The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "vigilantes" ...
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To Catch a Predator: A Sting Gone Bad
"This story examined what can go wrong when the news media and police get a little too close. It detailed what went on behind the scenes of a sexual predator sting operation when the Murphy, Texas police department made a deal to team up with Dateline NBC and the Internet vigilante group Perverted Justice. The deal allowed Dateline NBC to record all aspects of the sting while allowing members of Perverted Justice, hired by Dateline NBC, to actually set up and run the operation. Prosecutors had strongly recommended against such an agreement... Despite the warning, the sting took place and resulted in the suicide of a prominent man and criminal charges being dropped against 23 alleged sexual predators due to flawed evidence."
Tags: sexual predator; law; entertainment; Dateline; police; Perverted Justice
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"Operation Enduring Liberty"; "The Cops Are Watching You"; "The Big Chill"; "Vigilante Justice"; "Homeland Security X 50"; "Foreign? Suspicious!"; "D.C.'s Virtual Panopticon"
Series of articles in an issue of The Nation following various aspects of the "war on terror." Dreyfuss details the makeup of Maryland's Joint Terrorism Task Force and local police ties with the FBI field office. Cooper talks to Arabs in California who are seeing their organizations' numbers decline. Bach discusses citizens' groups that are encouraged to act as watchdogs on their neighbors, giving the example of a high school student with an expired visa who was turned in to authorities by his guidance counselor. Pell examines state laws and proposed laws creating new definitions of and punishments for "terrorism." Evans raises the issue of drivers' licenses and documentation of aliens. Parenti follows the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) in Washington, D.C., and other cities. Several articles touch on the classification of protest groups in America as "terrorists."
Tags: homeland security; terrorism; police; immigrant; immigration; Ashcroft; civil liberties; Patriot Act; detainees; FBI; ACLU; Arab; Muslim; DOJ; INS; Justice Department; bioterrorism; bioterror; CCTV; surveillance
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Border Vigilantes
A KPHO-TV investigation reveals "that two ranchers have been stopping people on a public highway for what they look like," thus attempting to fight illegal immigration. The story details how numerous "ranchers and ranch hands have detained hundreds of illegal immigrants on private property and called the Border Police to pick up the Mexicans." The reporters find that ranchers in Southeast Arizona "may have taken their fight beyond their own properties" and that police officers seem to be afraid to confront the stoppers.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Hispanic; border patrol; human rights; crime; private land
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Threat from Within
MSNBC reports on the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Since then, "...home-grown acts of terror, particularly those committed by factions of the radical right similar to those responsible for Oklahoma City, have not gone away - and have, if anything, grown dramatically in frequency."
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Bob's Boys
Icon reports how one day Bob Maupin got sick of smugglers and immigrants invading his Texas backyard and decided to stop them. But a neighborhood watch that uses army surplus is an international incident. They've always had uninvited guests, but no more than a handful until October 1994, when President Clinton launched Operation Gatekeeper, a $50 million campaign to seal the San Diego - Tijuana border that doubled the station's number of Border Patrol staff. The INS knew that would steer traffic to the east. Illegal entries in the San Diego area have been sliced nearly in half since Gatekeeper began, but six months after its launch, apprehensions in Bob's neighborhood shot up 809 percent and inflated from 2,300 seizures in 1994 to 78,000 in 1996. "It's a war zone, nothing less." But the Border Patrol is scared that law enforcement is giving vigilantes a green light.
Tags: Immigrants; INS; vigilantes; neighborhood watch
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Justifiable Homicide?
Vigilante justice is questioned when a police officer is killed in front of his own home. Those being charged with his murder say that they were simply protecting themselves from a rapist and a violent stepfather.
Tags: homicide; criminal; criminal justice
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No title (id: 13371)
Across the country, far-right activists are building an alternative judicial system. With militias as their enforcement arm, these common law courts are an incubator for trouble. CovertAction Quarterly investigates the rise of "citizen grand juries" designed to establish a white Christian republic on US soil through proclamation of their right to arrest, judge, and even kill their opponents.
Tags: Burghart Crawford Vigilante Justice: Common Law Courts Right-wing Racism 6 pgs.
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Abortion: Who's Behind the Violence
U.S. News & World Report examines the links among several prominent anti-abortion activists and groups and a group of people who practice violence against abortion providers. The report documents meetings between clinic bombers and abortion activists, some of which occurred within days or weeks of attacks on abortion clinics.
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No title (id: 5353)
WSM Radio (Nashville) airs series focusing on the surge of crime and violence in Nashville, finding much of it drug-related; also looks at growing number of persons learning self defense, November 1987.
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No title (id: 2349)
Rochester (Minn.) Post-Bulletin series looks at the growth of right-wing extremist sects in the Midwest whose members are often farmers; vigilante groups are also growing, November 1984.
Tags: None