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1992-09-02
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In US history, originally a member of a
`vigilance committee', a self-appointed group
to maintain public order in the absence of
organized authority. The vigilante tradition
continues with present-day urban groups
patrolling streets and subways to deter
muggers and rapists, for example, the
Guardian Angels in New York, and the
Community Volunteers in London. Early
vigilante groups included the `Regulators' in
South Carolina in the 1760s, and in
Pennsylvania 1794 during the Whiskey
Rebellion. Many more appeared in the 19th
century in frontier towns. Once authorized
police forces existed, vigilante groups such
as the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan operated
outside the law, often as perpetrators of mob
violence such as lynching.