Hey all. This has been bugging me for awhile, and I couldn't find out what this one word is. I'll use a scenario to try and explain it. A policeman's duty is to protect people. Now one policeman takes it far beyond that and starts killing criminals, but he is still doing his duty. He "perverts" the idea behind his duty. But he still remains good. The word I am looking for describes that. Its not corrupt, because he is still theoretically doing good things. Its hard to explain. Does anyone know the word I am looking for?
It's hard for me to give you a word because there are two irreconcilable things in your OP. I disagree that it's not corrupt. A cop who kills criminals without allowing them due process is not doing good. He's acting as judge, jury, and executioner. What if he's wrong? What if he doesn't have all the facts. There's no word in English to describe this because, from an inculturated standpoint, which creates the ideas that invoke vocabulary, it's not a thing. I think you're spot-on with your original choice of perverts. The negative connotation that word carries is apt.
@Wreybies You are of course right that this sort of thing is totally unacceptable in the real word, and I agree that "corrupt" is a reasonable word for it. However, if we're thinking in tropes: to my mind, a corrupt law officer conjures a distinct image, the main difference being one of intent. A corrupt officer abuses power, steals from the evidence locker, things like that. A selfish rationale. A renegade officer will believe that he is doing the right thing, however misguided he may be, however far over the edge he might go. Maybe he knows something he's not supposed to. Maybe he just thinks that he knows. The OP didn't specify, but maybe this character is a villian.
It's not about whether he's a villain, in terms of the story, but whether he's "still doing his duty" and "still remains good" in terms of morality. A police officer's duty isn't to punish criminals. There's no part of a cop's job that involves direct punishment. That's the job of the courts, the penal system, etc., and should only come after a fair trial. So this officer hasn't just gone a little far--he hasn't bent some rules in his investigations or something. Killing suspected criminals is something totally separate from the job of a police officer. If he were bending rules in investigations, I think there might be a word that would work for the OP. But the word for a police officer who murders people is "murderer".
Be that as it may, there's still no single word in English that describes the set of characteristics the OP has put together. Vigilante would be a close noun, but it seems from the manner of his/her question that the OP is looking for a verb acting upon the direct object of duty that describes {taking the law into one's own hands while still remaining just}. I'm not arguing the idea of the character the OP puts forth. I mean, this pretty much describes all superheroes who leave a death toll, so yes, the trope this invokes clearly exists. The issue is one of vocabulary. If the OP wants to get that idea across, he/she is going to have to spell it out at length. There's not a single word for it just like there isn't a single word for what the Portuguese call saudade and there's no single word in English for what the Germans call schadenfreude. We either have to borrow the foreign terms or unpack their contents into complete sentences or even paragraphs.
@BayView Yes, I agree that there is nothing good about it, and that it's a clear violation of his duty. I simply read "remains good" and "doing his duty" as being expressed from the character's own viewpoint, not an objective one. @Wreybies My bad, I somehow managed to miss that we were looking for a verb. @PoseidonofSea "Perverts" works well enough, I think. Corrupts, violates, betrays, distorts... nothing that perfectly captures all the nuances, but then again it doesn't really have to. It's going to be expressed through narration anyway, and all of those words are perfectly adequate for referring back to it.
Just as a side-note: This concept we are discussing is the core of Captain America: Civil War. The conflict in the story of that film directly addresses the validity, morality, and ethics (or lack thereof) of holding oneself above the law while still believing one is in the right. In that story Steve Rogers is the cop the OP describes, and oddly enough given his usual personality, Tony Stark is the one telling him he's gone off the rails and can no longer call himself a Good Guy™.
but what if the law can't (or won't due to higher corruption) bring down someone who's harming people .. The cops often know way more than they can prove in court after all Its also the principal behind Dexter .. It's like the thing about if murder is always wrong, would it've been wrong to murder Hitler in 1936, and if so would it still have been wrong if you had foreknowledge of what he was going to do?
Well, again, I'm not arguing against exploring the moral conundrum. Like I said, Captain America: Civil War addresses this exact paradigm. The fact that the paradigm is humanly possible to experience still doesn't mean there's a single-word verb for this in English because this isn't something the Anglophone culture thinks of as an autonomous, needs-a-word thing. I mean, it's like asking what's the word for something that is both burning hot and freezing cold at the same time? There is no word. What's the word for something that's completely one color but also completely another color at the exact same time. No such word. How do you describe a lightbulb that is both lit and also burned out at the same time? What? No word. Languages don't always agree with one another as regards sets of characteristics bound together that need their own separate word. In Spanish a moth and a butterfly are the same thing, vocabulary-wise, because the culture doesn't perceive enough of a difference between the two to give them separate names. Same thing with a cookie and a cracker. In Spanish they are both called the same thing. *shrug* Spanish also allows you to call pretty much any part of your arm from past the shoulder down to the hand as just "mano" (hand). Same thing with the blurry line between leg and foot. In English that feels like nonsense. A hand is not an arm. A foot is not a leg. That's crazy talk! But guess what, Russians do the exact same thing in the exact same way as Spanish. (As you know I worked for many years as a Russian interpreter). I'm really only addressing the vocabulary issue. There isn't a verb for this because this isn't something we feel needs it's own word. I mean, can you think of a verb that means both breaking code, oaths, morals, and still remaining a good guy? I certainly cannot and my vocabulary is pretty sizable.
Is there a verb form for vigilante ? / vigilantism ? (only in Italian it appears .. vigilaire) . That aside virtually everyone is both good and bad and capable of both good and bad acts - ergo a cop who kills a child molester who he can't prosecute isn't still remaining a good man in that act, but hes acting for a good reason which may or may not be good enough. You an be a generally good man and do bad things , just as you can be generally a bad man and do good things .... or you can be morrally ambiguous character and do good and bad things. Its not really Winter soldier territory because that's more bad acts in the guise of the good ... although of course Captain America himself is breaking the law and attacking the establishment when he brings down the Heli Carriers"for the greater good"
yeah but my take away is that he is a good guy, who had the courage to do the right thing regardless of the confines of the law... Two face in the dark knight is probably closer to the 'not a good guy' thing since his motivations are purely revenge driven not for a larger good
Okay. It's definitely arguable in both directions otherwise it wouldn't make for good conflict in the story. Still doesn't mean there's a word for what the OP is trying to describe. Gonna' have to spell it out long-form. ETA: Also, my takeaway from CA: CW is that Steve has dangerously blurred the line between soldier and cop and his rather monolithic sense of morality is at odds with the present day.
I just realised I was thinking of the wrong CA film (which rather undermines my argument ) Winter Soldier is the one where Captain America causes the Heli Carriers to shoot each other down thus stopping them targeting the people who might become a threat in the future ... I though that was what you were referring to (in terms of going against the govt because its the right thing even though its outside the law) Seeing as you were talking about a completely different film - which I haven't seen- I shall retire gracefully to the corner and don the pointy hat of shame
Returning to the OP - I'd say "becomes a vigilante" as that covers the whole move away from an upholder of the law to one that takes it into his own hands. I'd leave the decision on whether hes really a good guy up to the reader.
