I had a great call last year. As follows:
My partner and I respond to an assault report complaint. On arrival, two sixteen year olds appear to have been beaten fairly well, albeit looking terribly cool in their ball caps-askew, wife beater tank tops with hip hop chains and shorts around their knees. :
They go on to relate that they had been at Walmart and had purchased a video game. Having opened it, played it and were done with it, they chose to bring it back. Upon finding out that Walmart is not in the video game rental business, they proceeded to scream and yell at the 18 year old female clerk. By their own admissions, they were calling her "bitch" "hoe" and made veiled threats of retaliation if they didn't get their money back. Store security then tells them to get out, and they continue to scream, rant on about their "rights" and refuse to leave (I had to give them some credit for being unbelievably candid about what tools they had been)
Then for "no reason" (after some digging, come to find out that one had screamed back into the store his feeling that the clerk was a c^nt) "some big adult guy comes over and starts punching me in the face. And all these people were standing around and they weren't even DOING anything to help us. And my friend tried to get him to stop, and he got punched to! And we're just kids, and that is, like, against the law".
Dad is there as well, and goes on to brag about how he always had to do all the jail time that he ever was given and that if he had to be held to the law, these other people should be too. Plus, they are all upset that the original unit that attended the scene laughed at the kids, then told them to get off the property or they would be arrested for trespassing.
My partner and I are trying not to laugh ourselves, and both later agree that we would have given half a paycheque to see these little turds get tarred. I let all parties know that they just got a valuable lesson in "Don't let your mouth write a cheque that your body can't cash". Dad then comes up with the flawless solution that he will then stake out the Walmart and follow the female clerk home with his son's help and "take care of it myself". I then helpfully point out that he is a jackass (twice, because he said "pardon me?" the first time) and that no officer would have any problem locking them up if this matter went any further. After receiving the obligatory "that's what my tax dollars are paying for?" and getting back "you are on welfare. Paying GST/PST on cigarettes and booze doesn't fund municipal policing" we leave and laugh for about an hour.
However, I think the best part of the story would be the part you don't see. All of the people who got to see said dinks pummelled and then went on to tell the story to others. And then they told the story, and so on, and so on....
Should the public take the law into their own hands? Probably not.
Should they refrain from the same because there is a legal system that works? Not a chance.
Will the public expect to see anything in the future that approximates justice? Forget about it.
I don't think random beatings are the solution (long term, mind you) but the spirit of the act is. People have to take back their society and have a sense of responsibility towards it. There was a time when someone was being rude or out of line in public, people would speak up and others would back them. Now, anyone can do anything they want and everyone else is supposed to suck it up. The police can only do so much, and since the judges are hell bent on destroying this country some thing has to give.
In the mean time, you won't see a lot of boo hooing or hand wringing from your street level police when these things happen.