A taxi driver in Sweden was found dead in the woods, and the identity of the prime suspect makes the case even more grisly.
According to the Swedish website Fria Tider, on March 26, an abandoned taxi belonging to a Middle Eastern taxi driver was found in the parking lot of the Hjälstaviken nature reserve near Stockholm. On April 1, the body of the missing taxi driver was found hanging in the nature reserve.
This story is already disturbing enough, but police quickly discovered that it may have been a form of vigilantism — spearheaded by a 15-year-old girl, her boyfriend, and her brothers.
The murdered taxi driver was alleged to have raped the then-14-year-old girl in February, and the girl and the four boys are now alleged to have killed the taxi driver in revenge.
According to the indictment, the girl lured the taxi driver into the woods where he was then set upon by the boys, who had brought rope, and they strangled and hanged him.
According to Fria Tider, the prosecutor in the case stated that the murder had, “the character of an execution.”
In addition, the police claim to have found text messages from the girl the day before the murder, in which she says that her boyfriend and her brothers were going to “meet [her] rapist” and take revenge.
The girl also allegedly sent text messages to the taxi driver the night before the murder, asking him to purchase vodka and to meet her in a remote location near the nature reserve.
The girl has admitted to luring the driver into the woods but claims that she only intended for him to be beaten, not killed.
Is vigilantism a danger to society?
Yes: 58% (234 Votes)
No: 42% (169 Votes)
This is a really sad situation for everyone involved. If the claims about the case are true, then the girl’s life was ruined because she was raped, and now she has been indicted as part of a revenge murder. Not to mention, the taxi driver lost his life in this situation.
What the taxi driver allegedly did to this young girl is horrendous and he should have faced justice for it. However, what ended up happening was not proper justice but vigilantism.
Justice would have been having the taxi driver tried in a court of law and then sentenced to jail time.
Vigilantism may seem cool and tempting, especially when we consider characters like Batman and the Avengers, extra-legal actors who put their lives on the line to defend innocent people.
This becomes especially true when we consider the soft-on-crime approach taken by many leftist authorities that force ordinary citizens to take matters into their own hands to defend themselves.
But what happened in Sweden was not an act of self-defense, but an act of revenge.
Justice must come from the proper authorities, not from private citizens who have no authority, and no reason, to take actions like this against people.
The solution to lawlessness is never more lawlessness.
