Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

apartheid era, vigilantism is more a response to the state's inefficiency than to itsoppressive nature--that is, it is a reaction to the state's weakness rather than toits overbearing might53 But the Street Committees may themselves help keepthe government weak. Localized, democratic systems of justice undermine thestate's monopoly on force and challenge its authority to define lawful behaviorand good order.Through the experience of popular justice, communities in South Africa areable to define what type of "legality" they want in their residential area.Moreover, a community is able to define how it wants to solve conflicts withinits geographic boundaries. Communities, through their elected representatives,have developed their own notion of justice which differs from that ofthe state. In many circumstances, the community notion of justice epitomizesvalues of equality and social responsibility which are either notrecognized or denied by the state. 54POPUIAR JUSTICE IN NORTHERN IREIAND: THE OTHER PEACE PROCESSIn Northern Ireland, the search for popular justice has followed a similar path asin South Africa, and it continues to move in quite promising directions. There,too, the insurgents have sought out popular support while subjecting the authoritiesto unrelenting harassment; and the authorities have again responded with amix of repression and neglectIn 1969, after Loyalist attacks on Catholic neighborhoods, Republican residentsformed Citizen Defense Committees for their own protection. These committeesbuilt and supervised barricades and maintained continuous foot patrols. 55As a consequence, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) simply gave up policingmilitant areas of West Belfast and Derry.With extraordinary levels of unemployment and poverty-and without stateintervention-these "no-go" areas became extremely vulnerable to crime. SoCatholics elected Community Councils responsible for welfare and justice in theirneighborhoods and created "People's Courts" to hear minor cases. Petty criminalmatters and neighborhood disputes were usually resolved through restitution orcommunity service, but serious offenses were referred to the Irish RepublicanArmy (the IRA) .When the People's Courts broke down after a couple of years, the IRA hadlittle choice but to take over their crime control efforts.56 This role fell to theparamilitaries for several reasons. First, it was widely felt that the IRA hadalready established its responsibility for protecting the community, and manyresidents were demanding that something be done about crime. Second, crimeposed a security risk, since the police were liable to use petty criminals asinformers. 57 And third, crime had a destabilizing and corrosive effect on thevery communities the Republican forces depended on for supportUnwilling to cede ground to Republican forces, the RUC has since soughtto reassert its authority in these areas, but its efforts have not been terribly successful.Security concerns made it difficult to police Catholic areas. The policewere slow in their response to calls, and they often brought soldiers with themwhen they arrived. Worse, the cops tried to recruit crime victims as informants;those unwilling to serve as snitches publicly exposed and vocally denounced231