Here’s a story that helps point out the danger of vigilante justice: a New York city cab driver lost control of his car and hit an 8-year old kid riding a bike.  A crowd of onlookers pulled the driver from his car and proceeded to beat him silly until he managed to tell them that he lost control of his car because his passenger smacked him in the head with a metal bar in an attempt to rob him.  That’s when the mob turned on the passenger and started beating him and tightened a belt around his neck thus becoming a form of lynch mob.  The police eventually arrived and arrested the passenger and got the driver and the boy to the hospital.  There’s no mention of anything happening to the members of the crowd who took justice into their own hands.