Nature, notoriously, abhors a vacuum, and the same might be said for the widespread human desire for justice and order. We want safe public spaces, and for wrongdoers to be punished; and if the state declines to do its job then, before long, private individuals will take the initiative.

This is what happened last Thursday afternoon, aboard a District Line train in East London, when a man started shouting and exposing himself in front of children. When he ignored warnings to stop, he was attacked by a number of other passengers and ejected from the train at the next stop. Some of the confrontation was recorded, and it was reported earlier this week that the police are considering charges against the so-called “vigilantes”.

Reactions to the incident differed. Academic and commentator Matt Goodwin tweeted that “London is so over”, although other figures on the Right focused instead on the admirable behaviour of those who tackled the offender. Both Richard Tice and Gawain Towler of Reform UK praised the men involved for seeking to “sort a problem”. Even a few voices on the Left did the same.

For many progressives, this was a case of a psychologically vulnerable man — who needed support rather than violence — being set upon by a self-righteous posse. “Man with Mental Health issues beaten up on a train,” wrote one online commentator, while My London reported the incident as “Half-naked man in mental health crisis beaten by London Underground passengers”. Of course, there was also a racial angle, as the flasher was black and his assailants white. Both the original incident and the subsequent discourse were in some ways reminiscent of the Daniel Penny case in New York in 2023, where a homeless man who was harassing subway passengers died after being put in a chokehold by the former Marine.

Our instinctive reactions to both incidents depend on prior political convictions. Denial of growing problems with crime and disorder has become a centrist article of faith, as we saw with Fraser Nelson’s recent column in The Times which drew on incomplete data sets to paint a rosy picture of modern Britain. But there’s a broader point about the Government’s apparent repudiation of the social contract, as seen in the privileging of illegal immigrants for accommodation and services, and the increasing prioritisation by the authorities of speech policing over basic law-and-order duties.

The responses to reports of the District Line incident demonstrate a growing sense in Britain that the police — and the state more broadly — are no longer on the side of ordinary, decent citizens; that they can no longer be relied upon to uphold common sense and good order against the forces of anarchy and dissolution. Private police forces are on the rise, with once-sleepy Bournemouth now having its own volunteer “Safeguard Force” after a large increase in serious violent crime in the town. Videos of fare-dodgers barging through Tube gates unchallenged by TfL staff are a regular feature on X.

The public’s patience with constant low-level disorder is not inexhaustible. While some of us lack the strength or courage to step in when we should, there are — thankfully — still men ready and willing to enter the breach. Just last week, a clip was doing the rounds of a shoplifter in a London supermarket being expertly pinned down by a member of the public while a security guard in the inevitable hi-viz faffed uselessly.

Keir Starmer and his government may feel they have bigger fish to fry, but faith is clearly collapsing in the integrity of law enforcement, and there is a growing willingness among the public to have a go themselves rather than trust the ineffectual commissars of the official police. This is yet another blow to the legitimacy of the late-Blairite regime that our current prime minister represents.

---

Niall Gooch is a public sector worker and occasional writer who lives in Kent.

niall_gooch

---