The very word paedophile makes the stomach turn.
Those involved in such depravity are among the most abhorrent members of society.
And, in my view, they shouldn’t be housed anywhere close to schools or where children gather.
However, we can’t have what we saw in Dundee last week, with mob justice directed at those thought to be guilty of the crime, or accused of it.
We also can’t tolerate the assaults on the police who are caught in the middle trying to uphold the law by stopping vigilantes bent on dishing out their own brand of punishment.
A civilised society rests on the fact that we have courts to decide on matters both criminal and civil.
It means we avoid scenes like the old Wild West with its hanging posses.
Our courts operate on long-established rules of evidence.
Street mobs work on rumour, hearsay, and a lust for violence.
In the febrile atmosphere seen in Douglas last Friday, the dangers of self-appointed Judge Dredds deciding on guilt and innocence and meting out their own form of punishment were evident.
A similar incident unfolded in Kirkton that night. The unrest followed a 100-strong gathering in the St Mary’s area the week before.
People are entitled to protest vociferously, by all means, to councillors and elected representatives that housing paedophiles among decent folk is not acceptable.
And, in my view, it isn’t.
But when we attempt to take the law into our own hands we peer over the edge of a very dangerous cliff and into a world of danger.
What happens when vigilante justice goes wrong?
In every community in the land living among us are those convicted of violent offences, car thieves, burglars, drug dealers, and even murderers.
There are individuals whose behaviour has impacted on, and in many cases ruined, the lives of innocents.
Should we protest outside their houses too, ready to dish out our own definitions of justice?
And what if we get our facts wrong?
It’s too late to say sorry after the event.
The law is a long way short of perfect.
And I’m a big critic of overly soft sentencing by the courts on those who blight our society.
But if the law is imperfect we should bring pressure to bear through the democratic process, not through street thuggery or vigilante justice.
No place for vigilante justice in a civil society
A major problem is that the middle class folk who decide on rehousing members of society like paedophiles aren’t likely to be living close to them.
It’s understandable why anger spills over when such vile individuals are housed among folk who have genuine concerns for their children’s safety with dangerous predators in their midst.
But vigilante justice isn’t the solution.
In such febrile circumstances truth can be the first casualty.
And there are very real dangers of the innocent being wrongly identified and targeted.
The police are in a no-win situation.
Their duty first and foremost is to protect life.
And that extends to all citizens. No matter how much we may vilify and condemn those either convicted of or accused of heinous crimes.
Mob justice is injustice.
It’s brutal and barbaric and there’s no place for it in a decent society.
In the kind of feverish atmosphere witnessed last week it only takes one mistake, a wild rumour or, worse, a lie, to spark the kind of mob madness which can hurt the innocent as easily as the guilty.
When you let a genie that volatile out of the bottle it’s very hard to put it back.
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