vigilance committee

noun

an unauthorized committee of citizens organized for the maintenance of order and the summary punishment of crime in the absence of regular or efficient courts.
History/Historical. (in the South) an organization of citizens using extralegal means to control or intimidate Black people and abolitionists and, during the Civil War, to suppress Union loyalists.

vigilance committee

(in the US) a self-appointed body of citizens organized to maintain order, punish crime, etc, where an efficient system of courts does not exist

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35

The city had good government for twenty years after the operations of that Vigilance Committee.

As the judges and police could not control these criminals, nearly two hundred good citizens formed a "vigilance committee."

Not long after, the vigilance committee hanged four men, and roughs and law-breakers left town for the mines.

A vigilance committee, that dernier resort of the order-loving Westerner of that period, was formed.

At last the people organized themselves into a vigilance committee and ran down the thieves.

April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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