Mob Violence

A mob according to online dictionary (2011) refers to an out of control crowd who are bent on causing havoc and reigning terror should they be triggered. Mob justice refers to the activities of a charged group that vents their long held hatred on an individual or groups of people whom they perceive as their enemy. Carrigan & Webb as cited in Parker et al. (2003) state that no other nationals of any country have stood by to watch as the mob plunder and carry out a series of crimes against other citizens as the US did. The mobs according to Ramirez as cited in Parker et al. (2003) pretended to punish one crime while on the other hand committed even greater crimes. The mob law or justice in the United States has been carried out by the whites against mostly the blacks and other minority races and ethnicities. An example of acts of mob violence against minorities in the case where a young Mexican raped a white woman and was subsequently arrested and later the following day whites broke into the jail where the man was held and torched his body claiming that what the man did was an affront to white womanhood (Parker et al., 2003). The paper seeks to explore mob justice in the US; its past, present and the future.

Wood (2009) stated that mob violence was used by the whites to express their dominances and superiority over the other races mostly the blacks. There was constant fear among the blacks and other minority groups whose lives were lived in constant fears since the whites conceived them as criminals whose actions had to be countered by the collective unity of the white supremacists. Mob violence in America escalated after the proclamation of emancipation especially during the reconstruction period. The southerners were not happy...

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...on as America's continuing Civil War. New York: Fordham University Press.

Mead, W. (2011). “American Tinderbox”. The American Interest. Retrieved on 23rd August 23, 2011 from http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/08/07/american-tinderbox/

Parker et al. (2003). Beyond black and white: race, ethnicity, and gender in the U.S. South and Southwest. Arlington, Texas: Texas A & M University Press.

Rachleff, P. (2002). Lynching and Racial Violence: Histories & Legacies; Report from a Conference Retrieved on 23rd August 23, 2011 from http://www.macalester.edu/history/rachleffpubs/LYNCHING%20AND%20RACIAL%20VIOLENCE.htm

The online Dictionary (2011). Mob. Retrieved on 23rd August 23, 2011 from http://www.onlinedivtionary.com

Wood, A. (2009). Lynching and spectacle: witnessing racial violence in America, 1890-1940Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.