Techno Vigilantes
Forget Cancel Culture… Vigilante Culture might be the next frontier.
For many of us law abiding citizens, dealing with a minor crime committed against us can be a sobering experience. You think that the crime is the worse thing to have had happen and that the full force of the law is on your side to pursue the perpetrators. Then reality sets in and you realize that your report is buried underneath a pile of other reports that are coming in faster than anyone can handle.
It’s maybe from these scenarios that dystopian revenge fantasies like the 1993 film Falling Down get so much of a following. Or why masked avengers films get such a high turnout.
With so much technology available to help track down crime, we might see the rise of citizen groups that start meting out their own justice. The local neighbourhood watch might go from the occasional patrol to getting surveillance footage to confronting criminals.
Maybe there will even be the equivalent of walls of shame created for these criminals or other public shaming to try to either deter criminals or at least warn others about their work. Maybe there will even be citizen tribunals that will offer plea bargains, such as GPS tracking, in exchange for more lenient forms of blacklisting. If there is a preponderance of evidence against a criminal, especially as a result of easily obtainable surveillance footage, and police sit on their hands, it may lead to the law being taken up by private individuals. That is not a good thing.
