Paul Revere and the 'embattled farmers' who 'fired the shot heard 'round the world' were precisely "vigilantes." But I suppose you could call them the unwashed masses if you wanted to.
Maybe you feel the same way about the vigilantes who aided downed American flyers in occupied Europe during WW II. Probably they were undermining law and order too.
Or maybe you just don't know what the term really means.
Your reply to JMP was right on the money.
People who are actually AFRAID that the American people will rise up to eject a killing cancer from our society would do well to remember that we are children of ‘vigilantes’.
Settlers to a new country rose up against the standing government(British)to insure that they could live as they wished, free from submission to a King.
This country EXISTS because of rebels and those who loved freedom enough to fight those who wanted to rule them- to fight EACH OTHER when loyalty differed.
I believe that defiant backbone still exists.
If it does not, then we participate in our own destruction.