Vigilant vs. Vigilante

Some people just can’t seem to understand the difference between being vigilant and being a vigilante. One is a responsible citizen, doing their part to make their community a better place. The other is a criminal, no better than those they seek to stop.
A vigilante is someone who sets out to take the law into their own hands, to enact justice on their own. When someone steps outside their door fully expecting to use force on another person, that person is premeditated in their use of force. They aren’t just prepared to use force, but are hoping to. They are looking for the opportunity to kick some ass.
If you set out to fight crime through the use of force, then you are going to break the law. Let me clarify this. If you are planning on.. not preparing to use force to defend yourself or others.. but actually planning on the use of force to make criminals pay for their crimes, then you are planning to break the law.
If I am on a neighborhood patrol and I see someone being mugged, and the victim is in danger of harm, then yes, I will step in and use force to protect the innocent. Legally [in my jurisdiction] I am allowed to use whatever force is necessary to stop the criminal. What’s the difference you ask? If I know I may use force against a criminal when I go out on patrol, aren’t I planning on kicking someone’s ass? No.
Just because I acknowledge that there may be a time and place for the application of Hard Power (the use of physical force), does not mean that I am planning ahead of time to go out and stomp a criminal into the pavement. While a vigilante mindset not only sees the need for violence, but is looking for the chance to use it. Where I might seek to use alternative methods to violence, if circumstances allow, a vigilante is already predetermined on their course of action. Their intent is clear. They are out to exact justice and mete out punishment.. and break the law while doing it.
Let me give a very famous and clear example of what I mean by being prepared to use Hard Power (physical violence), but choosing to use Soft Power (non-physical means) to de-escalate a situation. If you watch the video of Dark Guardian as he enters Washington Park and confronts a drug dealer, you are witnessing a true superhero at work, not a vigilante. He confronts the drug dealer, the situation gets tense, the moment could erupt into violence at any moment, but it does not. Even had the drug dealer not backed down and left the park like he did, Dark Guardian did not escalate the situation to where the use of physical force would have been needed. He would have stepped away and called the police. At no time was it Dark Guardian’s intention to jump the dealer and punish his wicked and evil ways. However, during the entire situation, Dark Guardian was prepared to use his martial arts to defend himself if needed.
Without a doubt Dark Guardian’s approach in the video was confrontational. He approached the dealer with the clear intent of forcing the crook out of the park, but he wasn’t planning on putting the boots to him to accomplish his goal. This is different then the vigilante mindset. He wasn’t going to enact his own brand of justice on the dealer, even though he was being confrontational. He wasn’t going in looking to pick a fight.
In the vigilante mindset, one sets out to accomplish their goals through the use of violence to exact punishment. Their goal is not to chase bad guys away, or to call the police to report a crime. Criminals must pay for what they have done, and the vigilante is going to collect on those debts. The vigilante is judge, jury and executioner, even if they leave the punks tied up in front of the police station for the cops to find. They pick fights. They want to engage crooks in combat. They escalate situations unnecessarily. Their ends justify their means. But their ends put them on the wrong side of the law, and they are no more morally superior then the criminals they confront.
Additional-
Yes, it is possible to use force and not be a vigilante. It is the intent that makes a vigilante. A vigilante wants to go out and purposely use force to stop crime.
Someone might break the law unintentionally while stopping a criminal from hurting someone, but that does not make them a vigilante. Nor does it make them morally wrong. Yes, the law was broken (maybe they used too much physical force, or whatever), but just because they broke the law does not make them a vigilante
I can not, nor will I, ever condone the intentional commission of a crime in the fight against criminals.