Free Republic

CULIACAN, Mexico — A shooting that killed eight people partying on a seaside boulevard in northwestern Mexico may have been the work of vigilantes targeting car thieves, a prosecutor said. The gunmen drove up in a white SUV and fired on the festive crowd without saying a word, Sinaloa state deputy Attorney General Jose Luis Leyva said Sunday. A 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were among the youngest killed Saturday night in the Pacific coast town of Navolato. Four people were wounded. Also among the dead were two brothers in their 30s who had a record of car theft,...

A militia of fishermen organized by regional leaders in the Somali coastal towns of Alula and Bargaal in the African country's northern Puntland region has captured 12 armed pirates in two boats. The leaders of the militia reported their success to the BBC on April 28. Though — for want of a better word — the militiamen have been described as "vigilantes" by the media. Given the state of lawlessness in Somalia, they probably have as legitimate a mandate to deal with the piracy problem as any other entity in the beleaguered state on the Horn of Africa. "They decided...

Mountain View police said someone is attacking registered sex offenders in the city and the attacks may be related. Two crimes against sex offenders have taken place in the past month. Detectives described the attacks as similar. The first crime occurred on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008, at 9:39 a.m., at an apartment complex on the west side of the city, officers said. A witness saw a man carrying a bat and placing a Molotov cocktail-type device at the front door of a registered sex offender. When confronted by the witness, the man indicated he was targeting the person living in...

CONTEMPLATING the Clinton-Obama racial war, some Republicans were so excited you’d have thought Ronald Reagan had risen from the dead to slap around a welfare deadbeat. Never mind that the G.O.P. is running on empty, with no ideas beyond the incessant repetition of Reagan’s name. A battle over race-and-gender identity politics among the Democrats, with its acrid scent from the 1960s, might be just the spark for a Republican comeback. (As long as the G.O.P.’s own identity politics, over religion, don’t flare up.) Alas, these hopes faded on Tuesday night. First, the debating Democrats declared a truce, however fragile, in...

Police: Burned, Headless Body Of Sex Offender FoundPOSTED: 12:08 pm EST November 8, 2007 UPDATED: 3:52 pm EST November 8, 2007 NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP -- Construction crews found a torched and headless body Thursday morning on Hidden Ridge Drive in Northville Township. Police were able to identify the body as 26-year-old Daniel Gene-Vincent Sorensen by using a partial fingerprint technique, despite the severe burns on Sorensen’s hands. Police said the severely burned hands seemed to be an effort to hide his identity. Police confirmed that Sorensen was a registered sex offender. A neighbor called to report a fire on Wednesday night,...

VILLA NUEVA, Guatemala - Slum dwellers armed with shotguns have taken to Guatemala's streets to hand vigilante justice to youth gangs as voters sick of crime increasingly back a hardline ex-general's run for president. Roving bands of masked men communicating over walkie-talkies and armed with sticks, machetes and shotguns patrol the poor Villa Nueva slum on the edge of Guatemala City at night looking for members of infamous "Mara" gangs. The well-organized patrols, whose secretive members are suspicious of outsiders, killed at least one gang member, David Castillo alias "The Siren", earlier this month. "It's another war," said resident Sheni...

Vigilante justice has become common in Bihar Pics: Prashant Ravi Vigilante justice appears to have become the order of the day in the lawless northern Indian state of Bihar.The latest incident in which 10 men suspected to be thieves were lynched by a group of villagers in Vaishali district on Thursday underscored the people's frustration with the police. The villagers said that they were fed up with rising theft for the last two months in spite of informing the police regularly. "But when the police did not take any action we started patrolling our village ourselves to catch the...

Tarred, feathered and tied to a lamppost: Justice for a drug dealer on the streets of Ulster Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment. (The man is forced to carry a sign detailing his alleged crime) This man was subjected to the painful tarring and feathering on the Taughmonagh estate, a loyalist stronghold in the city. Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And...

A HERO cabbie who took on the Glasgow Airport terror suspects told yesterday how he booted one of them in the privates. Alex McIlveen, 45, kicked the man, whose body was in flames, so hard that he tore a tendon in his foot. But he said last night: "He didn't even flinch. I couldn't believe he didn't go down. "A doctor told me later I'd damaged a tendon in my foot."

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - For as long as anyone can remember, the cracked asphalt soccer field in the Roquete Pinto slum was off-limits to children — "reserved" by gangs selling marijuana and cocaine. Then, a few months ago, a mysterious squad of beefy men with submachine guns started patrolling on foot, and the drug dealers disappeared. A few days ago, while gunbattles were raging in two other Rio de Janeiro neighborhoods and bystanders were shielding their kids from the bullets, the barefoot teens of Roquete Pinto smiled and shouted as they kicked a ball around their freshly liberated field....

Inspector confronted on Capitol Hill, says promised 'proof' does not exist A Department of Homeland Security official admitted today the agency misled Congress when it contended it possessed investigative reports proving Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean confessed guilt and declared they "wanted to shoot some Mexicans" prior to the incident that led to their imprisonment. The admission came during the testimony of DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, according to Michael Green, press secretary for Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas. Culberson was questioning Skinner about a meeting DHS...

The three police officers on duty at the time were unable to break up the brawl, or prevent the arson, as members of the larger group apparently prevented firefighters from attending to the blaze by blocking the road with their trucks and screaming at them to let it burn. Both groups were also armed with guns, knives and baseball bats; some shots were fired, but no one was struck, although four male residents of the home were badly beaten.

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- The normally peaceful New Brunswick island of Grand Manan may not have seen the last of the violence that ended in a suspected crack house being burned to the ground by a mob of so-called vigilantes.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is refuting a Daily Bulletin report that the U.S. Border Patrol provided information to the Mexican government about the whereabouts of civilian border watch groups. Read the disputed article: U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols See the Mexican Government Web page: www.sre.gob.mx/eventos/minuteman/reporte3 "Today's report by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, `U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols,' is inaccurate," read the statement issued Tuesday evening. "Border Patrol does not report activity by civilian, non-law enforcement groups to the government of Mexico." Kristi Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection,...

As federal officials keep silent on rumors, Austin officials question whether groups impersonating officers are terrorizing residents. With widespread reports of immigration raids in Austin multiplying and federal officials refusing to say whether the rumors are true, city and immigrant rights leaders Friday raised the possibility that vigilantes might be impersonating law enforcement officers and terrorizing immigrants and citizens. At a City Hall news conference, they called on government officials to be open about information that might help explain the numerous raid reports sweeping Austin and the region. "I think everyone just wants answers," Council Member Raul Alvarez said. "If...

Families Attack Pedophile Relatives of his victims attack a pedophile as he leaves prison in Santiago, Chile. (April 20)

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMarch 25, 2006 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Immigration      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. On Monday, I will attend a naturalization ceremony here in Washington. It's always inspiring to watch a group of immigrants raise their hands and swear an oath to become citizens of the United States of America. These men and women follow in the footsteps of millions who've come to our shores seeking liberty and opportunity, and America is better off for their hard work and love of freedom.  Radio Address 200620052004200320022001  Radio Interviews 20052004 America is a nation...

President Bush yesterday said he opposes a civilian project to monitor illegal aliens crossing the border, characterizing them as "vigilantes." He said he would pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law.

A Hummer limo filled with people celebrating a birthday party turned into a wild ride early Sunday after a man attempted to steal it, San Antonio Police said. What the suspect did not realize was there were 15 people in the back of the limo. Twenty-one-year-old Noe Ochoa was arrested, police said. He was held down by people in the limo until officers arrived. Party-goers could not believe what was happening. “The Hummer starts to move and everybody's like, ‘What's going on?’” Kenneth Thornton said. His friends had rented the limo for Kenneth’s 28th birthday. The limo driver was apparently...

Geraldo Rivera, senior correspondent for Fox News, told a group of Hispanic journalists vigilantes had created "hysteria along the borders" and advised his colleagues not to "let your newsroom push you around on the issue of immigration." "Bust them on their hypocrisy," Rivera said at the annual awards gala of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Washington last week, according to a report by the Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education. Rivera, who served as honorary gala chairman of the event, announced from the hotel stage that he was donating $80,000 to NAHJ and $20,000 to Unity: Journalists...