Reminds me of the old Westerns where the townsfolk surround the jail and insist the Sheriff turn over the prisoner so they can hang him. In the old days we used to think the Sheriff was the hero for telling the people to stuff it, justice demanded a fair trial and they'd have to kill him to get to the prisoner. This was used a lot, it was a cliche because back then Americans had a sense of fair play and justice and that image was powerful.
These days I imagine many would scoff and say that the sheriff was stupid, that the mob would probably kill innocent people and damage property in their fury and he should have turned the guy over, guilty or not.
When westerns went off the air, the American people turned even more liberal and flocked to the mob mentality.