Vigilantes-Any way they could have become a big thing?

So I was thinking recently after watching the movie Watchmen, reading a couple of different timelines that fleshly mention them and reading the awesome graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, is there anyway that vigilantes could have become a big thing in history?

Depending on your answers I may do a timeline of this.
 
In societies without a police system, citizens' justice was already pretty common. For example, in 14th century England, 'raising the hue and cry' was a way of gathering the locals to chase down criminals (or assemble a lynch mob, depending on whether you regard them through snobbish 21st century lenses or not.) Similarly, in Ancient Rome, even when the Vigiles were established under Nero, justice still involved private prosecutions, and very little police force (Lictors and Roman Knights seem to have occasionally been thrown in as security guards, but only very occasionally); so people naturally took matters into their own hands.

Less 'vigilante', more 'Right, everyone. My cloak has just been stolen. Cassia, my dear, get a dedication to the Gods ready. ((Many of the little stones dedicated to Gods in Roman religious sites-for example, at Bath-are citizens begging the gods to give them their damned cloak back, or at least call down a curse on whoever stole it.)) Slave Tertius! Get your cloak, my sons, and my sword. We've got a thief to catch. Slave Quintus, contact that lawyer fellow, you know the one-Cicero, I think his name is. Ready a court case-oh, and summon my clients, will you? Gaius Strabo served with Sulla out South, he ought to know a few tricks...'
 
Hahahaha that's interesting to know that they've been around before but I was referring to vigilante justice in the 20th and 21st centuries, ranging from murdering sociopaths (like the Comedian in Watchmen) to those wanting revenge (like Batman). I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on that.
 
In societies without a police system, citizens' justice was already pretty common. For example, in 14th century England, 'raising the hue and cry' was a way of gathering the locals to chase down criminals (or assemble a lynch mob, depending on whether you regard them through snobbish 21st century lenses or not.)

I can't say about other third-world countries, but that's pretty much how justice still works in Uganda. I speak here from two years of personal experience.
 
A strong state claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, which is why cops carry and use batons. Weaken the state and people have to enforce their own laws, and wella, vigilantes.
 
So I was thinking recently after watching the movie Watchmen, reading a couple of different timelines that fleshly mention them and reading the awesome graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, is there anyway that vigilantes could have become a big thing in history?

Depending on your answers I may do a timeline of this.

This brings back some fond memories of Interstate '76. ;)
 
Ok this has sort of gone in a different direction to my original question so let me rephrase it. Would our time line be any different if the modern world had vigilantes as a more predominant force aka Batman, Comedian from Watchmen as examples.

I know about how vigilantes normally form when justice is formed but what if we had people fighting the KKK or people fighting against mob figures in modern New York?
 
I wonder...

... what if police action in the case of gang warfare was limited to non-combatant casualties? Perhaps they monitored vigalante gangs as well as criminal gangs, and stepped in only if the two couldn't shoot straight. (I am trying, admittedly not very hard, to draw an analogy with the parenting tactic of letting the kids argue until the property damage begins.) Gangs must file "incident reports" with the authorities, and explain any damage to property / injuries to persons not involved with the stated opponents of the gang.

This would doubtless require a very low level of centralized government and body of laws. Not sure if it's possible or not.
 
The problem you run into is that for crime to become so bad that private citizens have to fight against it themselves, you have to have a state that is extremely weak. That weak state, by definition, cannot have a predominent effect on world affairs. It's like the example of Uganda as mentioned earlier. What happens in Uganda doesn't effect world events.

The only way I could see it happening in a major country, briefly at least, is in some kind of post-revolution scenario. Something similar to post-1917 Russia. Then, either the government retakes control and disbands the vigilantes, the revolutionaries take control and disbands the vigilantes, or other countries intervene and disband the vigilantes.

EDIT: Maybe if there was something similar to Israel in an ATL. Some country that is surrounded by enemies and virtually everyone is a current or former member of the military. It'd have to be small, maybe 100,000 total population, to have a need for everyone to protect the state and not have enough to have an effective police force/border patrol.
 
I tired a TL which never became anything in which being a vigilante was focused as a legal defense set alongside a recognized mental disorder. For th defese I had it established that some case had a person allowed to take the law into their hand to "preempt" crime if regional authority is denied to him. So like in the 1880's someone shoots the town criminal and its okay. In the 1920's its okay to shoot mobsters cause the state is run by them. In 1961 a black guy is given a defense because the Klan is a threat to him, and he only targeted the Klan.

As time goes on the legal rules are limited but in a way its like this American right to take the law into your own hands. This saw groups rise up and have minor moments of vigilantism. I saw like the 1970's as the high point for crime was up and not every criminal could get a gun.
 
The real problem I see with vigilantism ever being an accepted thing in a stable society is that, simply put, the Comedian from Watchmen is probably a pretty accurate portrayal of what most real-life vigilantes eventually become. Just look at real-life vigilante groups like Sombra Negra, which can be just about as nasty and ruthless as the criminals they're going up against.
 
The problem is that in real life very few people have the fighting advantage over crooks, it would take quite the fighter to belt 2 or 3 crooks. What's worse it would be easy for crooks to grab whatever weapons are at hand, like a lump of wood or a broken bottle or they may even carry a knife or a gun. So to ensure victory without being badly wounded the vigilante would have to be armed himself and probably find himself in situations where he has to shoot it out with large numbers of gun toting crooks. I don't know about anyone else, but fuck that for a joke, let the cops do it.
 
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