Talk politics.

Hello, fellow cringing sissies brave vigilantes! When most Americans think of the volunteer vigilante security neighborhood groups, probably the first name that comes to mind is George Zimmerman. No matter that his actions in that rainy evening in 2012 that led to the death of 17 y.o. Trayvon Martin may have little to do with the established practices and rules of action in those groups. Just on the contrary actually, it's exactly because in Zimmerman's case the circumstances and the mix of prejudices led to a tragic outcome, the case has turned into a symbol for the uncomfortable grey area between noble civic vigilance and taking the law in one's own hands.

The ensuing debate that grew like avalanche and the whole palette of controversial arguments somehow obscures the fact that the general tendency in the US has been going in the exact opposite direction. Due to the shrunken municipal budgets and the growing social and economic stratification in the American society, the civic watch groups have been going through a revival in recent years, their number steadily growing.


The parallels with the current situation in my country Bulgaria are rubbing themselves in our face, especially in recent days, when the problem with (mostly Roma) burglaries that has plagued huge chunks of the countryside, has reached a point where some voices have started insisting for starting a neighborhood patrol program similar to the US one. New "watch groups" are being formed by volunteers, especially in areas bordering on minority ghettos, and the situation may've started looking very similar to that in the US. But there are some significant differences. Like the fact that guns are almost absent from the Bulgarian populace, and the chance of a Zimmerman scenario is rather slim. Still, the enormous US experience in that area, and the ongoing debate in the US can't help but give a lot of food for thought to our people too, as well as some reasons for asking the question when are volunteer security groups efficient, and when the negative effects tend to outweigh the positive ones.

Because, outside the issue of Zimmerman's controversial motivations and the US gun laws which are generally seen as rather loose by most people at my side of the Big Water, there's also the issue of the thin line between civic vigilance and arbitrary overreach of power, which is actually pretty universal. It's a line that every volunteer group should be treading very carefully, wheter it's in Texas or, say, Plovdiv.

( There sure are plenty of lessons we could be taking from the US )