Before you cry for Wei Lei

When thieves fatally stabbed Wei Lei, the vigilante leader of volunteers crusading against pickpockets in Guangdong province, public indignation rang out. True, the man deserves admiration and respect for his bravery, and thieves must be brought to justice, but there is more to the story.

Wei Lei was once jailed for seven months for beating a pickpocket. Members of his team of volunteers admitted that they would give thieves a good thrashing. There are other examples, but what they essentially did was taking the law into their hands and that's illegal in any country.

The line is very thin between what is legal and illegal when it comes to the way organizations catch and subdue pickpockets. They should not go beyond reporting and sending the thieves to police. We should never justify the means with the ends, nor allow any ordinary person with a sense of justice to enforce the law.