the.com/vigilantism

means Taking the law into your own hands by punishing perceived wrongdoers yourself, outside any legal process or authority.

from Rooted in Latin 'vigilare,' meaning 'to stay awake, keep watch' — the same root that gives us 'vigil' and 'vigilant.' 'Vigilante' was borrowed from Spanish, where it simply meant 'watchman' or 'guard,' and entered English through accounts of self-appointed citizen enforcers, especially in 19th-century America, who formed committees to dispense punishment without courts. 'Vigilantism' was then coined as the abstract noun for that practice — the watching turned into taking action.