Vigilantism

Reported at Nine MSN

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=450018

Trip wire to stop bike hoons condemned

Saturday Apr 19 08:44 AEST
Trip wire strung at head height in an Adelaide Park to deter hoons on motorised minibikes could have hurt children and other park users, a local official said.

Playford deputy mayor Glenn Docherty said minibike riders had been a constant problem in Cambridge Terrace Linear Reserve in Adelaide's north, and their "hoon" behaviour had angered local residents.

But the use of trip wire - which had been placed across a walking track - was not the way to solve the problem, he said.

"My biggest concern is for people who use the park legitimately," Mr Docherty said. "You have kids who ride their mountain bikes, and people who walk their dogs."

Although the minibikes were illegal in the park, Mr Docherty said he did not want to see the riders get hurt.

He urged residents to contact police if they saw minibike riders in the park, and not to take the law into their own hands.

"Vigilantism is not what we want in the community," Mr Docherty said.

Mr Docherty said police had removed the wire.

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Vigilantism is not wanted but I have a feeling there’ll be more of it to come, there was an incident on the NSW Central Coast where after someone drove into a crowd people attacked the driver screaming “kill him”.

If you ask why they would do that and why would they string trip wires in Adelaide and why I think there’ll be more vigilantism, the answer is because of the breakdown of law and order that’s happening everywhere.

The lack of law enforcement as in people not being arrested and gaoled for any real period of time when they break the law has many people disillusioned. If the law isn’t going to take action then people will do it themselves.