Vigilante Justice Threatens Syrians In Turkey’s Quake-Hit Cities

In the chaos that followed an apocalyptic earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Turkish vigilantes deliver mob justice to some suspected looters and Syrians.

At least four people were reportedly killed after an angry mob pulled out the passengers of a pick-up truck loaded with materials believed to be pilfered from the quake-hit city of Antakya in southern Turkey on Saturday. The unhinged crowd brutally rounded up four “suspected looters” while the police sought to rein in the mob without much success. All of the beaten suspects were killed on the spot.

In another case, a suspect, who was brutally beaten by gendarmerie — the military police, later died of his wounds at a hospital in Antakya. According to the medical autopsy report, his nose was broken and he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

As the Turkish nation still reels from two apocalyptic earthquakes that killed more than 40,000 people and reduced countless buildings into rubble in southern Turkey and northern Syria, the circulation of video footage of fatally lynched looters underscores the danger of mob justice looming large in quake-stricken areas. The wild scenes of lynching spread a sense of lawlessness among the viewers even after…