Self Protection is Not Vigilantism

There's a discussion going on about reduction of funding for law enforcement and how people should respond. In a recent dust-up, State Senator Tim Sheldon from Mason County suggested that

"There's always an open season on criminals in Mason County... I think the Mason County citizens are very well aware of how to protect themselves in a situation that might need a response."

The Mason County Sheriff, when asked for a response, " told the [Mason County] Journal he found Sheldon's remark inappropriate, adding that he doesn't want to promote vigilantism."

Sheldon denied Friday that he is urging people to take the law into their own hands, and he claimed that news reports, including Seattle-area television accounts, already are

"driving some criminals back to Pierce and King counties...Our sheriff thinks we're a magnet for crime, because we're a rural county. My point is our citizens are probably better armed than any other county. So the message is, don't attempt a home invasion in Mason County or you may get a hot Mason County lead enema," Sheldon said.

So what is the case with people defending themselves? Are they "taking the law into their own hands?" Do they become vigilantes?

What is vigilantism, anywho?

Vigilantism is

a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate) ; broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice

Self-defense is

the act of defending oneself, one's property, or a close relative

It is sad when in the course of sensationalizing something, but the journalists, who should be word smiths, and law enforcement, who should know the law better don't seem to know the difference.

In Washington State, we have the following enumerated in the Constitution:

SECTION 24 RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.

The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.

Now this doesn't allow or condone the extra-judicial law enforcement, it only allows a person to defend oneself.

State laws (RCW 9A.16.020 Use of force — When lawful.) allow the use of force for, among other things,

(3) Whenever used by a party about to be injured, or by another lawfully aiding him or her, in preventing or attempting to prevent an offense against his or her person, or a malicious trespass, or other malicious interference with real or personal property lawfully in his or her possession, in case the force is not more than is necessary;

(4) Whenever reasonably used by a person to detain someone who enters or remains unlawfully in a building or on real property lawfully in the possession of such person, so long as such detention is reasonable in duration and manner to investigate the reason for the detained person's presence on the premises, and so long as the premises in question did not reasonably appear to be intended to be open to members of the public;

Again, the use of force is legal to defend yourself, and in self-defense is different from the vigilantism to which the Sheriff and the media refers. Vigilantism is not legal.

What the Sheriff knows, or should know, but doesn't tell you is that law enforcement is not responsible for your safety. This was last re-stated by the US Supreme Court in Castle Rock v Gonzales, in which they held that,

The town of Castle Rock, Colorado and its police department
could not be sued under 42 USC §1983 for failure to enforce a
restraining order against respondent's husband, as enforcement of the
restraining order does not constitute a property right for 14th Amendment purposes.

In other words, law enforcement is not responsible for your safety. You are.

However, you are also responsible for your own acts. The height of irresponsibility is illustrated in the comments by one person to the Mason County Commission meeting,

“And I’m a kind of bad shot, so if I have to protect myself and I miss when I go to court, I guess I can say my state senator told me to do it,” said resident John Strasburger.

No, sir. You are responsible not only for your own protection, but for your actions, also.