
is now being held for $73,000 damages in the case, following an Arizona
jury's award, although the 9th Circuit is deciding whether the verdict
should be reversed.

According to the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund, which represented the group, Barnett had
hollered to the women in Spanish,
"My dog is hungry, and he's hungry
for ass."   The jury decided to award damages to the victims for
emotional distress and assault claims in February 2009.

Last
Wednesday Barnett's lawyer John Kaufmann maintained that these damages
should not have been awarded and that the case itself "should never have
been presented to the jury."  He maintains the jury is simply punishing
his client for bad behavior.

In the meantime Arizona remains at the crucible in the area of immigration with its new law
continuing to draw fire as well as imitators, both inside and outside
the state, as the federal government continues to maintain the state
stepped outside the limits of the law in enacting its own laws on the
subject.  That too is a form of justice the federal government in some

words declares a form of vigilantism in itself.