From all accounts, including the personal recollections of our journalists dating back decades, the late Pedro Caddle was bad and dangerous to know; Problem Child in both nickname and nature from rural Bissex Hill to suburban Jackson.
The old moral principle of not speaking ill of the dead falls at the feet of the legal principle that the dead can’t be defamed—the peculiar exception to that common law principle being our own Defamation Act which says “a cause of action (lawsuit) shall survive the estate of the defendant”.
Yet, this exception is no match for the enduring principle that truth is a solid defence, and certainly, truth sought in the public interest.
This brings us to the true, unhappy events that led to Caddle’s demise on Monday morning at the hands of a person or persons yet unknown to the police.
Described by some residents of Jackson as a “nuisance”, Caddle had a long history of troubling behaviour, including multiple run-ins with the law and allegations of threats against others. His reputation as a “bad egg” is not unfounded; he had been the subject of police bulletins and had survived a number of attempts on a life marked by violence and conflict that was cut short at age 43.
It is not difficult to picture the final acts of Caddle attempting to flee the scene after knocking down an elderly woman and allegedly having threatened her daughter. Surely this only added fuel to the fire of community outrage. Many residents are justified in their anger, recalling previous complaints made by the woman and her family about Caddle’s reckless driving and his intimidatory tactics. In their eyes, he was not just a man who made a mistake; he was a repeat offender whose actions had consequences that finally caught up with him.
Yet, it is precisely at the point of deep sympathy for his victims and the absence of empathy for someone with such a checkered past that we must pause to examine the broader implications of the response to his death. The brutal beating that Caddle endured at the hands of villagers following the apparent hit-and-run crash raises questions about vigilantism and its place in our society. He was not beaten into submission and held until police officers arrived; he was beaten and left for dead, with an invitation for the police to remove his body.
This is the proverbial slippery slope, no doubt the obverse side of a coin of senseless violence currently ravaging villages and schools across the land. If the criminals are getting away with murder, some are intent on ensuring rough justice is meted out. One gets the sense of growing wariness of solutions for the rise in meanness and cruelty, and weariness of being helpless against what must appear to be the rule of the unruly. We get it.
Our contention is not to cheer on as the brutal and the bad meet their comeuppance; even more dangerous figures with the means and menace of their arms and comrades-in-arms will escape the doling out of uneven laws on a savage race of criminals.
We see vigilantism as an indication of deep fractures in the system of law and order. There is undeniably deep-seated frustration with sloth in the justice system. When people feel that law enforcement is inadequate in addressing crime or protecting victims, they may resort to taking matters into their own hands. The result is retribution rather than justice. This is a common feature in failed states. This must not be the harbinger of a sad fate for our fair land.
It is tempting to view this as a form of justice served but there are inherent dangers in these seemingly sporadic actions that would soon engulf huge swathes of a nation where law enforcement fears to tread. Vigilantism undermines the rule of law, creating an environment where personal grievances dictate punishment rather than established legal processes. An escalation of violence is thus inevitable, where individuals are judged not by their actions but by their reputations or past acts.
The mere notion that some among us are deserving of such treatment because they are perceived as unlikable or troublesome will soon spiral into chaos. Who decides who is worthy of punishment? Death to all the unmannerly? A society that equates upholding the rights of the accused with an assault on victims is a society lurching towards lawlessness. If we allow mob mentality to dictate justice, we risk creating a nation of bigots where anyone deemed undesirable could face similar fates without due process. Today for you; tomorrow for me.
The justice system—a slow, unwieldy, imperfect thing—exists for a reason: to provide fair and impartial judgment based on evidence and law. The police are tasked with investigating crimes and ensuring that lawbreakers are held accountable. Bypassing this system not only compromises public safety but in time weakens the authority of law enforcement agencies.
For this reason, the system has judges lest we judge on our own. The world is already filled with detestable, over-the-top retribution for acts of wrongdoing. The world is not so big that a straight line cannot be drawn from the unilateral actions against one human avenging an atrocity against another to a sovereign government’s slaughter of tens of thousands to atone for the savage murder of a thousand innocents. Might does not make right, and a world that insists on an eye for an eye will one day go utterly blind.
We must resist the urge to embrace vigilantism as a solution to crime and instead advocate for stronger legal systems, community policing, and faster police response times. True justice is not served through revenge; it is achieved through accountability within an established framework that protects all citizens—regardless of their past actions or reputation.
This must be so if justice can be administered fairly and equitably. We must ensure that even those we find reprehensible are afforded their rights under the law; the innocents seek the same protection.
Ultimately, there can be no firewall separating the just from the unjust if it is knocked down for the whim of punishing the Pedro Caddles of this world.
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