EDITORIAL VIGILANTE INJUSTICE THROW ``DOG'' CHAPMAN A BONE, ALREADY.NEVER mind that he risked his life, spent his own money and brought a convicted, fugitive rapist to justice. Celebrity bounty hunter Name for a category of persons who are offered a promised gratuity in return for "hunting" down and capturing or killing a designated target, usually a person or animal. Duane ``Dog'' Chapman won't get a penny for his efforts. The reason? A Ventura County judge resents that Chapman broke Mexican law by nabbing Andrew Luster Andrew Stuart Luster (b. December 15, 1963) is the great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor, Sr. and an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune who was convicted of a series of rapes in 2003. For much of his life, he was supported by a $3. in Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta (pwār`tō väyär`tä), city (1990 pop. 93,503), Jalisco state, W Mexico. Located on the expansive Bahía de Banderas [Bay of Flags], Puerto Vallarta has been used since the 16th cent. , where bounty hunting is illegal. He also disapproves of Chapman's brand of ``vigilante vigilante n. someone who takes the law into his/her own hands by trying and/or punishing another person without any legal authority. In the 1800s groups of vigilantes dispensed "frontier justice" by holding trials of accused horse-thieves, rustlers and shooters, and justice.'' Instead of giving Chapman a portion of Luster's forfeited $1 million bail, the judge has turned the sum over to Luster's victims and law-enforcement agencies, including the Ventura County Sheriff's Department The Ventura County Sheriff's Department (VCSD) provides law enforcement for the unincorporated areas of Ventura County, California, USA, as well as several cities within the county. The cities that VCSD serves are Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, and Thousand Oaks. . But Mexican law, which protects a number of murderers wanted here in the U.S., is hardly sacred writ. And say what you want about ``vigilante justice,'' women in two countries are now safer for Chapman's efforts. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department, on the other hand, let Luster sneak away on its watch. This ``Dog'' has been unfairly denied his day. |
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