>>13073587 (PB)

Grass Roots Enforcement

The San Francisco Vigilance committee kept excellent records so that their judgements could be subsequently scrutinized.

They have been - and substantially justified.

- Anon

The vigilantes who seized control of San Francisco in 1856 had more on their minds than exacting street justice - they wanted to change the city's entire corrupt political system. They were revolutionaries.

The Second Committee of Vigilance was formed in response to the fatal attack on a popular reforming newspaper editor - its first action was to hang the killer and his unfortunate cellmate. But the real target of the movement, which was largely made up of merchants, skilled workers and clerks, was a Tammany Hall-style political machine run by a Democratic operative named David Broderick.

Broderick handed out jobs to his cronies and used hired toughs to ensure that votes went his way. A few weeks after the hangings, the vigilante committee found its smoking gun: a false-bottom ballot box in the house of a Democratic activist.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1856-vigilantes-changed-corrupt-political-system-5663654.php

Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me.

Take hold of buckler and shield, And rise up for my help.

Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, "I am your salvation."

Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me.

For without cause they hid their net for me; Without cause they dug a pit for my soul.

Malicious witnesses rise up; They ask me of things that I do not know.

They repay me evil for good, To the bereavement of my soul.

But at my stumbling they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together; The smiters whom I did not know gathered together against me, They slandered me without ceasing.

Like godless jesters at a feast, They gnashed at me with their teeth.

For they do not speak peace, But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.

Let them be like chaff before the wind, With the angel of the LORD driving them on.

Let their way be dark and slippery, With the angel of the LORD pursuing them.

Let destruction come upon him unawares; And let the net which he hid catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall.

>>13074150

had the same idea

>>13073777